NEA President: ‘We Needed to Follow the Science’ on COVID School Closures

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle responded to a question on whether schools stayed closed too long by stating that “we needed to follow the science.”

Co-host Willie Geist asked, “So, with the benefit of some hindsight now, do you believe the schools were closed too long, now what we know that young people tolerate COVID relatively well — or at least better than some and that the schools, in fact, were some of the safest places in communities, should they have been open sooner?”

Pringle responded, “You know, Willie, one of the things that I did in working with schools and educators and parents and community members all over this country, I said that, as we go through a pandemic that no one understood or knew about or knew how to get through, that we needed to follow the science. As a science teacher, that’s where I start. We needed to listen to the disease experts, infectious disease experts, and then we needed to come together to figure out what was best for our students. I actually visited a school in western Pennsylvania with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden…and that school was open in the spring of 2020, and the reason they were able to open is because they did all of those things that I said.”

She continued, “And as we look back on what we decided to do and as we look forward to what we need to do, one thing is true, and that is that we have to accept our shared responsibility for the learning of our students. That’s why we are focused on community schools so they can get the health care and they can get the dentistry they need, they can get the mental health supports, which is a huge issue in our schools. We can make the schools the hub of a community in a powerful way, and we can close, not just the academic gaps, Willie, but we have social and emotional gaps that our students are coming to us every day with, and we need to share that responsibility to give them what they need and what they deserve.”

In October 2020, Pringle said that she had “seen no instances” where local unions had “gone too far” in their conditions for reopening schools, and in February 2021, said that “we’re asking for…the federal government to provide the resources we need, so we can reopen our schools, not only safely, but equitably.” She also argued in February 2021 that students were being asked to go back to school “without getting the proper resources in place.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett