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AFT’s Weingarten: How to reopen schools ‘when the Federal Government didn't give us money’?

Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers President, joins The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous, Aarthi Swaminathan and Brian Sozzi to discuss schools’ reopening plans across the United States as confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to rise.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: It's back to school season for students and teachers across the US. But as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in places like California, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico, many are eyeing their schools' reopening plans and whether it will be in-person or remote or a hybrid. Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is joining us now. Also joining us is Yahoo Finance's Aarthi Swaminathan. Thanks so much, everybody, for being with us.

Randi, I know just a short time ago, you were on the phone with New York governor Andrew Cuomo. Can you share with us at all what the two of you were talking about?

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RANDI WEINGARTEN: Look, I'm constantly talking to governors all across the country-- at least those who actually respect working people-- about what to do and how to reopen. And so he was checking in on how things are really going, which is, frankly, what other governors should be doing. You see the debacle that's happening in Florida and Georgia and Texas compared to the responsibility that governor Cuomo took in New York or Governor Murphy took in New Jersey.

And the bottom line is that there's a group-- scientists and epidemiologists have basically told us how to reopen schools. It's not wishful thinking. It's not magical thinking. It's not trying to divide parents versus teachers or what the needs are. We all want to get back to school. It is about reducing community spread to a level that is less than 5%.

It's about reducing transmission on a day to day basis to a level that's under 1%. It's about having testing, tracing, and isolation so that an outbreak does not become a surge. It's about making sure that you don't have COVID transmitted in a school by having masks and ventilation and cleaning and physical distancing. All of that stuff costs money, and all of that stuff needs to happen at the same time in order to safely reopen a school.

Those who have not done that, like in Georgia, where they opened in the midst of a pandemic, you see huge numbers of schools now being closed and huge numbers of people now having COVID. In Florida, you see surging continue. In New York, where you might be able to do this, you got to get it right on a local level, because most important is to keep people safe and not to create another outbreak.

BRIAN SOZZI: Randi, what are some of the governor's biggest concerns right now? And is he looking at any additional precautions?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, look, all the governors are looking at-- the you know, the governors are actually really looking right now at the problem of the federal government refusing to fund these safeguards. How are you going to fund PPE when the federal government didn't give us the money and Mitch McConnell went on break again? And when Donald Trump, even as he keeps saying that schools are important, would not negotiate a school package? And so ultimately, a lot of people's hands are tied in the fact that this was a federal pandemic, a national problem, and we do not have a national response.

So Governor Cuomo, mayors, school systems, our union-- we're doing the best we can, because we all want to make sure that kids are educated. But most importantly, you have to keep people safe, and you can't restart a pandemic in a place like New York that has created or has actually tackled the spread.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Hey, Randi, thanks for joining us. I want to ask you about staffing. I mean, we're having trouble finding nurses, having trouble finding substitute teachers. And at the same time, we're having all these learning pods pop up. I'm just wondering, as a teacher, how are you attracting talent, and especially at a time like this?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, you-- it's-- what we're having right now, because of what Trump did and DeSantis and others, we're actually having the opposite effect. We're having a brain drain right now because people are leaving the profession. You know, one of the things we kept saying over and over is you have to have reasonable accommodations for people who are at risk.

So what did we see this week in a district in Martin County, Florida? We saw that teachers-- elementary school had to be closed, because there was a kid that had symptoms and then tested COVID positive. All the rest of the classroom was closed. The kids were sent home. They were put under quarantine.

Because of the shortage in the school, and because the fact that the school refused to start remote because of the governor's denials of COVID, they tried to force the teacher who was exposed to COVID back into a classroom rather than being on quarantine. That story rifled throughout America.

You don't think that that concerns people? We have to keep people safe, first and foremost. That's everybody's obligation. And the fact that the president opened too quickly has been a problem, but it has created this surge in these other places. And it's creating a problem now in terms of recruiting substitutes, recruiting nurses, and recruiting teachers.

Will people teach? Yes, of course. Should we start in lots of places remotely? Yes, we should. When it's safe, should we try to be in school? Yes. But we have to have these safeguards there. And they have to be enforceable.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: You know, just one last quick question about safety strikes-- how many strikes have occurred and what triggers one? Just quickly.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: So our resolution had a safety report card in it with real specifics-- meaning the CDC-- what the CDC has said to us are required is what is in our report card that says that without-- that if these things are not there and we can't convince people to have them there, then of course we would authorize, on a case by case basis, a safety strike.

But that includes reducing community spread to under 5%, reducing daily transmission to under 1%, having testing, tracing, and isolation-- all of this is what public health experts say we need to do. Then in schools, making sure there were masks, six foot of physical distancing, cleaning every day, and ventilation systems that can make sure that the air is breathable and recirculable so that you don't have air being stagnant.

Those things are absolutely necessary in addition to washing your hands. That's what the experts tell us. That's what we are demanding in schools in order for them to be safe.