Author: Common Dreams

The Trump administration and Senate Republicans are reportedly considering a plan to pressure U.S. schools to reopen in the fall by attaching conditions or incentives to desperately needed Covid-19 relief funds as educators and parents warn that—in addition to being unpopular—the White House push to send children back to the classroom without an adequate safety strategy is reckless and dangerous. With school districts across the nation in need of billions of dollars in funding to prepare for potential reopenings, the Washington Post reported Wednesday that “the White House and Republicans are debating whether to take a carrot or a...

The novel SARS-CoV-2 has roared through the American landscape leaving physical, emotional, and economic devastation in its wake. By early July, known infections in this country exceeded three million, while deaths topped 135,000. Home to just over 4% of the global population, the United States accounts for more than a quarter of all fatalities from Covid-19, the disease produced by the coronavirus. Amid a recent surge of infections, especially across the Sun Belt, which Vice President Mike Pence typically denied was even occurring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the daily total of infections had...

The United States is currently seeing the most coronavirus infections since the pandemic began. Dr. Anthony Fauci recently warned that the U.S. could soon reach 100,000 new cases each day. And across every age group, people of color, especially Black and Native people, are being infected and dying at much higher rates. Cases are surging because we are reopening without adequate public health protections. At least 17 states that had begun reopening are shutting back down. It is no coincidence that the same states that were the last to shut down and the first to reopen are experiencing the...

No one wants to welcome students back to classrooms more than America’s educators. We know that nothing can replace the magic of a student’s curiosity when they are able to learn alongside their peers from a teacher who has dedicated her life to the success of other people’s children. But the Trump administration’s plan is appallingly reckless. Concerned more with election dynamics than the lives of students and their educators, the White House pressure campaign presents a false choice between the health of our students and the health of our economy. Again, educators yearn to look into the inquisitive...