Trump claims Biden wants to keep schools shut, Internet says 'Alice Cooper seems more credible at this point'
President Donald Trump said on July 6 that schools must reopen in the fall, despite having little to no power in making this decision. "SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!" he wrote in a tweet. In a follow-up tweet, he claimed that the Democrats' presumptive nominee, Joe Biden, wanted to shutter schools in November for his personal political gain. "Corrupt Joe Biden and the Democrats don’t want to open schools in the Fall for political reasons, not for health reasons! They think it will help them in November. Wrong, the people get it!" he said via Twitter.
Schools are mostly under the jurisdiction of state and local governments With the nation-wide spike in coronavirus infections, however, governors have been struggling with the states' attempts to lift the lockdown. Educators have also been grappling with decisions over opening schools, considering the fact that they could be hotbeds for the infection and affect both students and the faculty. Although Trump didn't explicitly say what schools he was referring to, whether elementary, high schools, colleges or universities, he has yet to also reveal what actions he has been considering.
Colleges and universities have announced a number of plans for fall semester, so far, including changing the calenders and holding online classes for some courses. Harvard University for that matter announced on July 6 that it would be holding all of its courses online, for the upcoming academic year but stressed that students will need to comply with testing after every three days once it allows freshmen on campus after Fall. As part of his schedule for Tuesday, July 7, Trump and the First Lady, Melania will attend an event titled, a 'National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America’s Schools.' In addition, he has also made a series of Twitter posts defending his administration's response to the pandemic. Currently, the US has the highest number of coronavirus infections and fatalities worldwide. According to the John Hopkins University Covid-19 Tracker, the number of positive cases in the US is at 2,934,499, with 130,271 casualties.
Biden hasn't openly expressed for schools to open, and neither has he said that they should remain indefinitely closed. On July 3, however, he did say that seeing the drastic rise in nation-wide Covid infections, that just might be the reality. "You know there's probably a higher probability that we'll need to continue to rely on remote learning in parts of the country for a while longer," he said in a video conference with the membership of the National Education Association. The former vice-president has also been pushing for better broadband access across the country.
But Biden has criticized Republicans for not taking up the House-passed HEROES Act. The $3 trillion bill passed by the House Democrats in May, allocated $950 million for state and local government, including school funding. He also warned that close to a million education jobs nationwide have already been lost because of the crisis. In addition, Biden slammed the president for the lack of national preventive measures to help with reopening schools. "Last month I put out a plan to reopen states safely and sustainably, including for our public schools. That requires steps, like one, ensuring schools have funding for physical alterations like Plexiglass to maximize social distancing," Biden explained during the NEA live stream. "And we need the federal government to give schools and states and local governments clear guidance."
While schools don't open for at least the next two months, there is no way to know how bad the situation will be by then. The Covid infection would pose a grave threat to children if schools were to reopen without any measures in place. Children are highly susceptible to getting infected by the virus, and could potentially bring it home to their parents and grandparents. In addition, they could also affect their teachers and baby sitters as well.
Rankled Twitter users took the platform to express their annoyance at Trump's words, following his Twitter spree.
"This guy still thinks coronavirus is political and not an issue of public health." said political host, Brian Taylor Cohen, adding "I would LOVE for Trump to make "send your kids to school in the middle of a deadly pandemic as hospitals hit capacity and hundreds of thousands of Americans die" his campaign's official position for November's election." A user concurred, "WE MUST PROTECT OUR KIDS OVER OUR ECONOMY!" Another slammed Trump for his incompetence in handling the pandemic saying, "Donald Trump's complete mishandling of the Covid-19 Pandemic represents the most catastrophic and disastrous failure of leadership and government in the history of the United States. Trump owns every single death, and every tragic moment of mourning in every household in America."
"As an educator, I’m not willing to die so trump can look good," a user said in a tweet, while another added, "We may have been able to open schools in the fall if you didn't politicize wearing masks." Another user added Trump's son, Baron to the mix, saying "Baron (he’s your son just FYI), Wouldn’t go to a public school in these conditions. So neither should our kids." One user tweeted, "Actually we want to keep schools closed to STOP people from getting it. 'It' being the virus that you have done nothing to stop from spreading like wildfire."
Many users took to tweeting sarcastic responses to Trump's tweets in all capital letters. "EVERYONE MUST DIE IN THE FALL BECAUSE I NEED THE ECONOMY TO OPEN SO MY HOTELS AND RESORTS CAN MAKE MONEY!!! LIVING IS FOR LOSERS!! MAGA!!!", wrote one user. "TRUMP 2020: I WILL KILL YOUR KIDS!!!" said another. "Alice Cooper told me school's out forever, and he has more credibility than you at this point," a user added, while another commented, "TRUMP SHOULD GO TO SCHOOL AS WELL BECAUSE HE NEEDS EDUCATION MORE THAN WE DO."