Klain: Unions Aren’t Defying Science by Blocking School Openings, Schools Aren’t Making Needed Investments

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain stated that teachers’ unions aren’t “overruling studies” by blocking school reopenings, and “I think what you’re seeing is schools that haven’t made the investments to keep the students safe.”

Host Erin Burnett gave examples of teachers’ unions preventing schools from reopening and asked, “Ron, why do you think that the unions in many cases are overruling what the studies show?”

Klain responded, “I don’t think unions are overruling studies. I think what you’re seeing is schools that haven’t made the investments to keep the students safe. I mean, again, the Wisconsin study were classrooms of 12 on average. So, that requires a lot more classrooms, a lot more teachers, or other kinds of arrangements to get them small, podding students very carefully. So, we need to do the things to open safely. Most of the teachers I talk to, they want to be back in the classroom. They just want to know that it’s safe. And we, as a country, should make the investments to make it safe.”

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