Hybrid school year has 'real' limitations, 'you need a lot more people and yet we've had 20% cuts': AFT President

Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers President, joins Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade with Alexis Christoforous, Brian Sozzi and Aarthi Swaminathan to discuss her take on the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, lack of provided PPE in the classroom and much more.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: New York City schools are back in session-- remotely, that is, while many schools across the country are in-person. But according to a new survey, a majority of both parents and teachers are not comfortable with students starting the school year in person. We want to bring in American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten now, also Yahoo Finance's Aarthi Swaminathan. Good morning to you both.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Randi, thanks for being with us. We know that New York City schools started remotely yesterday. There were some hiccups, some technical glitches. How would you characterize the first day of remote classes? Well, there are no good choices when it comes to remote, and it's not that teachers are not trying to do amazing work like they did in March and April, and just kind of changing everything around. But there are real limitations in terms of remote education.

We've always believed that it should be a supplement, not a substitute, for in-person teaching, which is part of the reason why you see in the poll that we just released yesterday parents and teachers basically are in sync on three things. They're scared about what's happening right now, particularly because of the confusing, undermining, and lack of coherent plan and resources from the federal government. They think that safety should be first.

But they also want, if the schools are safe, 79% of teachers and 71% of parents want in-school learning because of all of the issues in terms of remote. And that's what you're seeing. So you're going to keep on seeing hiccups with remote, whether it's the lack of digital equipment, whether it's-- whether it's the lack of connectivity. But also, even us, as adults, we can be on screen for a few minutes in a very intense way. It's much, much harder with kids, particularly with young kids.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Randi, on the point on teachers, a couple of principals were telling me that they could not find enough teachers to fill the staffing shortage that they're having. I mean, this speaks a lot to New York as the--

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Yeah, they're 9,000-- they're 9,000 people short in New York City.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Yeah, so--

RANDI WEINGARTEN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: No, no. I'm curious, as other district start to open up, how are they going to solve this problem of not finding enough teachers?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, so-- and I'm sorry that I sound so angry about all of this stuff. But all of this was foreseeable to anyone who is a schools person. This is part of the reason why we started fighting for how to reopen schools and the resources back in April. But the issue in terms of not having enough people is that when you have a hybrid model, which is what you need to do because we are still in the middle of a pandemic-- and frankly, the scariest thing of many scary things that I've heard-- the scariest thing I heard from Donald Trump yesterday was the embracing now of herd immunity, which essentially means don't fight the virus and don't protect people.

But what has happened is that you need-- in remote instruction, in a hybrid model, you actually need a lot more people. And yet, we've had 20% cuts in terms of state budgets. So how is a city, like New York or Rochester or Yonkers, going to hire people when it has a state budget cut and when it doesn't even have the money to do all of the safeguards?

The other piece we saw in our poll is 86% of teachers are buying their own PPE already, and 10% of teachers are buying their own PPE for kids. That's 9 out of 10 teachers who are buying their own supplies for a pandemic because the districts can't afford it, even though they are responsible for it.

BRIAN SOZZI: Randi, do you support a vaccine requirement for teachers, and what do you think the level of pushback will be amongst teachers for that?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, look, I-- personally, let me say this. A vaccine requirement is going to be a mandatory subject of bargaining. I think a vaccine requirement is important. It has to be safe. There has to be lots of measures that are taken for it. I think it's different than a flu requirement, which a flu vaccine requirement, which I don't support-- although, I got my flu shot on Sunday and put it on the top of my Twitter, and I am encouraging people to do that.

I think the issue right now in terms of vaccines is it's been so politicized, nobody believes that it's going to be safe. And that is unfortunately interrupting a lot of the conversation. But I, just like I believe in a mask requirement, I believe in a vaccine requirement when it's safe. It has to be done. People have to be able to-- the employers give it, but it has to be safe, and on and on and on.

But the politicization, just like the politicization of masks, are incredibly terrible. We are in a public health pandemic. And last week, when I was on-- I think I was on Fox-- 9/11, I'm from New York City. I watched those planes go into those buildings. I spent that whole day with Board of Education officials getting every single child and teacher out of harm's way.

9/11, even with a President Bush, even with a Mayor Giuliani, we all came together in that crisis. This time, because of the failure of leadership, there's half the country who doesn't believe that there is a COVID pandemic. And that is part of why you see incredible pushback on issues like vaccines.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: Randi, is a teachers strike still on the table? And if that were to happen, how would it be executed? What would that look like?

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Look, we have-- there's been-- teacher strikes may still happen over the course of the next several weeks or months. If you're talking about New York City, there are real problems with the reopening of schools in person. The schools are not ready. And I know that there were lots and lots of conversations yesterday in city hall about this. And I would just say, stay tuned. I think that we'll be hearing something today.

AARTHI SWAMINATHAN: Hey, Randi, just one last, quick question. Private companies are filling in the gap for some of these issues that we're facing. And some conversations I've had with parents are about trust in public education. I'm just wondering, what would you say to these people who are like, ah, maybe we should go to a private school, or--

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Well, that--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

Well, that is exactly what Betsy DeVos wants. So the only mandate-- don't tell me that the federal government couldn't create mandates. She just sent out a mandate last week to maintain the standardized test scores. You could have created all sorts of other mandates or guidance for planning and for resources. But I would actually push back this way-- I thought what Cynthia Nixon did in the "New York Times" was right.

Look at what is going on in terms of private industry about how they are protecting people. We did this within my own office. We spent a million dollars in terms of trying to protect people and get it COVID-ready. And look what is happening in terms of resources in schools. And you tell me that kids are priorities. They're not priorities to this administration. And I'm sorry I'm angry about it.

But how can we rush to help a cruise industry, bars and restaurants, which I think are really important, but not rush to get the resources for kids? Why is it that ventilation and soap, which should have been important forever, are now only important? So yeah, they are trying to actually undermine public education. But what I'm saying-- and I give parents grace all over-- what everyone can do for their kids right now, one should try to do. That's why we've been open about pods. We've been open about other kinds of things.

But ultimately, what we are seeing is that community is needed for kids. We need to try to reopen schools with the safety safeguards. Safety safeguards are non-negotiable. We've got to try to reopen schools because kids need communities. I mean, reopen schools not remotely. They need communities. We need to see our kids. And ultimately, I believe, if we have a new president, then we're going to have a renaissance of public education because people need that community.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFORUS: All right. Well as a mom in New York City, I appreciate your passion. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, best of luck to you and to the thousands of teachers doing great work for us out there during this very difficult time.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Thank you, Alexis. Thank you.