DeSantis stresses parental choice, gives slack to school districts in address to state

Gov. Ron DeSantis made his case on Wednesday to reopen schools despite the rising pandemic and pushback from school districts, educators and parents.

Fear and anxiety were the common theme throughout DeSantis’ 6½-minute livestreamed address. He acknowledged parental choice and gave slack to school districts to deal with their own situations.

“Fear doesn’t help us combat the virus,” he said. “The stress and apprehension it fosters just makes our health situation worse and knocks society on its heels.”

The governor spoke on a day when the state recorded the deaths of 139 Floridians from COVID-19 — including a 9-year-old girl from Putnam County, now the youngest Floridian to die from the virus.

In Miami-Dade County, the latest totals stood at 92,345 cases and 1,342 deaths.

DeSantis added that caring for vulnerable communities has to be balanced with a functioning state.

“We cannot do one to the exclusion of the other,” he said, going on to commend Floridians for following state guidelines to curb the virus. “Please keep it up. It will pay dividends.”

The governor then pivoted to the topic of schools, and gave what he called “the hard truth”: that children “are at the least risk of the virus” and that kids play the “smallest role in transmission of the virus.”

A South Korean study found that “children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults do,” reported The New York Times.

“Yet it is our kids who have borne the harshest burden of the controlled measures instituted to protect against the virus,” DeSantis said.

He questioned how safe it is to keep schools closed, saying that option will exacerbate existing achievement gaps, lead to more kids dropping out of school, disproportionately impact the least economically affluent Floridians, foster more social isolation, depression and anxiety, harm students with special needs and deprive students of the abilities to engage in sports and other activities.

“I believe we owe every Florida parent a choice to send your child back to school for in-person instruction, or to opt to maintain distance learning,” he said. “Yet I also understand the apprehension that some parents may feel,” and that no parent should be required to send their child to school if they don’t want to.

He said special accommodations must be made for students with significant health issues who may be more at risk.

DeSantis said he supports teachers and wants them to be safe, and that he is confident that the same accommodations made in hospitals and grocery stores could be made in the classroom. But he said those at higher risk or who just feel uncomfortable with in-person instruction should be given the option of working remotely.

“Why force someone to be in the classroom if they’re uncomfortable doing so?” he said. “Let’s just find a way to make do.”

He said if school districts need to delay the start of school to make accommodations, “have at it.”

Miami-Dade County Public Schools recently adopted eight criteria that must be met to reopen brick-and-mortar schools. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a recent interview with the Miami Herald that not all criteria must be met to reopen schools, but most.

After parents participating in a survey were almost evenly split between sending their children back to school or keeping them home for distance learning, teachers are now filling out a survey of their own, though some say the survey doesn’t have clear options.

Several school districts along the Treasure Coast and in the Panhandle, Southwest Florida and Tampa Bay areas have opted to push back their school start dates. Miami-Dade tossed that idea around at last week’s School Board meeting, but Carvalho said the school district has an advantage by already having a later start date of Aug. 24.

“Let’s not let fear get the best of us and harm our children in the process,” DeSantis said, ending the announcement.

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 6:13 PM.