Latest White House COVID Precautions Will Keep Schools Safely Open In-Person, Educators Say

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the White House’s announcement of important new measures to protect communities, schools and workplaces from the spread of COVID-19 variants:

“Students and families need in-person schooling, so our No. 1 priority remains keeping school buildings open for safe and welcoming in-person learning. The Biden administration made the critical investments earlier this year to help educators, parents and administrators get schools reopened in-person, and now, it’s taken the critical steps needed to keep our school buildings open safely. In the wake of multiple COVID-19 variants, we have learned a great deal about the strategies that help keep our economy and our schools open, and the White House has put those lessons into practice: making testing affordable and accessible and using it more aggressively, ensuring vaccines and boosters are widely available, and bringing the entire education community—and the country—together in this effort.

“Using science-based strategies to combat COVID-19, keep society and schools open, and keep our country safe is exactly what we need from our government. We thank them for delivering.”