By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

Throughout the country, parents are demanding that schools reopen instead are meeting with obstruction from teacher unions who consistently state they want better protection from the coronavirus such as vaccinations and safety protections.

For month’s we have been told to follow the science, but now science has stated that it’s safe to re-open schools, but these same individual s and groups are rejecting that advice. The Center for Disease Control, Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, stated at a White House news briefing on Covid-19 that “there is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen, and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated.”

She continued to mention that “Vaccinations of teachers is not a prerequisite for safely reopening schools.”

The question will Democrats heed the advice from science that they have openly advocated following, or will they continue to back the teacher’s union who give them large sums of campaign contributions.

Even Democratic California Governor, Gavin Newsom, has his state’s 6.1 million confined to home base learning all the while his own children attend a private school in-person learning environment.

During the presidential campaign candidate, Joe Biden, stated on ABC with George Stephanopoulos in April, “I think it’s important to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Do what they tell you.”

“I’ll choose science over fiction. Hope over fear,” the Democratic nominee declared at a presidential debate in October.

“Science will always be at the forefront of my administration — and these world-renowned scientists will ensure everything we do is grounded in science, facts and the truth,” the then-president-elect said last month in announcing additions to the Office of Science Technology and Policy.

So far President Biden is siding with the teacher’s unions by rejecting science that schools can re-open, as he has been mostly silent and failed to come out more forcibly on the re-opening of American schools.

During the presidential campaign, candidate Biden stated before the National Education Association one of the largest teacher’s union that “You will never find in American history a president who is more teacher-centric or more supportive of teachers than me.”

Biden continued, “This is going to be a teacher-oriented Department of Education, and it’s not going to come from the top down – it’s going to come from the teachers up.”

During this address, Biden put his full force behind the teacher’s union, “Education should be put more in the hands of educators,” he said. “You should have more input on what you teach, how you teach it, and when you teach it. You are the ones in the classroom, you should have more input.”

One of the key proposals the teacher’s unions are advocating for is more funding from the individual states, but more importantly the federal government.

So far since the beginning of the pandemic, schools across America have received close to $100 billion in funding from the federal government from the various stimulus spending beginning with the Cares Act which passed in the spring of 2020.

EdSource reported in the last stimulus spending that passed before Christmas, the package included $82 billion for education. Of that, $54 billion will go to pre-K-12 schools — about quadruple the $13.5 billion set aside for schools in the CARES Act funding last spring. The new funding includes about $10 billion for child care, $13 billion for nutrition programs and $23 billion for higher education.

For the teacher’s union this is still not enough, as they want additional funding and are simply using children as hostages to gain further leverage.

This same debate raged last summer with the U.S. focusing on the re-opening of the nation’s school system, with the Los Angeles and Chicago Unified School District’s demanding that before any school opens in their districts substantial concessions need to be made.

The same argument the unions made back then they are making today.  Last summer a commentary in the journal Pediatrics seems suggested that children are at a lower risk for the virus. This is precisely the argument made by the CDC.

The findings found that school-based virus transmissions could be manageable, especially with children who attend elementary schools, as they have the lowest risk of infections according to the journal Pediatrics.

“The evidence suggests that children are less likely to become infected, less likely to develop severe disease and less likely to transmit the virus to other children and adults,” said co-author and pediatrician Dr. William Raszka Jr. of the University of Vermont School of Medicine. “It is wildly different from flu.”

According to the CDC, “influenza is dangerous to children,” and during the 2017-2018 flu season which everyone has forgotten was considered a pandemic, the federal agency estimates that the actual number of pediatric deaths was close to 600.

Various medical experts have a variety of different opinions on the infections rates to children for the virus, but as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that schools can take various measures in protecting children upon returning to school.

The science didn’t matter as the teacher unions decided to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic by pursuing a progressive wish list of programs to be implemented before any schools are reopened.

This falls in line with the famous quote by President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff Rahm Emanuel who stated, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” just after Obama’s election in November of 2009.  Both Los Angles and Chicago school district unions have followed this advice!

Los Angeles and Chicago Unified School District teachers’ unions placed strict conditions on any reopening by calling for a massive cash bailout. In addition, the unions want to defund their cities police force, Medicare for All, and funding for illegal immigrants among other items demanded before any or all children will be allowed to attend classes.

As the debate rages today about re-opening the nation’s schools, the media in its journalistic malpractice or because they favor Democratic policies failed to report that in July of 2020 the 35,000-strong Los Angeles Teachers Union put together a policy paper demanding certain conditions be met before any students are allowed back into district classrooms.

Throughout the document, the teacher’s union referenced how the COVID-19 placed a disproportionate impact on “people of color”.  The union articulates that students attending LAUSD’s schools are heavily disadvantage in relationship to the general population of Los Angeles.

Not wanting a crisis go to waste considering before the outbreak of the coronavirus the district was facing around $500 million budget deficit, so with this in mind, and wanting to take advantage of the crisis and simultaneously pursue a progressive agenda, Los Angles Teachers Union is demanding;

  • Calling for at least $500 billion in federal funding this year, and a commitment of support over the coming years.
  • Fully fund title I, which provides federal funding to schools with a high percentage of children from low-income areas.
  • Fully fund Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) of federal spending of around $12 billion.
  • Medicare for All.
  • Increase state funding.
  • Wealth Tax: A new tax on unrealized capital gains to California billionaires only, 1% a year until capital gains taxes are met. This would generate an estimated $10 billion a year initially.
  • A millionaire tax that adds 1% surtax on incomes over $1 million a year, and 3% for over $3 million a year. This would generate an estimated $4.5 billion-plus a year.
  • Defund the police.
  • Permanent Housing security.
  • Paid sick leave for all parents of children in school.
  • A total Charter school moratorium and the ending of Charter schools.
  • Financial support for undocumented students and families.

Nothing was mentioned that before the crisis the district finances were a fiscal disaster with enrollment dropping and more families taking their children to charter schools and including children of color.

With dwindling students and debt incurred from the ever-rising health and pension obligations has created an enormous ongoing financial headache for the district.  The Reason Foundation in 2018 analyzed the Los Angeles Unified School District and why the district is such a fiscal disaster.  Since the issuance of that report the situation has only gotten substantially worse.

The teacher’s union has used the coronavirus as a scape goat for the lack of funding.  Unfortunately, the union fails to mention that before the pandemic, Los Angeles the nation’s second largest school district; only 21% of African American students who graduated in 2018 were considered prepared for college or careers.  This is way below the 52 percent of white students and 74 percent of Asian students who are college or career ready.

The dismal statistics continue as of 2019 it was reported that 1 million low-income African-American and Latino public school students in Los Angeles County found that only 2 out of 10 of these children are enrolled in a high-quality school.

Unfortunately for the teacher’s union, who are dramatically opposed to charter schools, but they help Latino Students Bridge the achievement gap as they compete with the failing public school system.  Instead of what’s best for student’s, the unions only cares about protecting individual members who advocate abolishing all charter schools, no matter they achieve better education results for black and Hispanic students.

Even though black and Hispanic parents over whelming want their child in a charter school, the Los Angles school district when threw a painful strike with one of the central issue of the January 2019 teachers’ strike, was the unions complaint against the proliferation of charter schools.  Too bad for the parents of black and Hispanic children who want their children to receive a better education, the union would seek to end this.   

Just like Los Angeles, the Chicago Unified School District is following the same progressive formula by wanting more federal funding before any classes can resume. The districts official reason for not wanting to re-open schools last summer, is basically the same today, the city has to produce a plan to “guarantee safety” for all students and staff from the effects of the coronavirus outbreak no matter how long it takes.

At the time the Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement “We stand for a safe and equitable reopening of the schools, but today COVID-19 cases are soaring instead of dissipating,” he continued, “There is simply no way to guarantee safety for in-school learning during an out-of-control pandemic – and that means we must revert to remote learning until the spread of this virus is contained.”

But like last summer, the teacher union’s main goal is more funding, even though billions of federal funding has been diverted to the schools this is still not enough. Nothing has been mentioned or reported on what the nation’s schools districts did with the billions it has already received?

Chicago teachers union issued its own 10-page document stipulating its proposals for safely opening up the schools.

The teacher’s union proposal is a progressive anti-free market economy that focuses on the disenfranchisement of people of color which if the schools are to re-open will want:

  • A full federal bailout of billions of dollars this year and the years to come
  • Fully fund Title I spending
  • Fully fund IDEA
  • Medicare for All
  • Additional state support of Illinois
  • The state of Illinois to pass a fair tax
  • Defund the police
  • Retire TIF districts: Retiring just seven tax increment financing districts in or around downtown and returning their tax base to Chicago Public Schools
  • Housing security, by safe and reliable home for those without one
  • Paid sick leave for all parents of children
  • Financial support for all illegal alien children and their families

The schools across America blame the impact of the coronavirus on its fiscal predicament, and Chicago is no different. Schools always want more money, but results should matter. As the case with Chicago, according to Illinois Policy Think Tank in 2015 around 70% of all black and Hispanic children in the Chicago Unified School system are not proficient to grade level in math and English, and this has only gotten worse over the years.

The school district in Chicago is a fiscal disaster even before the coronavirus, from which it’s facing an $8.4 billion debt.  The debt level of the district disproportionally impacts over 70% of black and Hispanic children who attend the district schools, further exacerbating the already the dismal educational achievement gap.

If this this isn’t bad enough, the disturbing report by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) should send chills through anyone who cares about education and the safety of children. The fact no one was prosecuted for this egregious abuse of Chicago children is chilling in itself.  In September 2019 the reported highlighted close to 500 young girls over a ten year period were sexually assaulted, abused and harassed inside the Chicago Unified School District.  Many of the victims of alleged abuses were black and Hispanic children. One female victim was sexually assaulted four times by a volunteer track coach who was a three-time felon.

Even after this report the situation at Chicago schools, the situation still continues as Camie Pratt, CPS’ Chief Title IX Officer stated at a monthly school board meeting in February 2020.  There has been a 29% increase in reported sexual misconduct cases this year compared to last. The teacher’s union blames others, but Chicago has been solidly run by the Democratic Party since 1931 when the last Republican mayor ran the city.

Has Chicago Teacher’s Union President Jesse Sharkey been asked about the sexual assault scandal since he has been president of the teacher’s union since 2014 when these assaults allegedly have taken place?

With all the attention on school re-openings the San Francisco’s school board last month spent hours not how they would begin opening schools, but hour’s debating the renaming and removal of figures that didn’t meet the boards standards that included names such as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, Paul Revere, and Dianne Feinstein.

The 44 schools whose names had been removed were guilty of being variously, colonizers; slave owners; exploiters of workers; oppressors of women, children, or queer and transgender people; people connected to human rights or environmental abuses; and espousers of racist beliefs. All this will be accomplished by April; unfortunately, student will not be in class.

This coming from a district where blacks are 14% and Hispanics are 24% proficient at grade level in math and English, this dismal record is replicated across the country. Yet, the consistently fail to provide a quality education for their student, will additional funding solve this problem, or will it just line the teacher’s union pockets.

Many of the school district who refuses to re-open have a dismal academic achievement and in cities across America blacks and Hispanic’s the Democratic Party claim to want to help 70% of children of color are proficient in math and English. With many of these districts operating in fiscal deficit, so the extra additional funding would only line the union’s pockets instead of benefiting children.

So far, the Democratic Party and President Biden are backing the teachers union instead of children!