Pennsylvania educators say they want to go back to school later this month, but doing so safely requires an investment in resources districts just don’t have – yet.
“$100 million from CARES was a good start,” said Arthur Steinberg, president of the American Federation of Teachers’ Pennsylvania chapter. “Lawmakers should also sign a letter to our U.S. senators to pass the HEROES Act that would give $3.2 billion in education funding in Pennsylvania, too.”
The $3 trillion HEROES Act cleared the U.S. House of Representatives in May with nary a single Republican vote. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the bill as a Democratic wishlist and instead has focused his efforts on the smaller $1 trillion HEALS Act, which devotes about $105 billion to state and local aid – about one-tenth of the relief included in the Democrat-backed package.
“The lack of a coordinated response by our federal government to provide for universal testing, comprehensive contact tracing, adequate PPE, or even a mask mandate has resulted in the deaths of over 150,000 Americans,” Steinberg told the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Policy Committee on Monday. “Asking teachers, students, parents, and communities to resume school as if none of this is happening is irresponsible.”
The meeting took place as lawmakers and bureaucrats in Pennsylvania and across the country struggle with the best way forward to reopen school safely this fall. Some health officials, parents and teachers groups are concerned that reopening to in-person instruction might be inherently unsafe; but many parents also face pressure to return to the workplace and have limited child care options.
Steinberg said his 36,000 members fear in-person instruction while virus case counts continue rising. AFT wants to see sustained transmission and testing positivity rates fall consistently for two weeks before going back into the classroom. Both numbers have been rising across Pennsylvania over the last month.
“We only have one chance to get school reopening right,” he said. “There is no margin of error.”
Steinberg’s comments reflect a common theme among teachers, administrators and local officials struggling with how to reopen schools amid a raging pandemic. While some districts have opted to continue virtual learning through the fall – Philadelphia chief among them – many others said limited access to high speed internet and parents forced to return to work make staying remote impossible.
Jennifer Hoff, board president for the William Penn School District in Delaware County, said chronic underfunding combined with an anticipated $3 million to $5 million loss in local tax revenues means affording the most basic personal protective equipment or implementing virtual learning for each of the district’s 5,000 students has come at great cost.
“We have no idea what our real PPE costs will be,” she said, noting that the lack of funding, combined with vague guidance from the state Department of Education forces districts to make calls better left to public health officials.
“Does someone die if we make the wrong decision?,” she said. “As much as I want to be a responsible leader I feel that we are being set up to fail.”
Dr. William Keough, a member of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said students should not return to the classroom until community transmission of the virus is under control, but argues that districts play an important role in shaping how that resumption happens.
“Ideally, local school leaders, public health experts, educators and parents can work together to decide how and when to reopen schools,” he said. “These decisions must take into account the spread of COVID-19 in the local community, as well as whether their schools can make in-person learning safe.”
Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), said the state’s absence in forming concrete reopening guidelines hasn’t gone unnoticed. PSEA represents more than 180,000 educators and Askey said members want to return, but only if lawmakers can ensure paid leave for COVID-19 exposure and mandate face coverings in school buildings – issues that state officials have been reluctant to enforce.
“We need that [state] commitment and support to continue, perhaps now more than ever,” Askey said. “Local control should not be the absence of statewide consistency … for protocols and mitigation strategies.”
