3-Foot Rule Still Isn’t Good Enough for Teacher Unions

When many schools began to open back up during Covid, many teacher unions refused. The excuse given was that the 6-foot rule was just too difficult to follow. When done, there wasn’t enough room in the classrooms for all the students to properly social distance.

“It was a real challenge to be able to bring students back four days with a six-foot distance requirement,” the board president, Melissa Ellis, said.NEW YORK TIMES

However, with Covid cases declining as the vaccination rate increases, new findings show that 3-foot distancing can be just as effective as 6-foot distancing if proper mask-wearing is followed as well. Even though this is the case, union officials still refuse.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest educators’ union, said in a statement that she would “reserve judgment” on the new guidelines pending further review of research on how the virus behaves in schools, especially those in cities or that are under-resourced. Becky Pringle, president of the largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, raised similar concerns.NEW YORK TIMES

To read the full article, go here.