Just as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and World Health Organization [WHO] announce record numbers of coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 s cases around the United States and the world, 63-year-old Amway Heiress Education Secretary Betsy DeVos demanded that the naton’s K-12 schools reopen the fall. Devos insists that that it’s safe to reopen when infectious disease experts warn against reopening K-12 schools prematurely. “The rule should be that kids go back to school this fall,” DeVos said. DeVos said that hotspots would be “dealt with on a school-by-school or case-by-case basis,” something that sounds logical but runs counter to public health experts. CDC offials said that “if children meet in groups, it can put everyone at risk,’ urging school districts to continue online instruction.
DeVos downplayed the spread of coronavirus, saying that children are the most resilient group to remain free of the infection. “We know that children get the virus at a far lower rate than any other part of the population. There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids been back in school is dangerous to them,” DeVos said. DeVos said it’s not dangerous to children but may be hazardous to teachers, administrators and staff far more vulnerable to the virus than children. When asked by CNN’s Dana Bash about a Texas summer camp where some 1,300 coronavirus cases were linked to childcare facilities DeVos ducked the question “It’s really a matter of paying attention to good hygiene when appropriate and staying apart at a bit of distance socially,” DeVos said. DeVos hasn’t looked at new data from Israel about school reopenings.
Two weeks after open up public schools in Israel Covid-19 swept through classrooms infectin 130 in single school, prompting the government to rescind the reopening order and close down schools. While DeVos talks about elementary-age students having a lowers incidence of infections, it’s possible they’re asymptomatic super-spreaders, passing the infection on to adults. Israeli authorities announced that at least 244 students and school employees have tested positive for the virus, prompting the Ministry of Education to shut down schools indefinitely. Yet DeVos keeps pushing to reopening knowing that it could be a slow motion train wreck, affecting an aging population of school teachers looking forward to retirement in the near future Los Angeles United School District [LAUSD] announced today no reopening this fall.
DeVos should pay attention to Israel’s Ministry of Education that announced today that historic middle school and high school Gymnasium Rehavia tested positive for 116 students and 14 teachers. There’s no reason to believe that things would be any different if not worse in Los Angeles, the epicenter of the virus in the U.S. and the world. An Israeli teacher told NPR that a single seventh-grader tested positive for the virus and quickly shut down the entire grade, forcing other students and teachers to quarantine. “It was a mistake to go back to school in this format,” the unnamed teacher said, fearful that she could lose her job for speaking to the press. Parochial schools like the College des Freres in Jaffa announced that the father-headmaster and some students tested positive for coronavirus, prompting parents to pull their students.
It’s not rocket science to figure out that it’s unsafe for students to return to classroom instruction in Los Angeles and other hotspots around the country. As much as Trump gave DeVos marching orders to reopen schools, parents no longer find the deadly coronavirus a partisan issue when it comes to their children. No matter what the sacrifice of families to keep in-home schooling, even with online assignments by school districts, the risks are too great, especially for teachers, staff and administrators to return to classroom instruction before there’s better treatments and vaccines. Trump touted successful efforts to reopen schools in Sweden, Germany and Norway, saing “schools are open with no problems,” threatening that he “may cut off funding if [US schools do] not open.” Threats like that don’t play well with Democrats or Republicans.
Retrofitting U.S. schools would be prohibitively expensive, especially installing the kinds of filtration systems needed to make air conditioning systems safe. Whatever new guidelines the CDC or WHO offer on reopening schools, the White House can’t force local school districts especially in hot spots like California, Florida, Texas and elsewhere to reopen unless there’s better guidance on controlling the virus. With Florida recording the biggest one-day surge in coronavirus cases over 15,000, it’s premature for Devos to insist one-size-fits-all when it comes to reopening public or private schools. Everyone wants to return to normal but only unless there’s better control. “You have no plan,” said Rep. Ayana Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote on Twitter. “I wouldn’t trust you to care for a house plant, let alone my child,” Pressley told DeVos.
