JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The rush for students to return to school this fall in midst of a global pandemic is taking shape, with the White House turning up the heat on local districts to make it happen.
On Wednesday, Education Secretary Betsy Devos pressed on with the nation’s desire to have schools open full-time for the fall, despite surging hotspots around the country that have left many school districts wondering how that can safely be accomplished.
In the same press conference, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that those in current COVID-19 hotspots should remain steadfast in wearing masks and avoid indoor gatherings to prevent the spread of the virus.
With schools set to begin next month in Florida and districts here scrambling to get things firmed up, that sets the stage for numerous hurdles to clear for individual school districts.
“Ultimately, it’s not a matter of if schools should reopen, it’s simply a matter of how,” DeVos said. “They must fully reopen and they must be fully operational and how that happens is best left to education and community leaders.”
DeVos cited the Fairfax County School District in Virginia, saying that its option for school choice this fall included full-time distance learning or an abbreviated two days a week on campus was creating a “false paradigm” for families. She said that Fairfax’s spring distance learning program was a “disaster.”
“I give this as an example because things like this cannot happen again in the fall, it would fail America’s students, and it would fail taxpayers who pay high taxes for their education,” DeVos said.
The surge in cases in Florida is something that Birx said that her team was studying why the number of positives jumped after easing into reopening. Duval County was sixth in the state on a three-week increase in positive cases, according to Birx.
“When the governor talks about how they were steady and low for a long period of time after reopening, this is where that is reflected for almost five weeks after reopening,” Birx said. “Clearly there was something that happened. We’re looking into across the board because whatever happened in Florida happened across the sunbelt. All of the curves and all of the findings are mirrored.”