Commentary: Margaret Menge - School closings compound pandemic blues
Margaret Menge
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Things will get better soon, moms tell each other. But headlines — from Chicago, where the teachers union has adamantly refused to return to work; to Nashua, New Hampshire, where desperate parents are mounting a recall effort to remove pro-union members from the school board — offer little hope schools will reopen.
President Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, has appeared to back the union’s anti-reopen stance, saying schools should wait for millions in new federal spending before reopening.
“President Biden has sent a plan to Congress that would make sure that a majority of our schools can be open within 100 days,” Klain said. We need Congress to pass that plan so we can do the kinds of things you need to do so that schools can be safe, so that teachers can be safe, so that students can be safe.”