Keeping Schools Open Must Be A Priority

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, against science and common sense, many traditional government schools continue to shut children out of the classroom.

The Biden administration has repeatedly put the political agenda of teachers' unions above the needs of children.

Throughout this pandemic, the Biden administration has ignored the concerns of parents and has, instead, crafted its COVID-19 school guidelines in accord with the demands of union bosses.

The Biden administration's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consulted American Federation of Teachers, AFT, President Randi Weingarten for help in shaping guidance on school reopening. Entrusting a union boss and major campaign donor to make public health decisions is completely unacceptable.

Teachers' unions took full advantage of the pandemic. They bullied and coerced the Biden administration until they got almost everything they asked for. Anytime the Biden administration resisted their demands, these unions had a meltdown, publicly shaming the administration, staging sick-outs, and making their demands even more elaborate and unreasonable.

According to CDC guidance, schools can safely stay open. The data proves that schools are not and have never been a major vector of spread. Yet, even with all the scientific data, teachers' unions are holding their ground at the cost of students' well-being.

This pandemic has taken a major toll on young people. Children, who are at the lowest risk of being made seriously ill by COVID-19, have been forced out of the classrooms by the demands of teachers' unions.

Forcing students to learn behind a screen has led to devastating consequences. According to a report by Curriculum Associates, the number of students testing at two or more grade levels below their own grade has significantly increased since the pandemic. The numbers are worse for students who are already at risk.

For example, 49 percent of third graders who come from low-income areas are now two or more grade levels behind in reading and math. This is an increase of 10 to 12 percent since before the pandemic began.

Because of school closures, many students have also been suffering from isolation, depression, and anxiety. It was alarming to read that the number of ER visits for suspected suicide attempts by teenage girls rose from early 2019 to early 2021 by 51 percent.

This is a public health crisis in and of itself yet one that is being ignored by many of the decisionmakers at both the national and local level in favor of special interest groups like the AFT.

That is why Republicans at the Education and Labor Committee have been fighting so hard to keep schools open. We know the stakes are high.

This pandemic has made it abundantly clear that teachers' unions, as well as the education establishment, have too much power. Neither union bosses nor bureaucrats in Washington should be able to keep our children from the classroom. Access to education is an important right in this country, one that teachers' unions are belittling with their outrageous demands.

What has the outsized influence of teachers' unions produced? Less school choice, falling education standards, explicit material in school libraries, critical race theory-inspired curriculum, and years of learning loss.

Teachers' unions have become far less about protecting teachers or students and far more about promoting a left-wing political agenda. This was made clear when the teachers' unions in several major cities joined forces with the Democratic Socialists of America to demand an eviction moratorium and an end to voucher programs as conditions for reopening schools.

The longer we let these union bosses take advantage of this pandemic, the worse off our students will be. Students should no longer take a back seat to politics or special interests.

It is time to stop catering to teachers' unions and to start serving the needs of students.

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