Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told his former presidential primary rival to reopen schools, saying President Biden should be “willing to use the bully pulpit” to get children back in the classroom.
Bloomberg faulted teachers unions for having “stymied” the push to reopen schools and offered Biden a blueprint to navigate the situation.
“After reviewing data from multiple studies in the U.S. and abroad, the [Center for Disease Control and Prevention] has concluded that in-person schooling poses very little risk of coronavirus transmission as long as basic safety precautions are followed,” Bloomberg wrote in a Detroit News opinon article Friday. “That should send a clear message to governors, mayors and teachers union leaders: It’s time to open the schools.”
The article, titled “School reopenings are Biden’s first big test,” called returning students to in-person learning “a national priority.”
“To help more districts reopen, President Joe Biden should reassure union leaders that he takes teacher safety seriously. But he also needs to apply some pressure to states and cities,” Bloomberg said. “Funding from previous relief bills … has helped schools to pay for [safety precautions]. … But he should be clear that this is a two-way street. The government will do everything it can to ensure classrooms are safe; in return, school districts must prioritize getting back at their desks.”
He added: “In Chicago — which has one of the country’s largest school systems, and where more than 75% of students are economically disadvantaged — the union has simply defied the city’s reopening plans. In Montclair, New Jersey, the local union is blocking even two-day-a-week instruction. In Fairfax County, Virginia, the union got teachers moved to the front of the line for vaccines — and then decided that in-class instruction shouldn’t resume until vaccinations were ready for students.”
As mayor, Bloomberg had a history of confrontation with teachers unions. During a press conference in 2007, the then-mayor compared the United Federation of Teachers to the National Rifle Association when fielding questions about his school reform plan, which was widely panned by teachers unions.
“You always do have the problem of a very small group of people who are single-issue-focused having disproportionate percentage of power. That’s exactly the NRA,” he said, adding that critics of his proposal were “selfish.”
In 2011, Bloomberg suggested firing half of New York City’s teachers to “weed out all the bad ones,” which would free up the budget to double the pay of the remaining educators.
During his failed 2020 presidential run, Bloomberg called for a $15 minimum wage, ending right-to-work laws, and reclassifying “gig economy” workers so that they can unionize.
