Dave Grohl rips Trump, DeVos on reopening schools: 'Teachers want to teach, not die'

Dave Grohl thinks the Trump administration's push to reopen schools sure smells like something, but it's not teen spirit.

The rock star this week released an essay in The Atlantic, as well as a "Dave's True Stories" audio episode, praising teachers and ripping President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos while cautioning against reopening schools too soon during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"As much as Donald Trump's conductor-less orchestra would love to see the country prematurely open schools in the name of rosy optics (ask a science teacher what they think about White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's comment that 'science should not stand in the way'), it would be foolish to do so at the expense of our children, teachers, and schools," Grohl says.

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Grohl, whose mother is a retired teacher, reflected on the "whole new set of dilemmas" teachers are facing amid the "ever more politicized" debate about reopening schools, writing, "Most schools already struggle from a lack of resources; how could they possibly afford the mountain of safety measures that will need to be in place?"

The Foo Fighters founder also says that teachers "deserve" a proper plan, calling out the "indecisive and conflicting sectors of failed leadership" in the United States and especially DeVos, asking how she can tell teachers "how to teach, without her ever having sat at the head of a class." Grohl concludes that "teachers want to teach, not die, and we should support and protect them like the national treasures that they are."

Check out Grohl's impassioned defense of teachers here.