President Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services was told to take negotiations involving teachers unions into account when rolling out guidance for reopening schools this past February, newly published emails show.
The emails, obtained by Fox News, shed additional light on the cozy relationship between the White House and teachers unions, which many parents have blamed for forcing schools to be closed longer than necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In one email from Feb. 8, four days before the guidance was revealed, HHS official Michael Baker told his colleagues that he had just gotten off a “call with the White House and Department of Education regarding the school reopening guidance” and added that “[w]e have some homework assignments.”
Among those “assignments,” Baker wrote, was to “think about this in the broader context of teacher contract negotiations.”
“Eduardo is going to connect with AJ on some of the mayor/labor union issues that are ongoing across the country,” added Baker — referring to White House COVID-19 intergovernmental affairs director Eduardo Cisneros and AJ Pearlman, chief of staff for COVID-19 response at HHS.