Republicans released a report Wednesday revealing an unusually “cozy” relationship between teachers’ unions and the COVID-19 leaders of the Biden administration and the CDC regarding the reopening of schools during the pandemic.
A Republican interim report on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis shows emails between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the White House, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Millions of Americans are still outraged by what these Washington Democrats are doing to their children, all because union bosses have demanded they keep schools closed longer,” said senior coronavirus committee official Steve Scalise and James Comer, who is a member of the committee on education and jobs, in a statement to Fox News.
“America’s children are suffering academically and intellectually from the school closures made possible by the Biden administration,” they added.
“Republicans won’t rest until we uncover all the facts and hold accountable everyone involved in preventing millions of children from having an equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream.”
The report comes as President Joe Biden prepares to make remarks on COVID-19 on Wednesday, as his administration launches a website aimed at helping Americans “adapt” to COVID risks as they continue to decline, and Information on mask guidelines and where to find the next vaccines.
Republicans on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis are releasing a report Wednesday detailing a “cozy” relationship between teachers’ unions and the CDC over guidance for reopening schools
Representatives Steve Scalise (pictured), senior member of the Coronavirus Committee, and James Comer, who is a member of the Education and Labor Committee, said in a statement to Fox: “Millions of Americans are still outraged by what these Washingtonians Democrats did to their children, all because union bosses demanded that schools stay closed longer.
Testimony by a CDC official before the House coronavirus panel alleges the agency coordinated with AFT in creating guidance for reopening schools.
The Republican interim report claims emails show that the AFT’s “cosy relationship with the Biden administration’s political leadership at the CDC has prompted the union to make line-by-line changes to guidance on reopening schools.”
It adds that this was an unusual move by the CDC because of its “previous practice of keeping draft guidance on other aspects of the pandemic confidential.”
The Republicans’ findings allege that the AFT made changes to an early version of the guidelines for reopening schools, which they say are intended to make it more likely that schools will remain closed for in-person learning, rather than rushing to reopen.
Last year, the two largest US teachers’ unions, AFT and the National Education Association, received a copy of the CDC’s guidelines on reopening schools before they were released to the public.
A day before the February 2021 guidance release, Kelly Trautner, AFT’s Senior Director of Health Issues, emailed CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and asked her to insert the following line: 2, this guidance may need to be updated again.”
Walensky forwarded the email to Dr. Henry Walke, director of the CDC’s Center for Preparedness and Response.
He revised the guidance to accommodate the AFT’s request.
A day ahead of the reopening of guidance released in February 2021, AFT emailed CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky (pictured) and asked her to include the line: “In the event that high-community transmission results from a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a new update to these guidelines may be required”. She agreed
The Republican Wednesday report includes new statements from Walke in an interview dated February 18, 2022.
He admitted the level the CDC coordinated with teachers’ unions was “unusual,” revealing that the CDC does not typically share draft guidance outside of the agency.
Republicans concluded in the report that the Biden administration gave teachers’ unions “unprecedented access to the policy-making process to guide school reopening.”
“Documents and testimony, however, show that Director Walensky downplayed the extent to which the CDC has deviated from previous practice to allow AFT to influence the policy-making process,” the report said.
“Indeed, CDC allowed AFT to insert language into operational guidance that made it more likely that schools across the country would remain closed after February 2021.”
Guidance for reopening schools has been a major talking point for Republicans versus Democrats — and just earlier this year states were campaigning for schools to drop mask requirements as mandates for the general public were relaxed
Scalise and Comer accused Biden of rewarding the AFT, a major political donor, while millions of children suffered from school closures.
“The facts are clear: Biden’s CDC overrode routine practice to allow a radical teachers’ union that has donated millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns to circumvent scientific norms and rewrite official agency guidance,” the two Republican lawmakers wrote .
“The damaging changes made by union bosses have actually kept thousands of schools closed across the country and locked millions of children out of their classrooms,” she continued.
“The Biden administration abandoned medical science and replaced it with political science to reward one of its biggest donors while harming millions of children. They bypassed science to put union bosses before children.’
According to Open Secrets, AFT donated $5,000 to Biden in November 2020, the month he was elected president.
The union is also a major donor to other Democrat and left-leaning groups. It gave the Senate-majority PAC $1 million in December 2021 as lawmakers prepare for a potential Republican bloodbath in the 2022 midterm election that could see both houses turn red.