John, educators across the country right now are faced with an impossible decision.
Teachers are being asked to either risk the health and safety of themselves and their students as in-person learning reopens — or face potential backlash from the city leadership for demanding remote learning options amidst the surge of COVID.
Just yesterday in Chicago, unionized teachers voted to move to remote learning, and city leaders reacted by canceling classes and threatened to withhold pay from teachers who decided not to return to classes. This is not the kind of stress teachers should be experiencing during times like these.
We need to continue uplifting our leaders who are dedicated to prioritizing people over the institutions who put them at risk. John, can you make a contribution to support my efforts to continue fighting for teachers and students in NY-16 and all over the country as they work to stay safe during the COVID surge?
NY-16 and communities like ours need a comprehensive plan to ensure that all students and teachers are granted a safe place to learn and work. If we want to safely reopen our public schools, our leaders need to mandate testing, with the support of the federal government to create the volume of tests we need to combat COVID.
From offering federal subsidies and centralizing PPE for educators to implementing robust and wide scale testing to combat the spread of the visus, it's crucial that we protect our teachers and students with policies and leadership that center their safety. As an educator whose spouse is also an educator, I know our firsthand experience with students and our communities is all the knowledge we need to create safer and more inclusive learning environments.
Peace and love,
Jamaal Bowman
P.S. In August 2020, I shared my recommendations to safely reopen schools while we deal with the virus. In this plan, I outlined key steps our leaders need to take if we want to ensure that all students and teachers are safe as in person learning returns. You can learn more about these points here.
