Jacobin Radio: Joel Jordan and Constance Penley on Schools Reopening
Jacobin Radio
Jacobin
4.7 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2020
⏱️ 61 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Suzi talks to Joel Jordan and Constance Penley who make the case against school reopening for K-12 and the Universities. <u>JoelJordan</u>,ret<wbr />ired LAUSD teacher and former UTLA strategist, is helping to coordinate a coalition of the largest teacher unions in California who are leading the fight by teachers, parents, and students against school reopening at the K-12 level. The teachers and their allies have won an initial victory -- Los Angeles and San Diego counties have just announced they will not open in the Fall. The resurgence of the deadly pandemic in the region underscores the danger of going back to school until the curve is flattened and the disease brought under control, giving the unions a temporary breathing space. The Trump administration, along with its corporate and political allies, have made reopening the economy the only priority and are stepping up the pressure to reopen so parents can be freed from childcare responsibilities and go back to work. Joel Jordan fills us in on the class-wide counter-organizing that is taking place.Constance Penley, President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations and Professor at UC Santa Barbara discusses the rush to bring students back to campuses at the university level in some form this fall. The issues are somewhat different for higher education than for K-12, but faculties across the board have questioned their institutions, who have presented an ever changing series of plans, rationales and procedures for bringing people back to campus without explaining why this is the right approach -- and more importantly, have left faculty input out of the equation in making the decisions that will affect their livelihood and health security. Constance Penley and the Council of UC Faculty Associations are also fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to force in-person classes by threatening to expel international students who don’t attend physical classrooms. We get her take on what is behind this push and the fight to prevent putting everyone’s health at risk.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 0:09.0 | Today we're going to look at the issues surrounding school reopening, |
| 0:16.0 | first at the K through 12 level with Joel Jordan, |
| 0:20.0 | and then with the rush to bring students back to campuses in some form with Constance |
| 0:25.8 | Henley, and she's going to do it at the university level. |
| 0:29.8 | The push to reopen comes from both the corporate and government sector, though the American Academy |
| 0:36.0 | of Pediatrics has also stated that students do better socially, emotionally, and academically in physical schools. |
| 0:44.1 | Of course, the key in a pandemic that is surging and not leveling |
| 0:48.6 | is safety for all concerned. |
| 0:50.3 | And that means not just students, but teachers, staff, and their families that they go home to. |
| 0:56.7 | So for business and government, the push to reopen is all about the economy and freeing up workers |
| 1:02.0 | from child care so they can return to work. |
| 1:05.0 | At the university level, the issues are somewhat different, but faculties across the board |
| 1:10.1 | have questioned their institutions changing plans, |
| 1:13.0 | rationales, lack of faculty input in making decisions |
| 1:16.4 | that affect their livelihood and health security. |
| 1:19.9 | We're going to talk first to Joel Jordan, |
| 1:21.6 | who is helping to coordinate a coalition of the largest |
| 1:24.4 | teachers unions in the state, about the case against school reopening and some alternatives, |
| 1:30.3 | and then to Constant Penley to get the case for California's universities. |
| 1:34.3 | All this when our program returns in just a moment. This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
| 1:48.2 | This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman. |
... |
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