#ProtectOurKids: Why is Trump pushing to reopen schools? Angry Internet says 'they are not your political pawn'
With just four months left for the US Presidential elections, Donald Trump is leaving no stone unturned to find a topic for his reelection campaign. While the entire world is going through a global pandemic and with no vaccine in sight to cure coronavirus yet, the Trump administration has been pushing to reopen schools in US.
A week ago, President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made their intentions clear to reopen K-12 schools in the fall. The duo even threatened to withhold federal funding if schools did not take it seriously. Trump tweeted saying, “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” DeVos went a step further and refused to acknowledge the fact schools should follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidance during a CNN interview. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley criticized this behavior and opined on Twitter, “Teachers, kids and parents are fearing for their lives. You point to a private sector that has put profits over people and claimed the lives of thousands of essential workers. I wouldn’t trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child,” she wrote.
Like many other decisions of this current administration, this one may have rubbed many on social media the wrong way. Twitter exploded with comments such as, “My kids are not your political pawn!” and “Our kids can never be used as political pawns especially by a pitiful president.” A user tweeted, “@realDonaldTrump is pushing to reopen schools in the fall despite doing everything possible to guarantee that doing so is a death sentence for over 14,000 children as the pandemic he did nothing to stop rages out of control. We must #ProtectOurKids.” Another concerned parent wrote, “I often told our daughters that a parent’s job was to get their children safely thru childhood and have a solid foundation for adulthood...I haven’t heard a single safety measure being put in place from the GOP...it’s frightening.” People even urged the government to think about the teaching staff. “Trump and DeVos defunding special education by putting the most vulnerable at risk. Protect the staff as well. Neither are expendable. All to make the rich richer for the sake of the economy,” said one user.
One major reason behind this aggressive rallying to reopen schools, according to CNN, is that it would allow parents to return to work, Trump's advisers reasoned. Without children in classrooms, no other area of the economy could really bounce back. Anecdotally, many aides knew parents -- and especially moms -- who felt stretched by home-schooling and child care. And many believed a focus on kids and classrooms would play well with a group of Trump voters whose support was beginning to soften: White suburban women. Meanwhile, a Forbes report states the White House has refused to allow CDC Director Robert Redfield to testify at a House Committee on Education and Labor hearing on safely reopening schools this fall amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the committee’s chairman.
Even though some European countries have reopened schools, but those countries have had much lower case numbers than the United States. The country recorded a total of at least 70,674 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, July 17, after climbing by a record 77,499 a day earlier, the largest increase posted by any country since the pandemic started.