When Chicago teachers went on strike last week to protest COVID-19 safety protections in the nation’s third-largest school district, Democratic Party officials leapt into action.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pushed for a quick end to the job action and helped secure rapid tests to entice teachers back to work. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the strikers “abandoned their posts” in “an illegal walkout,” and White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed that students should be in school. The standoff ended with a tentative agreement late Monday.
Nearly two years into a pandemic that shows no signs of waning, Democrats are speaking out more forcefully against COVID-19 school closures, recognizing a rising anger among parents worried that their kids are falling behind. But in doing so, Democrats risk angering some teachers unions, which are advocating for more protections for educators amid a surge in the wildly contagious omicron variant and whose support helped get Democrats elected.
