Opening schools "safely"
Teachers "unions" have been a target for decades aimed at by the right (of course) and even middle of the road and left beltway journalists. But if they would listen to the teachers themselves maybe journalists would learn why teachers want to return to in person learning, but are skeptical of the safety.
Some things are not as "obvious" as they seem to non- teachers. "Social distancing" requires smaller class sizes to spread the desks out. The classes are jam packed with maybe a foot between them. To spread them out requires hiring more teachers. That is very, very expensive and not easily done. Years ago when my state reduced early grades to a 20:1 ratio from 35:1 it required tons of special funding and a reduction in qualifications of new teachers because there was then and is now a teachers' shortage. So non-credentialed teachers were hired. And that was only for four grades of elementary school and it was only to get the class size to 20:1. That class size is still not small enough to spread the desks out three feet let alone six feet.
Then there is actual physical classrooms. Most schools in California don't have any extra
classrooms at all. None. So even if they hired two or three times the teachers, which don't exist because of the teachers' shortage, there is no where to put them.
Schools have been underfunded and crowded for DECADES. The crowding and teachers' shortages are not covered in the media so it sounds easy to follow the CDC guidelines, but it is anything but.
And don't even get me started about the vaccines.
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