Why is Broward forcing sick teachers to go back to school?

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“If teachers have documentable illnesses that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, why should they have to return to the classroom? I know Broward teachers lost this lawsuit but it seems unethical.”

— Broward teacher Teachers did lose this one. About 1,700 teachers with conditions such as cancer and heart disease had been approved to teach from home since October, but the district ended this arrangement for most of them on Jan. 8, allowing them to continue only with permission from their principal based on the needs of the school.

The Broward Teachers Union filed a lawsuit against the school district but agreed to settle through arbitration.

The teachers lost on Jan. 25.

District officials say schools need teachers to come back because they are encouraging students to return to classrooms instead of learning at home and believe students will thrive on this in-person instruction.

But only about a third of students are currently learning on campus, so the union argues there should be plenty of opportunity for remote work. There’s an enormous range in that one-third average: At Dillard High in Fort Lauderdale, only 12% of students come into classrooms each day. But neighboring Dillard Elementary has 69% of kids back in class, as elementary parents have shown more willingness to send their students to school buildings.

Meanwhile, teachers’ frustrations mount. Over the past six months, there have been 665 teacher retirements, resignations, terminations or leaves of absence. The previous year there were 428, and the year before that, 540. That’s out of about 14,000 total on the force.

“I read that the College Board is scrapping the SAT subject tests and

SAT essay. How does this affect high school students applying to Florida’s state universities?”

It doesn’t. Florida’s colleges and universities didn’t require these for admission, although they still require the SAT or ACT, a point of controversy as we are the last state in the country to mandate these exams during the pandemic.

Although the test-taking season is over for now, families were reporting sudden closings of SAT and ACT testing centers due to

COVID-19 restrictions. They were driving hours, even out of state, to score sites that were still offering the exams.

Our 12 state universities may be paying the price now. They are seeing losses in applications for the upcoming fall semester that are as low as 50 percent of last year’s totals, although there could be many other reasons, like the pandemic, for the drop in applicants. Still, change does not seem to be on the horizon: These standardized scores are required for Bright Futures scholarships, which cover

100% of tuition and fees at state universities if students get high enough scores on the SAT or ACT. The eligibility rules are written into state law, so they appear immutable.

“Now that the second semester has begun in Broward, are students coming back to school or are most still learning from home?”

Only a trickle has returned compared to last semester. About a third are now in school buildings, up from 27% last month. It’s the lowest in-person learning percentage in the state.

Clearly, many parents are still concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms, even though most studies have shown low transmission rates at schools, especially among the youngest students.

Broward teachers and principals have held parent conferences, sent emails and made phone calls to try to persuade parents that schools are safe and a superior learning environment, but as we can see, the pleas have not made much of a difference.

Second semester starts Feb. 2 in Palm Beach County, so we’ll see then whether their return rate mirrors Broward’s.