hoping to prevent another school year from being upended by the pandemic president joe biden visited a washington middle school friday to push his new covid plan accusing some republican governors of being cavalier with the health of childrenbidens plan announced a day earlier would require vaccinations for up to 100 million americans and seek to ramp up virus testing with those measures in place he said schools should present little risk for transmission of the coronavirusi want folks to know that were going to be ok biden said during an appearance at brookland middle school a short drive from the white house we know what it takes to keep our kids safe and our schools openbut as the surging covid19 delta variant casts uncertainty over the start of a new school year in some cases prompting schools to shut down after a few days its unclear whether bidens plan will go far enough to prevent mass disruption biden has little direct authority over most schools which are generally governed at the local level and his plan faces sharp resistance from republicansunder his expanded vaccine mandate all employers with more than 100 workers must require them to get shots or test for the virus weekly a separate provision requires vaccines for workers in head start programs and at schools operated by the federal government affecting about 300000 workersthe plan does not explicitly require vaccines for teachers in locally governed schools but some education leaders believe the employer rule will effectively amount to a teacher vaccine requirement in many statesthat part of the plan is being enacted through a forthcoming rule from the occupational safety and health administration and in states with osha plans teachers will be among those required to get the vaccine or face testing according to an interpretation by aasa an association of school superintendentsits expected to apply to 26 states including several with republican governors who opposed bidens plan such as south carolina tennessee and arizonabiden did not address that aspect of his plan on friday instead he urged states to issue their own vaccine requirements for school workersabout 90 of school staff and teachers are vaccinated we should have that at 100 biden said im calling on all of the governors to require vaccination for all teachers and staffgovernors in a few states have already ordered teachers to get vaccinated including in california oregon new jersey and new york but most leave it up to school districts and some republicanled states have barred vaccine mandatesbiden on friday rebuked republican governors who vowed to fight his new rulesi am so disappointed that particularly some republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids so cavalier with the health of their communities he said were playing for real here this isnt a gamebut most of his remarks struck a more conciliatory tone than a thursday speech in which biden vented his own frustrations with those who remain unvaccinated he returned to a