{"id":1191449,"date":"2022-01-05T16:20:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T21:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1191449"},"modified":"2022-01-05T16:20:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T21:20:03","slug":"jen-psaki-u-s-schools-are-more-than-equipped-to-remain-open-during-covid-19-surge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jen-psaki-u-s-schools-are-more-than-equipped-to-remain-open-during-covid-19-surge\/","title":{"rendered":"Jen Psaki: U.S. Schools Are \u2018More Than Equipped\u2019 To Remain Open During COVID-19 Surge"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjen-psaki-u-s-schools-are-more-than-equipped-to-remain-open-during-covid-19-surge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1191449&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that schools are indeed safe to keep open and that American public K-12 schools are \u201cmore than equipped\u201d to handle any surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. Her statement was prompted by a reporter who asked for the White House\u2019s opinion on Chicago, which has seen a battle between the city and the Chicago Teachers Union over returning to in-person learning.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/class-canceled-chicago-teachers-union-votes-in-favor-of-remote-learning-at-odds-with-city-demanding-educators-appear-in-person\">reported<\/a> earlier that the CTU is currently demanding that the city of Chicago force public schools to move back to virtual learning so that teachers can be protected. After a Tuesday night vote in favor of keeping children out of school, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) issued a series of tweets urging teachers to come back to school, and maintaining that school would proceed in person on Thursday. On Wednesday, Chicago canceled classes altogether so that students would not have to remote-learn again.<\/p>\n<p>As negotiations were reportedly proceeding Wednesday, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten claimed that Lightfoot should be \u201cmoving heaven and earth\u201d to make schools safer for teachers. She also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/the-left-eat-their-own-randi-weingarten-slams-chicagos-lori-lightfoot-over-teachers-union-battle-praises-herculean-educators?%3Futm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=dwtwitter\">claimed<\/a> that nobody wanted to shut down schools or not be in person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAcross government, we are in regular contact with a range of stakeholders on the issue of school reopening and closures, including superintendents, state leaders, principals, teachers, parents, and other school staff and that is certainly the case now, today, this week, as the president is working \u2014 and we are all working \u2014 to keep schools open,\u201d Psaki said.<\/p>\n<p>When asked the president\u2019s opinion in-school safety Psaki said that the White House knows schools \u201ccan be open safely and we\u2019re here to help make that happen and he agrees with medical, scientific, and education experts that because of the historic work we\u2019ve done we are more than equipped to ensure schools are open and we\u2019re going to keep our children and educators who selflessly serve their community safe but ensure that children are not enduring the mental health impact of not being in school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psaki also added that \u201cfortunately 96%&nbsp; of schools\u201d were staying open and also credited Biden with fighting \u201cfor 130 billion dollars in the American Rescue Plan for funding to schools to implement mitigation strategies including 10 billion dollars for testing which has already been distributed to states.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Education has also been providing technical assistance and resources for months now on everything from implementing mitigation strategies, to connecting schools with testing providers hosting vaccine clinics, and addressing pandemic mental related mental health issues\u201d Psaki claimed.<\/p>\n<p>The tension between the local teachers union and the Democratic leader of Chicago \u2014 while the AFT attempted to navigate the situation \u2014 could indicate that the typical Democrat alliance of unions lending their support to Democratic candidates and politicians may be strained this year as local unions stand at odds with officials like Lightfoot.<\/p>\n<p>To that extent, Psaki avoided mentioning the AFT directly, but said the message from President Biden is \u201cthat the president wants schools to be open. He believes we have the tools for schools to be open and we\u2019re going to continue to work to ensure that students are in classrooms they\u2019re in classrooms safely and they are for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that schools are indeed safe to keep open and that American public K-12 schools are \u201cmore than equipped\u201d to handle any surge in COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant. Her statement was prompted by a reporter who asked for the White House\u2019s opinion on Chicago, which has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}