Battle over COVID-19 school openings goes to the courts

The Hill ^ | John Kruzel | John Kruzel

[yesthatjallen]

Teachers unions are waging court fights across the country aimed at unwinding what they say are unsafe and politically motivated timetables for reopening schools that risk exposing personnel to the coronavirus pandemic.

State officials eager to ramp up brick-and-mortar school buildings are facing lawsuits from Florida to Texas to Iowa over reopening plans as well as access to the COVID-19 infection data needed to monitor the rate of spread within school communities.

At the same time, lawsuits are flying from the opposition direction: Parents in several states including New York, Massachusetts and Oregon, dissatisfied with web-based teaching alternatives, are suing to force state officials to reopen physical schools sooner, as courts are increasingly called upon to referee the fight over education in the age of coronavirus.

“A legal storm is brewing as safety and social distancing requirements for a physical return to school begin to take shape around the country,” Maria Ferguson, executive director of the Center on Education Policy at George Washington University, wrote on the education website The 74.

As millions of students prepare for the first day of school — whether in-person, remote or a hybrid of the two — the fight over the reopening physical school buildings is likely to intensify.

The debate over in-person K-12 instruction planning is inseparably tied to the issues of child care needs and parents’ ability to return to the workforce to help revive the struggling economy, all of which is playing out against the backdrop of fast approaching November election in a country that has seen nearly six million cases and more than 181,000 deaths from COVID-19.

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[lastchance]

It is safe for schools to open because younger students are at a very, very, low risk for passing on the virus or for catching it. The risk of catching the flu is much higher and schools don’t close for that. I have no problem with teachers who are high risk because of age or underlying health concerns being permitted to teach online. But your average healthy adult teacher needs to get back to work.