随着返校时间越来越近，关于本学年学生应该如何或是否重返教室的争论也越来越激烈，前副总统和民主党候选人乔·拜登星期五下午，他提出了“安全重开学校的路线图”，呼吁国会提供大量资金帮助学生重返教室。
“每个人都希望我们的学校开放。问题是如何让它安全，如何让它坚持。迫使教育工作者和学生回到教室，回到感染率正在上升或保持很高的地区，这是非常危险的。”录像和他的计划一起发布。
这位前副总统在他的路线图中列出了五个重点领域，包括确保学校有足够的资金让学生进行面对面学习，呼吁特朗普和参议院共和党人为当地学区拨款580亿美元，以稳定众议院通过的公共教育英雄法案。
拜登还呼吁追加300亿美元的紧急资助计划，以“确保学校拥有有效适应COVID-19所需的额外资源。”
“这一一揽子计划应包括资助儿童保育提供者和公立学校——特别是第一类学校和印度学校——购买个人防护设备;公共健康和卫生产品;监护和保健服务;和交通的改造。”
拜登在一次采访中说:“如果你没有这个能力，我认为开办这所学校太危险了。”采访本周，提到了学校为学生和老师创造一个社会远程学习环境的能力。“这就是为什么我们需要一些国家领导人来制定开办学校的条件，以及使学校安全的因素。”
除了紧急资金，拜登还呼吁拨款40亿美元用于技术改进，包括宽带互联网接入。
2019年7月5日，在休斯顿，民主党总统候选人乔·拜登在全国教育协会强有力的公立学校总统论坛上讲话。大卫·菲利普/美联社档案
这位前副总统的计划还将通过疾病控制中心和其他联邦机构，创建“基本的、客观的标准，指导州、部落和地方官员决定是否以及如何在他们的社区安全地管理重新开放”，并创建一个由白宫领导的倡议，以制定政策解决方案，解决低收入学生和有色人种社区的教育差距问题，这些问题在冠状病毒大流行中成为焦点。
拜登的计划出台之际，特朗普总统和他的政府正大力推动学校在今年秋季全面复课，尽管公众健康担忧挥之不去，几个州的COVID-19病例激增。
周四，白宫新闻秘书凯丽·麦克纳尼(Kayleigh McEnany)表示，“科学不应该成为学校复课的绊脚石”，并坚称在学校复课的辩论中，科学站在了白宫一边。
“科学站在我们这边。我们鼓励各地区和各州仅仅遵循科学，开放我们的学校。这对我们的孩子非常有害。”
疾病控制和预防中心(疾控中心)本月早些时候发布了重新开放的指导方针，建议学校将课桌间隔六英尺，关闭公共区域，如食堂和操场，并让孩子们使用口罩和学校。
但是那些指导方针是迅速受到批评被特朗普总统形容为“非常强硬”和“昂贵”，导致疾病预防控制中心开始着手起草一套新的建议，但尚未公布。
在该计划附带的一份情况介绍中，拜登的竞选团队严厉批评特朗普政府未能足够快地制定出一个计划来控制病毒，以便让学生安全返回教室，并主张采取一种谨慎的方法，让各州和各地区有一定的灵活性。
“我们有一个窗口来解决这个问题。特朗普搞砸了。他的政府没有听从专家的意见，没有采取必要的措施来减少我们社区的感染。结果，案件爆炸了。”“如果我们做错了，我们将冒着生命危险，让我们的经济和国家倒退。”
周五，拜登的计划受到了全国教育协会(NEA)的赞扬，该协会是美国最大的工会，支持拜登的初选，并抨击了特朗普总统和教育部长Betsy DeVos。
“我们的学生和教育工作者的安全不应该是政治性的，但可悲的是我们再次看到唐纳德·特朗普NEA大学校长莉莉·埃斯科森·加西亚周五写道:“贝西·德文斯威胁说，如果学校不屈服于他们的欺侮，就不给学校拨款，这是在拿我们的学生和教育工作者的生命开玩笑。”
她补充说:“拜登正在听取全国各地家长和教育工作者关于如何安全重开学校的意见，同时听取医生和当地公共卫生官员的意见，以确定何时何地重开校舍是安全的。”
该计划出台之际，美国最大的两所公立学校系统已经宣布，在疫情持续的情况下，将对其学年进行重大调整。
本周早些时候，洛杉矶宣布，8月18日复课时，学生们将无限期地远离学校。
纽约市上周宣布，到9月份，纽约市计划以混合模式开始新的一年，学生们可以亲自到校，也可以在线到校。
Biden launches ‘roadmap’ for reopening schools as Trump calls for return to the classroom
As back-to-school time inches closer and the debate over how --or if-- students should return to classrooms this school year rages on, former vice president and presumptive Democratic nomineeJoe Bidenlaid out his “roadmap to reopening schools safely,” Friday afternoon, calling on Congress to provide an influx in funding to help get students back into the classroom.
“Everyone wants our schools to be open. The question is how to make it safe, how to make it stick. Forcing educators and students back into a classroom, into areas where the infection rate is going up or remaining very high is just plain dangerous,” Biden said in avideoreleased along with his plan.
The former vice president laid out five areas of focus in his roadmap, including insuring schools have the funding needed to allow for in-person learning for students, calling on Trump and Senate Republicans to allocate the $58 billion for local school districts to stabilize public education that was included in the House-passedHEROES Act.
Biden also calls for an additional $30 billion emergency funding package to “ensure schools have the additional resources they need to adapt effectively to COVID-19.”
“This package should include funding for child care providers and public schools — particularly Title I schools and Indian schools — for personal protective equipment; public health and sanitation products; custodial and health services; and alterations to building ventilation systems, classrooms, schedules, class size, and transportation,” Biden’s plan stipulates.
“If you don't have that capacity, I think it’s too dangerous to open the school,” Biden said in aninterviewthis week, referring to schools’ ability to create a socially distant learning environment for students and teachers. “That's why we need some national leadership to lay out what the conditions for opening schools, and what makes them safe.”
Along with the emergency funding, Biden also calls for $4 Billion to be allocated for technology improvements, including broadband internet access.
The former vice president’s plan would also create “basic, objective criteria to guide state, tribal, and local officials in deciding if and how reopening can be managed safely in their communities,” through the Centers for Disease Control and other federal agencies, and create a White House-led initiative to craft policy solutions that address gaps in education for low income students and communities of color that have come into focus amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s plan comes amid a strident push from President Trump and his administration for schools to fully reopen this fall despite lingering public health concerns and a surge in COVID-19 cases across several states.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued that “[t]he science should not stand in the way,” of schools reopening, and asserted that the science is on the White House’s side in the debate over schools reopening.
“The science is on our side here. And we encourage for localities and states to just simply follow the science, open our schools. It’s very damaging to our children,” McEnany said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released guidelines earlier this month for reopening amid coronavirus concerns, advising schools to keep desks placed six feet apart, to close communal areas like cafeterias and playgrounds and to have children use face coverings and schools.
But those guidelines wereswiftly criticizedby President Trump as “very tough,” and “expensive,” leading the CDC to begin working to craft a new set of recommendations, which have yet to be released.
In a fact sheet accompanying the plan, Biden’s campaign excoriated the Trump administration for failing to craft a plan quickly enough to get the virus under control so that can get students back into the classroom safely, and advocated for a cautious approach that gives states and localities flexibility.
“We had a window to get this right. And, Trump blew it. His administration failed to heed the experts and take the steps required to reduce infections in our communities. As a result, cases have exploded,” the fact sheet stated. “If we do this wrong, we will put lives at risk and set our economy and our country back.”
Biden’s plan was praised Friday by the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest labor union which endorsed Biden’s primary campaign, who slammed President Trump and Education SecretaryBetsy DeVos.
“The safety of our students and educators shouldn’t be political, but sadly once again we seeDonald Trumpand Betsy DeVos are playing politics with the lives of our students and educators by threatening to withhold funding from school that don’t give in to their bullying,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García wrote Friday.
“Biden is listening to parents and educators across the nation about how to reopen schools safely, while listening to the doctors and local public health officials to determine when and where it is safe to reopen school buildings,” she added.
The plan also comes as two of the nation’s largest public school systems have already announced significant adjustments to their school years amid the ongoing pandemic.
Earlier this week, Los Angeles announced that when classes resume Aug. 18, students will be fully remote indefinitely.
Come September, New York City plans to begin the year with a hybrid model, with students attending school both in-person and online, the city announced last week.
