White House Press Secretary Blames Republicans for COVID School Closures

[probinson]

In today's press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre was asked about the learning loss that has occurred during the pandemic due to school closures, and if the Biden Administration shoulders any of the responsibility for not pushing schools to reopen sooner.

Her response was that school reopening "was the work of Democrats in spite of Republicans".

Of course, if you look at reality, the exact opposite is true;

It should be obvious to anyone that looks at that graph that Republican-led states had far more in-person schooling than Democrat-led states.

 

[Desk trauma]

Just using alternative facts.

 

[ByTheSpirit]

I wonder if he will bring this up in his speech tonight?

 

[grasping the after wind]

I do believe Biden has found a press secretary that most approximates his own level of cognition.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Her response was that school reopening "was the work of Democrats in spite of Republicans...

...not voting for the American Rescue Plan (of) which $130 billion dollars went to schools to have the ventilation to be able to have the tutoring and the teachers and being able to hire more teachers"

 

[grasping the after wind]

...not voting for the American Rescue Plan (of) which $130 billion dollars went to schools to have the ventilation to be able to have the tutoring and the teachers and being able to hire more teachers"

Seems to me that schools have independent funding of their own. Therefore a handout from the federal government is not a requisite for doing things. Such handouts usually come with unwanted strings attached.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Seems to me that schools have independent funding of their own.

To a greater or lesser extent, the states have money for normal operating expenses for the schools. But installing ventilation or other measures to allow schools to reopen safely is an extraordinary expense that was probably not budgeted.

Anyway, my main point was that she was not claiming that Democrats were for opening schools and Republicans were not (as the OP implies). The fuller quote shows what she was actually talking about.

 

[probinson]

...not voting for the American Rescue Plan (of) which $130 billion dollars went to schools to have the ventilation to be able to have the tutoring and the teachers and being able to hire more teachers"

Which had absolutely nothing to do with safely reopening schools.

Heck, the director of the CDC said that they didn't even need vaccines to reopen schools!

"Safely opening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated in order to reopen safely."

 

[probinson]

Anyway, my main point was that she was not claiming that Democrats were for opening schools and Republicans were not (as the OP implies). The fuller quote shows what she was actually talking about.

Yes, she was. Here is the transcript;

Q Completely unrelated, also not a thing to be optimistic about — the National Assessment of Educational Progress is — has this new testing that shows that nine-year-olds lost ground in both math and reading in pretty dramatic ways as a result of the pandemic. What is the President going to do about it? What is the administration going to do about this severe learning loss? And does the administration shoulder any blame for not pushing schools to reopen sooner?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, let’s step back to where we were not too long ago when this President walked into this administration: how mismanaged the pandemic — the response to the pandemic was; how 47 percent of schools were — in less than six months, our schools went from 40 per- — 46 percent to — open — to nearly all of them being open to full time.

That was the work of this President. And that was the work of Democrats, in spite of Republicans not voting for the American Rescue Plan, which $130 billion went to schools to have the ventilation, to be able to have the tutoring and — and the teachers and being able to hire more teachers. And that was because of the work that this administration did.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre - The White House​

She is clearly implying that the "work of this President" was to get schools from 46 percent open to nearly all of them open. She's absolutely lying.

And then for good measure she tosses in the American Rescue Plan, which politicians used to hold school openings hostage after the Director of the CDC said that the data told them that teachers didn't even need to be vaccinated to open the schools safely.

 

[grasping the after wind]

To a greater or lesser extent, the states have money for normal operating expenses for the schools. But installing ventilation or other measures to allow schools to reopen safely is an extraordinary expense that was probably not budgeted.

Anyway, my main point was that she was not claiming that Democrats were for opening schools and Republicans were not (as the OP implies). The fuller quote shows what she was actually talking about.

The quote shows that she was pedaling nonsense. Which is her forte.

 

[probinson]

From an opinion piece on CNN;

As American students return to school, it’s time to admit we have a problem. Thanks to Covid-related school shutdowns, our school children have suffered unprecedented learning losses, with 9-year-olds seeming to have lost some two decades worth of progress on math and reading skills, according to new test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The backtracking was particularly severe for the students who were already struggling, as well as for Black and Hispanic students. And, for many students, it may simply be too late to make up such significant setbacks.

This should make the progressive-minded among us who supported school closures pause and ask ourselves if we got this one right – and what we could learn from this whole debacle. ​

...​

Unfortunately, too many progressives who otherwise espouse the value of education have been quick to brush off learning losses as insignificant, and the dearth of pandemic-era in-school education as simply “different learning experiences.” Whatever one’s view on the wisdom of school shutdowns during Covid – and people can certainly have good-faith disagreements about when and why and for how long shutdowns were appropriate – it is a dereliction of adult responsibility to suggest that the impact of the shutdowns is no biggie.

Opinion: America has a problem. We, my fellow progressives, must admit it - CNN​