Texas Has a Plan to Reopen Schools: Don’t Collect COVID-19 Data and Hide the Infections
August 18, 2020
COVID-19, Mask, School, Pandemic (Alexandra_Koch)
By Walter Einenkel
Somehow the Republican Party has politicized the science around the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of schools. It’s not surprising. It’s not shocking. It’s mostly just a public health nightmare, an economic nightmare, and a depressing reminder of how low a large swath of our country will go to pretend they are right. Texas, like many states in the union, is trying to reopen its school system. Texas, like many conservative-run states, is trying to reopen schools without really thinking about the true ramifications, in a rushed way, without the level of forethought one might hope.
Meanwhile, every school system that has reopened with in-person classes has very quickly found out that living in a pandemic world where local, state, and federal officials have not done their job to protect the public makes it very difficult to just reopen schools. However, Texas has a solution to this problem: If you don’t report the coronavirus numbers and data, no one need know how good or bad a job you’re doing!
KBTX-TV reports that the state of Texas is not collecting COVID-19 data provided by school districts. The Texas Education Agency that oversees all primary and secondary public education in the state says it has yet to decide on whether or not it will collect COVID-19 data from its schools: “This question on data collection is still under active deliberation by the agency, and we expect to have an update in the coming weeks on what, if any, data will be required and how it will be recorded.”
Educators and parents are not happy about this. As KVUE reports, many parents in the system are frustrated by the lack of information. As Austin teacher and parent Brennan Cruser told the outlet: “I can't really control what the district decides for me personally in my job, but I can control what my family decides for my kids. And so I need information to make those decisions.” Cruser went on to call the fact that this is even up for debate “really concerning.”
So far, the Texas Department of State Health Services has not responded to inquiries into this seemingly negligent position on public health and the impact of reopening schools during a pandemic. The Texas Department of State Health Services has been busy digging a hole in the sand and trying to get its collective head inside of that hole.
Posted with permission