Calls to reopen classrooms growing louder
State leaders around the U.S. increasingly are pushing for schools to reopen this winter — pressuring them, even — as teachers begin to gain access to the vaccine against the raging pandemic.
Ohio’s governor offered to give vaccinations to teachers at the start of February, provided their school districts agree to resume at least some in-person instruction by March 1.
In Arizona, where teachers began getting shots this week, the governor warned schools that he expects students back in the classroom despite objections from top education officials and the highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate in the nation over the past week.
“We will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in a perpetual state of closure,” Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said. “Children still need to learn, even in a pandemic.”
The U.S. recorded an all-time oneday high of 4,327 deaths Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation’s overall death toll from COVID-19 has topped 380,000, closing in fast on the number of Americans killed in World War II.
Confirmed infections have reached about 23 million.
President-Elect Joe Biden initially pledged to reopen a majority of the nation’s schools within his first 100 days but recently revised the goal to most of the country’s K-8 schools. He has said teachers should be eligible for vaccinations as soon as possible after those who are at highest risk.
Some states aren’t waiting, but the process can be scattershot.
Meika Mark, a ninth-grade English teacher in Orange County, N.Y., got vaccinated Tuesday at a hospital, using a link a friend texted her.
“It’s just word of mouth: ‘Here’s a link and hopefully you get a slot,’ ” said Mark, who contracted the virus in March and spent the rest of the school year teaching remotely. “I know of a woman who had her husband sit in front of a computer literally all day and just click the refresh button until an appointment came up.”
Mark, 34, is doing some in-person teaching and is grateful for the added layer of protection.
“I don’t want to go through it again,” said Mark, who still has headaches from her bout with COVID-19.
High school band director Michael Crookston was among the first teachers to get a vaccination in Utah, which is among the earliest states to give priority to educators. Crookston has been in the classroom since the new school year began, despite having diabetes, which puts him at greater risk from the coronavirus.
“It’s been a thing I’ve been looking forward to, a little bit like Christmas,” said Crookston, who teaches at Davis High School, north of Salt Lake City, where he used a parent’s donation to buy 12 air filters for his band room, as well as face masks and covers on students’ instruments.
An estimated 10.3 million Americans have received their first shot of the vaccine, or about 3 percent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s an increase of 1 million from the day before, indicating that the vaccination drive is ramping up after a slow start.
But the U.S. still is well short of the hundreds of millions who experts say will need to be inoculated to vanquish the outbreak.
New York state expanded vaccine eligibility to teachers this week. But in New York City, the nation’s largest school district, with 1.1 million students, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that while that opens up “a world of possibility,” middle and high schools will remain closed indefinitely.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed a $2 billion plan to pay for testing, protective equipment and other safety enhancements to reopen the lowest grades as soon as Feb. 16.
But educators said it’s too soon to know when California’s 600,000 teachers can expect to be vaccinated. Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said vaccinations have to come first, then schools can talk about reopening.
“We cannot put our own lives, the lives of our students, and our communities at risk during what is clearly an escalating crisis in our state,” he said.