More evidence White House put teachers unions ahead of science on school COVID-safety

 “Follow the science,” it said about handling COVID. But for Team Biden, it was follow the teachers unions when it came to reopening schools.

E-mails between the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — provided to the watchdog group Americans for Public Trust via a Freedom of Information Act request — reveal that the Biden administration not only consulted national teachers unions before releasing school-reopening guidance to the public, it put a heavy thumb on the scales in favor of the unions’ agenda.

The messages show that White House staff arranged a meeting between CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and the head of the nation’s largest teachers union, National Education Association President Becky Pringle.

Heck, one NEA official used her access to score a job inside the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. Having an “inside man” ensured that the unions were always seated at the policy table.

In one damning e-mail to others in the department, HHS official Michael Baker wrote: “We need to think about this in the broader context of teacher contract negotiations.”

The CDC even tightened mask guidelines after the unions balked and threatened to go public with their criticisms.

White House staff arranged a meeting between CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and the head of the nation’s largest teachers union.

AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

The unions claimed that the CDC’s May 13 announcement that fully vaccinated Americans could stop wearing masks indoors and outside needed clarification as it applied in schools, and the White House went into full appeasement mode: “Would you know when Dr. Wolensky would be able to call NEA-Pres. Becky Pringle?” e-mailed Erika Dinkel-Smith, the White House director of labor engagement.

The messages show a White House in thrall to the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers — whose leaders did all they could to keep kids on Zoom and their members at home.

To Team Biden, science and children’s needs counted for nothing against the interests of their political allies.

https://nypost.com/2021/12/26/white-house-puts-teachers-unions-ahead-of-science-on-covid-safety/