Ayanna Pressley: ‘We Should Not Rush to Reopen Schools’

RUSH EXCERPT:

PRESSLEY: “ Jake, I represent the Massachusetts seventh congressional district, the hardest hit district in our commonwealth. Chelsea in particular, highest infection rates per capita. I am in daily conversations with superintendents, with educators, and with students and the fear and the trauma is real. We cannot move too quickly on this. The consequences on too great to consider. This is about the public health. What needs to happen is Congress needs to continue to act as the conscience of this nation and to lead in the absence of this Trump Administration to provide reoccurring payments and to mitigate the burdens that families are feeling. To continue to address food insecurity. But we should not rush to reopen schools. I do want to take a moment to just salute our educators. They have already proven themselves to be courageous and dedicated educators. We are now asking them to be caseworkers and in some instances martyrs. And that is unconscionable. Again, we need to pass the heroes act which makes massive federal investments to support the re-opening of our schools when it is safe and this virus is under control. In the meantime we just reported out an infrastructure bill which makes those investments in broadband and other resourcing. But our greatest wealth as a nation is our health. And that needs to be a priority.”