A grim milestone arose in our community as we have crossed the threshold of 4,000 documented cases of the deadly coronavirus, COVID-19. Both the New York Times and NBC News have declared Chattanooga/Hamilton County a national leader in one unglamorous category, a COVID-19 hotbed. Many of our local representatives have failed to listen to the models that were given by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which in June projected a “vigorous resurgence" of COVID-19 by mid-August. It is also worth noting, in May Biobot conducted a wastewater study that projected 12,500 coronavirus infections in the county. We must rely on the data, science and recommendations by our medical officials in order to avert worsening a growing health crisis.
In March, 2020 doctors across the state urged the governor to issue a stay-at-home order and close nonessential businesses in order to mitigate infections. By April these same doctors, including Aaron Milstone, spoke out against reopening too soon by saying, “We have to have an expanded, rapid contact tracing and isolation of cases so that we can break the train of transmission." Likewise, earlier this month, the doctors outlined three areas that might help bend the COVID-19 curve: (1) Issue a mandatory mask requirement and make it enforceable; (2) Ensure businesses are in compliance with Tennessee Pledge and public safety protocols; (3) Grant cities more autonomy in public safety decisions.
As reported in the Nashville Tennessean and several other state media outlets this week, the PROTECTMYCARE Doctors urged against physical school re-openings. One perspective given by Dr. Amy Gordon Bono stated, "We should not rush to reopen our schools without a cautious and comprehensive community plan to reduce the spread of coronavirus." She continued, "More than half of all Tennessee counties have an unacceptable rate of coronavirus transmission. Our state is now experiencing the worst we have experienced under the coronavirus crisis ... to reopen schools is insane and irresponsible."
More proactive strategies are now needed to meet this ever deepening challenge. The Rockefeller Foundation has developed a new testing strategy to not only safely reopen our communities and workplaces, but to keep them open this fall. The plan outlines four recommendations:
1. Resolve diagnostic testing shortages and implement widespread screening testing.
2. Increase the use, speed, public trust, and support services for contact tracing.
3. Strengthen the data infrastructure and use data to drive testing and tracing.
4. Focus public communications on the value of personal safety measures, testing, and tracing.
The intent of this plan is to help map the necessary steps in order to enact robust testing, tracing, and coordination to more safely reopen our economy – starting with a dramatic expansion of testing.
A central issue of the growing pandemic crisis is if it is safe to physically open schools? The Center for American Progress has outlined three principles for school re-openings.
1. Set an ultimate goal of returning safely to in-person instruction based on public health data
2. Make physical reopening decisions based on local health conditions and school-specific information
3. Develop a comprehensive plan for remote learning that includes plans for full-time remote learning and hybrid approaches.
Likewise, the Southern Education Foundation has stressed that equity is a primary consideration during this time when distance and remote learning are being relied upon more now than at any time in history. Those considerations should include:
1. How is your district reaching students and families who don’t have internet access?
2. Do students have access to technology equipment and the internet to engage in distance learning?
3. How is your district supporting students with special needs and English language learners?
4. Are there wraparound services and support your district offers that students and families are no longer receiving?
5. Are teachers given the support they need to adopt developmentally appropriate digital learning practices?
6. What impact is COVID-19 having on students’ and teachers' mental and emotional health?
7. What expectations do you have of parents for distance learning?
The lack of empathy, engagement and empowerment deriving from government agencies is a key contributor to a response that is often muddled and lackadaisical, if not outright startling. On last Sunday, when one Fox News host asked the Secretary of Education about the ethical nature of withholding public funds if schools don't reopen, she replied, "American investment and education is a promise to students and their families. If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn’t get the funds. Then give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise.”
The Unity Group renews our call that we could not be more emphatically opposed to these type sentiments professed by the Secretary of Education. They are draconian, inequitable, unjust, and just like the Payment Protection Program, which saw very much needed funds go to publicly traded firms and businesses instead of local and minority businesses, thus this type decision-making favors the rich and affluent or the poor. Why is it that those who need the most always receive the least? Where is the CARE in the CARES ACT for all our schools, students and teachers who are doing their best to bring a sense of normalcy under unparalleled circumstances? The U.S. Department of Education should not use this pandemic as a way to orchestrate school prioritization schemes, which includes siphoning public school funding by passing them off as micro- grants, CARES ACT stipends or education savings accounts and other neo-vouchers.
As COVID-19 continues to surge across our nation and region, we have little choice but to concur with growing public sentiment that this is a failed government response on a variety of levels. We should only rely on the research, data and recommendations of medical officials to help us navigate through this difficult time. We also agree with the assessment of the 2000 PROTECTMYCARE doctors, "Our state is now experiencing the worst we have experienced under the coronavirus crisis ... to reopen schools is insane and irresponsible."
It is a very real probability that the beginning of the school year will be one that is dependent upon remote and distance learning, and we must ensure that each and every teacher and student has the technological and digital resources needed in order to meet this transition. Unlike the approach that has been advocated by Secretary Devos, whose intent is to divert public school funding to private and parochial schools, and whose threats to withhold other funds is coercive in nature, we advocate that schools in fact need an immediate interjection of funds and capital to address the needs of students while they learn remotely, and provide resources such as PPE and deep cleansing materials when it is safe to permit physical attendance again.
This is a time not for politics and patronizing, but to prioritize principles and the needs of all our people and students.
Unity Group of Chattanooga
Sherman E. Matthews Jr., Chairman
Eric Atkins, Corresponding Secretary