The suburban revolt against shuttered public schools is becoming a massive headache for President Biden, with Republicans seizing a fresh opportunity to turn the coronavirus into a political liability for the White House and put Democrats on their heels in future elections.
Signs demanding public schools to open for in-person instruction are popping up in front yards all over suburban Northern Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Teachers unions, staunch Democratic allies, are resisting a return to campus despite the availability of COVID-19 vaccines. As the pandemic rounds the corner on Year One, frustrated parents are losing their patience, particularly in suburbs that backed Biden over former President Donald Trump in November.
Republicans are moving to make the Democrats pay in a crucial gubernatorial election this year in Virginia; in a possible special election to recall California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom; and in campaigns to recapture the House and Senate in midterm elections in 2022. The effort launched with coordinated attacks on Biden, charging that he sided with teachers unions and abandoned a campaign promise to reopen public schools in his first 100 days.
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, mentioned the topic repeatedly Wednesday during a video news conference with reporters. Democrats, he said, “want to talk about anything but the issues of the day. For instance, opening our schools and getting our kids back to school,” adding later in the discussion that “the issue is getting our kids back in school.”
Perceived mismanagement of the coronavirus was perhaps Trump’s biggest problem in 2020, and Biden’s job approval ratings in the first weeks of his administration are high: 54.3% overall in the RealClearPolitics average and 51% for his handling of the pandemic, per a YouGov poll conducted between Saturday and Tuesday for the Economist. But Republicans believe the schools issue could puncture Biden’s armor if he does not pressure teachers unions and show more commitment to opening classrooms.
Republican strategists studying the issue emphasize that extended campus closures could damage Biden with an important part of his coalition, moderate suburbanites who turned against Republicans in the Trump era. That would make thin Democratic majorities in the House and Senate extra vulnerable next year, even though other issues on which the president is more vulnerable, such as immigration, might appear to loom larger as potential 2022 challenges.
“Biden’s union allies don’t seem to be acting in the most altruistic manner,” said Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini. “It’s easy to see a storyline developing that [the administration is] slow-walking reopening at the behest of special interest supporters who don’t have kids’ best interests at heart.”
Recent developments are bolstering Republican messaging.
After the Centers for Disease Control, now under Biden’s leadership, declared conditions safe for students and teachers to return to campus, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that was not the administration’s position. Psaki defined Biden’s 100-day commitment to the resumption of in-person education as at least 50% of public schools open at least one day per week, although she made clear the president will “not rest until every school is open, five days a week.”
Democrats reject Republican claims that they are kowtowing to the teachers unions, sidelining students and their parents because the labor organizations are major donors to their campaigns. “We want to reopen schools as quickly as possible,” said Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.
John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, said the Republicans’ strategy crumbles under scrutiny. Republicans in Congress are almost unanimously opposed to the president’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, dubbed the American Rescue Plan. The bill directs billions to schools so that they can invest in necessary health and safety precautions related to the pandemic. The existing Republican counterproposal, which is not even a consensus GOP alternative, would spend much less.
“His $170 billion commitment in the American Rescue Plan shows how much of a priority this is. The GOP plan had only $20 billion,” Anzalone told the Washington Examiner in an email. “So, if you are serious about opening schools as soon as they can safely be open, you have to give the schools and districts the support they need. Biden is the one who is trying to do that.”
Early in the pandemic, parents were supportive of remote learning, eager to protect their children from the coronavirus and understanding of the health risks to teachers.
Those opinions have evolved as COVID-19 became less mysterious — and especially with the proliferation of vaccines since late in the fall. With health concerns ebbing, many parents are eager for their children to return to school. They believe that the quality of education provided by virtual instruction is dismal and worry about the social isolation that accompanies remote learning, as well as the negative impact it has had on their children’s mental health.
Those anxieties were palpable during a mid-January focus group of suburban Virginia parents, conducted virtually, by the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies.
“My kids are straight A students and struggling to keep B grades or doing less. They are not motivated and depressed,” said a father from Chesapeake, in southeastern Virginia, who participated in the session. Some parents are beginning to view teachers unions as the problem. “They are a complete obstacle,” a mother from Fairfax, in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., offered. “No preventative measures will be good enough for the unions.”
Democrats are feeling the heat.
From coast to coast, mayors and governors have begun pressing teachers to return to the classroom. Last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat termed out of office this year, issued a strongly worded request, though not a demand, that all public schools reopen by mid-March. Asked if Democrats are prioritizing teachers unions over parents and students, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine disputed the premise of the question, pointing to Northam.
“In Virginia, we’ve got a Democratic governor and two Democratic houses [of the legislature,] and basically, we’re coming back in on March 15,” Kaine said. “You can’t say the Democrats are tied to not wanting to reopen.”
Most congressional Republicans, and many GOP governors, have supported reopening public schools since last fall.
Naomi Lim contributed to this report.
