We are Iowa educators. Only when it's safe should we return to schools. All educating and learning should be done remotely until there are no new cases in our counties for at least the length of the COVID-19 incubation period of 24 days. We demand that our officials implement all the public health and economic relief measures necessary to end this pandemic so that we can get back to our schools as soon as safely possible.

We demand that our cities, counties, states, and federal government implement the public health measures that should have been widely implemented months ago to stop the growth of this pandemic, including but not limited to:

1) Mass testing of both symptomatic and asymptomatic people,
2) Nationwide universal contact tracing, screening, and isolation of new cases,
3) Mandatory mask requirements,
4) Suspension of all non-essential travel, and
5) Suspension of all non-essential business activity.

We demand the economic relief necessary to implement the aforementioned public health measures and to address the urgent needs of working families and our local communities. The federal government has mobilized over $6 trillion to guarantee the profits of the world's largest corporations, and the incomes of the world’s richest people, through this pandemic. By contrast, they have allocated $600 billion--just 10% of what they gave to corporations--to the meager programs that support working families. These priorities are backward, and we must reverse them. In lieu of federal government action, we demand Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa General Assembly fairly tax corporations and the rich to fund the implementation of these measures statewide, including but not limited to:

1) At least $2,000 per month per person and an additional $1,000 per month per child, as Representative Maxine Waters proposed in March;
2) Universal single-payer healthcare throughout the pandemic, as Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Pramila Jayapal proposed in April;
3) Cancellation of all rent and mortgage payments throughout the pandemic, as Representative Ilhan Omar proposed in April; and
4) Quality, emergency shelter for all homeless individuals, and also for essential workers and COVID-19 patients who require quarantine from their families.

This demand does not call for the revocation of these services upon ending the pandemic.

We demand that all education stakeholders collectively negotiate the terms of campus reopening upon completion of these 24 or more days.

We demand increases in school funding needed to afford the following:

1) Additional technology for students to equitably access their teachers’ digital curricula,
2) Licenses for a broad portfolio of state-of-the-art educational applications and subscriptions,
3) Supplemental professional development needed for teachers to become more proficient with these applications,
4) Sufficient, high-grade disposable personal protective equipment for all school staff and students upon return to campus, rigorous cleaning and disinfection, proper ventilation, student and staff schedules designed to ensure small stable groups with at least 6-feet between all people at all times, and remote work and learning for students and staff who choose it until there is a vaccine,
5) Schools staffed with at least one full-time nurse or other health care provider per 750 students (1:225 for medically fragile students) and one full-time counselor per 250 students, to train, teach, and implement public health protocols and trauma-informed practices,
6) Plans to close schools and re-implement equitable remote learning if there are increased cases in the local area, or a newly diagnosed case among staff, students, or their families, and
7) Anything else school staff decide they need to resume effective learning on campus after at least 24 consecutive days of no new cases of COVID-19 in our counties.

*New scientific research findings could potentially add to the above criteria

We demand that our states, counties, cities, and school districts are prepared to resume distance learning in case COVID-19 resurges in our counties. We also demand that federal, state, and local governments are prepared to quickly implement all necessary public health measures in response to a resurgence in our counties.

Our demands for a return to lockdown should not be construed as a demand to police or imprison people leading the struggle against police brutality and systemic racism, an essential activity that studies have shown not to substantially increase the spread of COVID-19. Our demands are intrinsically tied to the movements for racial justice, as Black and Brown communities have disproportionately borne the brunt of this pandemic and will continue to do so if elected officials force students and staff to return to campus before it is safe.

Our elected officials have proven incapable of ending this pandemic by their own volition. They have chosen instead to acclimate the working class to the daily death of our neighbors so they can resume their fairy tales of economic growth. Therefore, it is our responsibility to exercise our power as workers to force our leaders to do what they have refused: end this pandemic.

[Compiled in part from a combination of demands from National Educators United & Refuse to Return]