DeSantis chose not to be hero on schools, safety
Gov. DeSantis is where he likes to be — at war with perceived political enemies.
At the moment, it’s a familiar foe — school districts that DeSantis can’t control. Few fights better symbolize his preference for reckless showmanship over governing.
Yet as DeSantis’ attorney argues against the power of local districts to make decisions about masks, the irony is how easily the governor could have been the hero on education during the pandemic. He could have helped the state. He could have helped himself.
Doing so, however, would have meant offending the anti-science zealots who underlie the current Republican Party. Outperforming potential 2024 opponents matters more to DeSantis than doing what’s best for Florida.
A year ago, Florida schools were trying to reopen just after a COVID19 surge had crested. Knowing what was coming after the chaotic switch to remote learning the previous March, DeSantis could have spent the summer asking school districts what resources Tallahassee could offer.
Instead, DeSantis’ henchman — Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran — ordered all schools to reopen with “the full panoply of services.” Each district had to submit a plan, which Corcoran had to approve.
By lecturing about the difficulties of remote learning, especially for low-income students, DeSantis and Corcoran acted as if they were telling teachers something that teachers didn’t already know. It was typical DeSantis: confrontation over cooperation.
So began the hardest year Florida schools ever faced. It became clear before Thanksgiving that all students couldn’t return to classrooms after the holiday break. Corcoran threatened to withhold money for those who didn’t but then backed down.
This summer, Florida’s worst COVID-19 surge began as schools prepared to open. Teenagers had the highest positive test rate. This month, nearly 38,000 cases involved Floridians younger than 19.
The state has banned remote learning. Vaccinations and masks are the only tools to control the spread on campuses and reduce the turmoil that hurts students.
Floridians ages 12 to 29 are the least vaccinated group in the state, though the surge is causing more of them to get the shots. DeSantis touts the rates among older people — 83% for those 60 and up — but has done little to encourage vaccinations for anyone else.
That leaves masks. On July 30, DeSantis banned school districts from enacting mask mandates. To make his case, DeSantis misinterpreted a study by Brown University.
Four days earlier, DeSantis had held a secret meeting with outlier physicians who oppose mask mandates. Then Jacob Oliva, the state’s public schools chancellor under Corcoran, sent superintendents a Wall Street Journal essay by one of the meeting participants.
The prevailing medical view is the opposite. Jeannette Beaudry, a pediatric infectious disease fellow at Johns Hopkins, noted, “The vaccination rate among elementary-age children is zero, which makes it not a question of whether there will be outbreaks if other mitigation measures are not used, but when and how bad.”
In Florida, it’s already happening. “The reason we need masks,” said Palm Beach County School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri, “is to try to keep the virus from spreading when students and staff are infected.”
Florida needs children to be in school. By refusing to let districts make choices based on public health, DeSantis is working against Floridians.
Like other anti-science Republicans, DeSantis also is coddling those whose twisted view of freedom ignores the public good. It’s hard to tell if the rabid anti-maskers sound more selfish or stupid, since no credible research supports the idea that masks harm children.
DeSantis is selfish too. Opposition to COVID-19 mandates may play well on Fox News, but it hurts Florida. More cruise ships might be sailing if DeSantis wasn’t fighting with the industry and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DeSantis boasted recently that, on COVID-19, Florida is doing better than other Southern states. That’s like boasting about being the most sober guy at a bachelor party.
It could have been so different. By working with educators, DeSantis would have impressed people whom Florida Republicans generally dismiss. Business owners would have praised the effort to give parents enough assurance to return to work.
DeSantis, though, sees schools as another sort of campaign issue. Even if he loses on mask mandates, he will win among hardcore Republicans. Children are just props and collateral damage.