Reopen schools only if it’s safe and sound
The monumental decision on whether to reopen Miami-Dade schools in August — and how — is not on Wednesday’s School Board agenda, but it’s likely to pop up. After all, how to deal with this pandemic is the district’s most crucial decision in ages.
The burden of deciding whether we continue with online schooling whether we physically return to class — even partially — return to class physically, falls largely on Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the elected members of the School Board, who rely on his counsel.
Carvalho has maintained that he will follow the advice of health experts and the coronavirus dashboard on what is best for the district’s 350,000 students, parents, teachers and staff — and the community. His is the most pragmatic, and empathetic, approach to this scary eventuality, which the The Editorial Board supports.
And that should continue to be Carvalho’s guiding light, despite the reprehensible pressure from Tallahassee and Washington, where President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have threatened to cut funding to schools that don’t reopen this fall. Come on, that doesn’t even fall under their authority, though Florida’s compliant governor and the Republican-led Legislature might somehow, irresponsibly, make it happen. DeVos even suggested, idiotically, that only a few students might die, so what’s the worry?
Miami-Dade public and private schools won’t be able to reopen, as a state order calls for, if the county is still in its Phase 1 reopening stage and experiencing a frightening, record-breaking spike that saw more than 15,000 new cases reported in a single day this week.
The fact is that South Florida is the epicenter of the nation’s — the
— COVID-19 cases. And the start of school is just six weeks away. Making the best decision is a matter of life and death. Literally.
“The academic, social and emotional benefits that result from children being in the schoolhouse are indisputable. However, there continues to be a consensus at the federal and state and local level that individual districts need flexibility to tailor their opening plans, based on regional conditions, in a manner that ensures the health and well-being of students and employees,” Carvalho told the
Editorial Board. Absolutely.
If conditions continue on the same upward trajectory in MiamiDade, Carvalho said he did not foresee public and charter schools being able to resume traditional schooling. And if the county remains in Phase 1 by the start of school on Aug. 24, classes would be held entirely online. That’s a difficult call in light of what is called the “COVID slide” of student learning that can occur with online teaching.
Locally elected school boards ultimately decide whether to open or close schools. The insistence from the state and federal government that they reopen, for the sake of the economy and regardless of the infection numbers, is irresponsible folly.
Carvalho is on the right path, keen to make the most informed decision. On Tuesday, he met with county leaders to determine the criteria to allow a return to the classroom — based on science and the guidance of county health experts.
At a time when we see the coronavirus migrating to children, some of whom have died, the threat that the state or federal government will financially punish school districts for not reopening is bullying at its worst and, possibly, its most deadly.