Poll: Broward voters willing to delay school reopening

Majority would wait until health, safety guaranteed

Broward County voters largely support waiting to reopen schools to ensure students and teachers will be safe from COVID-19, according to a new poll.

The poll asked likely general election voters if they want to immediately reopen schools “to help students, parents and the local economy” or want to wait “until we can guarantee the health and safety of students, teachers, employees and their families,” according to a release by the Broward Teachers Union, which commissioned the poll.

The results showed 67% of voters in the county supported delaying to ensure health and safety, while 27% favored immediately reopening schools. Half felt strongly about health and safety, but only 20% felt strongly about an immediate reopening plan, the union says.

The poll comes days before the Broward School Board is expected to decide whether to support a recommendation from Superintendent Robert Runcie to open schools for face-to-face learning on Oct. 5. The School Board plans to discuss the matter Tuesday.

“This confirms what we have been saying all along,” said Anna Fusco, president of the union. “Our union’s position has always been that face-to-face learning is optimal, but we can’t safely reopen schools physically until the district has procedures and rules in place that protect students, teachers, school employees and their families.”

Fusco spoke at a joint news conference with United Teachers of Dade calling for a delay to face-to-face learning, a position supported by unions in all three South Florida counties. Palm Beach County plans to open Monday and Miami-Dade by early October.

While state Health Department reports show a decline in new COVID-19 infections over the past month, Fusco was skeptical the numbers are low enough to reopen. She also said the district hasn’t done enough to equip schools with personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and other necessities.

“We are not saying that teachers do not want go back to work,” Fusco said at the news conference in Miami. “They just want to know what they are going back into to make sure they’re safe. And they don’t want to be the cause of spreading it on to one of their students and have them spreading it to their family members.”

The office of Chief Communications Officer Kathy Koch acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide one. On Tuesday, Runcie said state leaders expect the district to open its campuses and many parents want their children back in school.

“In addition to providing instruction, [teachers] provide appropriate supervision to students within our classroom,” Runcie said Tuesday. “It is clear that in order to open our schools, we must have teachers to educate and to provide supervision.”

The poll found that Broward voters trust teachers the most — followed closely by the School Board and Runcie — when making decisions about physically reopening schools safely and looking out for the interests of students, parents and teachers.

The heavily Democratic makeup of the county is evident in the poll, with results showing that 55% view the union favorably, compared to a 32% trust rating for the Trump administration and 36% trust rating for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Trump and DeSantis have both been strong supporters of reopening schools for face-to-face learning.

The poll found that 51% of voters trust the Broward School Board, slightly more than the 48% who trust Runcie.

The poll was conduct by TargetSmart Research Solutions, which interviewed 682 people from Sept. 1-6, with landline and mobile phones, and online after recruiting voters with text and email messages. TargetSmart said the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8%.