Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Monday on “Fox and Friends” that President Joe Biden should demand that teachers unions reopen schools across the country.
“All President Biden has to do is grow some oranges, stand up and say to the unions, ‘No, we’re going back to school, we’re going back to school. And I’m not asking you. I’m telling you,’” Kennedy said. (RELATED: Andrew Yang Blames Teachers Union For Slow Reopening Of New York Schools)
Sen. John Kennedy Appeared on Fox and Friends Monday (Screenshot/Fox News)
“I think the unions are holding out for more pay,” the Louisiana senator alleged. “In the meantime, our children get hurt. And what’s so avoidable and a shame about all this is that President Biden can fix it. He says he’s the teacher — the education president and talks about Dr. Biden, who is — his spouse, a very accomplished woman. But they don’t do anything about it, and they could.”
Several school districts across the country have been slow to reopen classrooms amid pressure from teachers unions, even as Americans receive vaccinations and COVID-19 cases decrease.
The Chicago Teachers Union stalled reopening schools back in March by instructing its members not to reveal if they have been vaccinated, as previously reported. The Fairfax Education Association (FEA) announced that students could resume classes when teachers received vaccinations, before saying that all students had to receive the vaccination to resume in-person learning. San Francisco’s City Attorney Dennis Herrera had planned to sue the San Francisco Board of Education and San Francisco Unified School District for not establishing a transparent plan to move toward classroom-based instruction.