We’d like to say we expected better from Politico, but we’d be lying to you.
That’s why we’re just going to say that this take on school reopenings is extremely on-brand:
NEW: President Joe Biden is about to meet his 100-day pledge of having > 50% schools open for 5 days of in-person learning.
The problem? Most of the kids back in classrooms are white.
Johnny @PerezJr and me https://t.co/YjtJXBsojC
— Natasha Korecki (@natashakorecki) April 26, 2021
Looks like we can add “reopening schools” to the List of Highly Problematic Things.
Holy horrible headline, Batman.
What a headline https://t.co/nIR5uUxRP2
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) April 26, 2021
But a perfect headline for the hot garbage that follows it.
New Education Department guidance pushes school administrators to understand why students of color might opt out of in-person learning. [Education Secretary Miguel] Cardona’s even been a regular visitor to local schools across the country, cheerleading the reopening effort alongside the presidents of the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.
…
[AFT President Randi] Weingarten said her group is conducting polling, alongside the NAACP and LULAC civil rights organizations, to gauge the precise reasons behind minority families’ mistrust of returning to school. She’s also eyeing a broader outreach campaign.
“We’re going to make sure that the pandemic does not break the relationship between our schools and our communities,” she said. “And if that means going door to door and running a national campaign that says once we’ve gotten the safeguards to ensure safe in-school learning for staff and students, we’re going to make sure that parents know it.”
Ah, yes. Of course. It’s the Biden administration and teachers’ unions who have been “cheerleading the reopening effort.”
There’s so much wrong with this outlook I don’t even know what to criticize first.
— ADN (@GlassHill_) April 26, 2021
WTF is this headline?
Teachers’ unions in urban, Democrat-run areas are blocking returns to school for minority kids. Some of us have been calling this out for over a year.
But Politico goes full “white supremacy”. https://t.co/MvuEVtvZXP via @politico
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) April 26, 2021
I was skimming it. I sounds like the teacher unions are the "good guys."
"Now the administration, unions and Education Secretary…must confront deeper political and policy challenges to win the trust of reluctant families, coax them back to school…"
— Xavier Dreyman (@xavierdreyman) April 26, 2021
Alternate headline: "Biden backed teachers unions destroyed inner city education." https://t.co/FzO7TGhkRl
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) April 26, 2021
Alternate headline: "Union-backed Democrats in major urban areas continue to defy science and deny minority kids the in-classroom experience that they and their families so desperately need."
— RepublicanDore (@RepublicanDore) April 26, 2021
White kids being in school is not a problem.
Black kids not being in school is a problem.
Who is teaching journalism to you people?
— Robert Kroese (@robkroese) April 26, 2021
Probably the same people who teach that teachers’ unions want what’s best for kids.
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