{"id":122849,"date":"2021-02-10T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=122849"},"modified":"2021-02-10T05:12:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T10:12:34","slug":"dem-gov-hopefuls-side-with-union-in-fight-over-virginia-school-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-gov-hopefuls-side-with-union-in-fight-over-virginia-school-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Gov Hopefuls Side With Union in Fight Over Virginia School Closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/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%2Fdem-gov-hopefuls-side-with-union-in-fight-over-virginia-school-closures%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=122849&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--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Virginia-virtual-learning-e1612918485581.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision by Democratic Virginia governor Ralph Northam to push for teachers to return to the classroom next month has infuriated teachers&#8217; unions, putting Democrats running to be his successor in a political bind. Candidates must decide between leaning on science that says it\u2019s now safe to open schools or falling in line behind the state\u2019s powerful teachers\u2019 unions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thus far, the candidates are falling in line behind the unions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"posts-content__category-widget md:hidden -ml-4 -mr-4 my-8 px-4 py-6 bg-gray-100\">\n<h4 class=\"mt-0 text-red-600 font-medium font-sans uppercase\">Recent Stories in Coronavirus<\/h4>\n<ul class=\"list-none p-0\">\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/coronavirus\/dem-gov-hopefuls-side-with-union-in-fight-over-virginia-school-closures\/\"><strong>Dem Gov Hopefuls Side With Union in Fight Over Virginia School Closures<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/coronavirus\/new-york-undercounted-covid-deaths-in-nursing-homes-by-50-report-says\/\"><strong>New York Undercounted COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes by 50%, Report Says<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li class><a class=\"text-black block mb-3 pb-3 border-b border-white\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/coronavirus\/who-director-who-covered-for-china-to-be-harvard-commencement-speaker\/\"><strong>WHO Director Who Covered for China to Be Harvard Commencement Speaker<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not a single Democratic candidate for governor, including Northam\u2019s predecessor Terry McAuliffe, has voiced support for the decision to open the schools on March 15, which has been attacked by the Virginia Education Association (VEA), the state\u2019s largest teachers\u2019 union. Neither McAuliffe nor any of his Democratic primary challengers responded to a <em>Washington&nbsp;Free Beacon<\/em> request for comment.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Democrats have dominated statewide Virginia elections for the past decade\u2014and even took control of the state legislature in 2019\u2014Republicans are hopeful the issue of school reopenings could give them a much-needed opportunity come November. Without a federal race on the top of the ticket, there\u2019s an opening for a candidate to ride a local issue like school closures to electoral success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2021, Democrats won&#8217;t be able to just bank on the state&#8217;s anti-Trump sentiment,&#8221;<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said Miles Coleman, an analyst for the University of Virginia\u2019s Center for Politics. &#8220;The school reopening issue is something that, to a fair degree, transcends party politics. If the GOP can cast the current Democratic regime as incompetent, it may be a potent issue.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Democratic candidates in the state are falling in line with the unions, which are demanding a further delay to in-person instruction until students have been vaccinated. Though McAuliffe has<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TerryMcAuliffe\/status\/1355229421347733504?s=20\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">acknowledged<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the destructive impact school closures are having on children, his<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/terrymcauliffe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Terry-McAuliffe-Education-Plan-.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">education plan<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">lacks any mention of returning to the classroom. State legislator Jennifer Carroll Foy, despite her assessment that school closures will cause children &#8220;depression and PTSD,&#8221;<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cavalierdaily.com\/article\/2021\/01\/jennifer-carroll-foy-discusses-post-pandemic-recovery-plan-at-roundtable-with-charlottesville-small-business-owners\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that schools can\u2019t reopen until teachers are vaccinated. Jennifer McClellan, a fellow state legislator,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JennMcClellanVA\/status\/1349120076604190720\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">said<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">schools can\u2019t reopen until &#8220;all school employees and students&#8221; are vaccinated. And Lee Carter, a state legislator and socialist,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/carterforva\/status\/1354094903094083587\">said<\/a> reopening schools would expose both teachers and students to the virus.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Republican candidates are working to take advantage of the opportunity. Pete Snyder, a businessman running for office, featured the #OpenOurSchools hashtag in his<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?utm_source=iterable&amp;utm_campaign=1879442&amp;utm_medium=pr&amp;utm_term&amp;utm_content=announcement&amp;v=tHPkCips2d8&amp;feature=youtu.be&amp;ab_channel=PeteforGovernor\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">first ad buy of the election<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. And his<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-Kt7iyAeq2Y&amp;feature=emb_title&amp;ab_channel=PeteforGovernor\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">second ad<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, released this week, ends with a pledge to open schools immediately. &#8220;Five days a week, every week, with a teacher in every classroom,&#8221; he says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Snyder says his potential Democratic opponents are ignoring science showing the low health risk of opening schools because they are beholden to the unions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Richmond liberals want to \u2018follow the science\u2019 until the science doesn\u2019t align with their special interests\u2019 partisan games,&#8221; Snyder told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. &#8220;It\u2019s crystal clear that Terry and all the Democrats running for governor would rather line their campaign pockets than stand up to the special interests and open our schools.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>McAuliffe was endorsed by the VEA and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vpap.org\/donors\/147993-va-education-assn\/?party=rep&amp;start_year=2012&amp;end_year=2013\">received thousands of dollars in contributions<\/a> from the union during his successful 2013 campaign for governor.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Glenn Youngkin, another Republican businessman running for governor, told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">opening schools is a top issue for voters that Democrats are &#8220;afraid to confront.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The Democrat politicians in Virginia are failing parents because they\u2019re too afraid to confront the special interest groups blocking the schoolhouse doors,&#8221; Youngkin said. &#8220;It\u2019s crazy and it\u2019s shameful.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cracks are beginning to show in political support for the lofty union demands\u2014in the state senate, Democrats crossed the aisle on Feb. 2 to help pass a bill requiring public schools to make in-class instruction available to any student that wants it. Chap Petersen, a Democratic state senator representing Northern Virginia, said he thinks the issue of getting kids back on the right track transcends politics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;This is not a Republican, Democrat issue,&#8221; Petersen said. &#8220;This is an issue of making an effort, this is an issue about giving a damn.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Republican state senator Siobhan Dunnavant, a medical doctor who introduced the bill, told the<\/span> <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Free Beacon<\/span><\/em> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">she thinks Democrats siding with the unions &#8220;will be marked down in the history books as the moment in time Democrats lost whatever advantage they thought they have in the suburbs.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A recent<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/n2america.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Virginia-Parents-on-School-Re-Openings.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">survey of Virginia parents<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">conducted by N2 America, a center-right organization that focuses on America\u2019s suburbs, found that a majority of parents disapprove of how the state has handled public education during the pandemic and view the unions more negatively than they did before the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;The unions have been exposed as the major obstacle to school reopenings,&#8221; Generra Peck, a senior adviser for N2 America, told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;The politicians that do their bidding are ignoring kids and parents\u2014while the science says it is safe for schools to reopen. It makes no sense.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union demands that students be vaccinated before returning to the classroom will be nearly impossible to meet\u2014neither of the two vaccines being widely distributed in the United States are approved for children. It\u2019s also becoming increasingly clear that the demands are excessive\u2014peer-reviewed<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/campus\/new-study-finds-covid-transmission-in-schools-is-extremely-rare\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">studies conclude<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that transmission of COVID-19 in schools is &#8220;extremely rare.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though Northam has called for schools to reopen on March 15, the order is nonbinding and the date of return could still be pushed back. The VEA says March 15 is an &#8220;arbitrary date.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"my-8 hide-print\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1526555381173-4\" class=\"mobile-250 desktop-90\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decision by Democratic Virginia governor Ralph Northam to push for teachers to return to the classroom next month has infuriated teachers&#8217; unions, putting Democrats running to be his successor &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893053,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4004,6098,3972,6099,4701,3635],"class_list":["post-122849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fight","tag-hopefuls","tag-over","tag-side","tag-union","tag-with"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122849","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}