The Trump administration is aiming to reopen schools in the US by Fall.
Lack of guidelines from the Trump administration
Critics are pointing out the lack of proper guidelines from the Trump administration on how to ensure the students’ safety as they set to reopen schools this Fall.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos openly supports the Trump Administration’s call for the reopening of schools in the US by Fall. In her statement, she recognizes the data available, in which children are not as vulnerable to the virus, as compared to adults. For DeVos, the COVID-19 is not much of a threat to children if they are bound to return to school.
Apart from her statements, school coordinators and state officials pointed out the lack of important guidelines from the Department of Education with regards to the safety of students from the COVID-19.
DeVos’ department has yet to produce a general guideline for COVID-19 readiness to be implemented in schools from different states in the US. In addition, the education secretary neglect the dangers of transmission from students from school might pass on to the members of their respective households.
On the other hand, House Speaker for the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, criticized the Trump administration over its lack of action in making sure that students’ safety is given priority as schools reopen.
Schools who disobey will be ill-funded
The Trump administration also threatened school administrators on not receiving government funding if they disobey the mandate to reopen schools by Fall.
Trump threatened to dig into school tax exemption statuses and withhold government funding for schools that will defy the mandate to resume physical classes.
So far, as restrictions were slowly lifted in several states in the US, a new surge of COVID-19 cases came in. If the trend continues to fluctuate over the weeks or months, new guidelines should better be imposed to ensure the safety of the public.
DeVos also mentioned in a statement that the Education Department would not come up with its own safety precautions for the reopening of classes. Individually, states and district schools should come up with their own guidelines, depending on the status of COVID-19 in their location.
