Ok. I’m asking this seriously. Public schools aren’t businesses. They don’t turn a profit. They aren’t running in the red. How is opening schools back up supposed to jump start the economy?
Oh I see. It’s so parents can return to work allowing the government to skip out on another round of stimulus money.
Hmm. Don’t like that much.
I hate that this scene works as a reaction gif to something so predictable, so preventable, but so inevitable. We get to see it play out in real time.
It’s a shame that people have to spell it out this way as if the thought of dead children and teachers isn’t enough to elicit sympathy
The GOP knows and they aren’t just “letting” it happen, they are trying to FORCE it to happen because trump is desperate for normality to return before Nov and the GOP doesn’t want to fund education to do distance learning well. Their kids are in private school which are NOT reopening in Aug.
Teachers should go on strike, nationwide.
This is not just so parents can go back to work.
The “Back to School” sales every year? Make BILLIONS of dollars. Billions. New clothes. New supplies. Teacher shopping lists. Lunch boxes, backpacks, shoes, tech.
If schools were online this fall, at least half that money would go out the window. Parents wouldn’t have to buy tissues and crayons for the teachers. Most people with kids stocked up on art supplies at the beginning of this when they knew they’d be stuck inside a lot. Who needs new shoes if you aren’t actually going to school? Or new clothes for that matter? Don’t need a backpack if you’re not taking stuff to and from school, no lunch box if you’re eating at home.
Don’t think for one second that schools don’t make the economy money - its just not as obvious as everything else.
By the way - not every teacher CAN strike. I know at least in Texas they will be fired and lose their teaching certification because they don’t have the kind of union that will protect them. My mom is one of those teachers who works in a shitty Texas district in which the parent attitude is: “if teachers can’t handle it they should just quit” (and that’s a direct quote). My mom couldn’t afford to quit two weeks ago but now that I’ve been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer? The bills are already pouring in. So instead, my high risk mother with asthma will have to start work in 2 weeks, then come home to take care of me, who has basically no immune system because of chemo. And we literally don’t have any other option. And mine is just one story of one teacher, and we’re not alone in being terrified and having nothing to do about it.
What a fun time to:
1) not be unionized, and 2) have your health insurance tied to your employment
