Teachers, fearful of returning to classrooms during the pandemic, are facing new encouragement — and new pressure — to go back, raising the prospect that in-person school could resume in many communities before the school year is out.

The Centers for Disease Control recommended Sunday that states prioritize teachers as part of the second group of people eligible for the coronavirus vaccines.

Two days later, Congress cleared a coronavirus aid packagewith $54 billion for K-12 schools, which, if the president signs it, is expected to help pay expenses associated with in-person education. That could include protective equipment such as masks and plexiglass dividers, upgrades to ventilation systems and additional staffing.

And President-elect Joe Biden is pushing for schools to reopen for in-person teaching. His nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, worked to reopen schools in his home state of Connecticut, and all but one of about 200 districts offered some in-person school at some point this fall.

Biden says he wants most schools open by the 100-day mark of his presidency, this spring. “Reopening schools safely will be a national priority for the Biden-Harris administration,” Biden said Wednesday in introducing Cardona, Connecticut’s schools commissioner. He called his 100-day goal “ambitious but doable.”

Adding to the reopen pressure is emerging evidence of deep learning losses among children engaged in remote education and growing data showing the virus is not spreading much inside schools.

More….