Reopening Schools: Senator Patty Murray Says Congress Needs to Step Up

Secondly, I think not a lot of them actually talk to people with kids at home. I know what it’s like. I feel it in every fiber of my body. I’ve been in a classroom. I have family who are teachers. I have my own daughter who’s got kids in school and is trying to work like you are. I just think that too many members of the Senate, Republicans, don’t see the urgency of that. I do not understand it. Who the heck are they talking to?

Days, weeks and months have gone by and the planning wasn’t done; the resources aren’t there. We are entering a time when there’s going to be a lot of parents in tears.

How much do you think the lack of urgency is rooted in old ideas about gender and sexism? Or do you think it’s really just ignorance about the economic realities faced by most American households?

That’s such a good question, Lisa. Unless you live it, you don’t know the stress of it. It is an unneeded stress of child care that we have in this country. I don’t know if the word’s sexism — it probably is. Women, when they go to work, do not want to complain about or express concern about child care or school because they feel, in their heads, that if they bring that up as an issue, they will be replaced by a man because it’s, quote, “easier for their employer.”

So it’s been an unspoken issue that has caused stress for families for a long time. And this pandemic has just ripped it open because not only are they dealing with the stress of schools, kids, and all that, but they’re working at home, too.

You have a daughter and two young granddaughters. Have you helped out with child care?

It’s hard because I’m on the wrong side of the country. But we talk all of the time. And I know what she’s dealing with, and I know what families are dealing with and I know how important this is. It just has to be dealt with as a country. We just can’t continue down this course.

So can you assure your daughter, your constituents and all Americans that Congress is going to give the schools what they need to reopen safely?