Miami-Dade School Board stands tall in face of thuggish threat from the state | Editorial

After hours of discussion, and for the umpteenth time in recent months, the Miami-Dade School Board tackled on Tuesday how to return to the schoolhouse model of learning.

But this time, board members did it under what they believed was a veiled threat — not from coronavirus fears, but from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.

In a stern letter, Corcoran instructed the nation’s fourth-largest district to reopen its school doors by Monday, Oct. 5 or be prepared to justify exemptions on a school-by-school basis by Friday — oh, and also face the possibility of having state funding withheld. What appalling thuggery.

“The commissioner never said funding would be cut, but the commissioner kind of implied it,” said Miami-Dade School Board Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman.

Board members voted last week on a softer reopening timeline of Oct. 14-21, providing more time to prepare schools, which have been shuttered since March. But the state said do that and risk facing a budget shortfalls of anywhere between $20 million to $300 million.

After six hours of discussion and permission from Corcoran, the School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a smarter timeline proposed by Carvalho with amendment from Vice Chair Steve Gallon III: Some students, including kindergartners and those with disabilities, will return to class on Monday, as the state demanded, and other students will continue to do so on a staggered basis until Friday, Oct. 9.

Of course, not all students will be walking into a classroom next week. Physical school is opening for those who want to return; those who don’t can continue online learning at home. The district solicited parents’ preferences. Those wishing to return and those who want to stick with online learning are split about 50-50, the district has said.

Yet another crisis averted, the latest in a long line.

We commend the School Board and Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho for struggling through one of the district’s most trying periods, made worse recently by an online school platform that sputtered, angering teachers, student, teachers and the Board.

The last thing the nine-member board needed as it tries to cope with the pandemic and the education of 300,000 students, was to deal with such a threat, indirectly from Gov. DeSantis, who last week suddenly announced the state was reopening and moving into Phase 3 — come hell or higher COVID infection numbers. No surprise there. And he wants schools to follow suit. The governor based his decision to reopen on two weeks of lower all-around new infection and death numbers. But this virus is a tricky monster. We can’t let the politics of looking “normal” lull us into thinking it’s all over.

For the exhausted Board, the threat of losing millions in state funding wasn’t the only thing looming large at Tuesday meeting.

Many teachers and parents say it is not safe yet to return to physical school.

In fact, as the board discussed the issue, teachers demonstrated outside against Monday’s reopening. The leadership of United Teachers of Dade said they have visited schools, and they are far from being ready for social distancing and adequate medical checkpoints. They also say they resented the state forcing its timeline on the district. We all should.

The state, led by DeSantis, has been, by turns, in denial and a bully. What it hasn’t been is truly committed to saving lives.

This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 6:00 AM.