On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds discussed how the state will handle school reopenings amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. During a press conference, Gov. Reynolds said that if school districts hold classes online without approval, students will not receive instruction hour credits for that learning, and school administrators could face licensure penalties. As of now, it’s the governor’s requirement that school districts conduct at least 50% of learning in-person this academic year unless they get a waiver, which are given in two-week increments.
"If schools move to primarily remote learning without approval, according again to the law, those days do not count toward instructional time,” she stated, as reported by The Des Moines Register.
When a reporter asked Gov. Reynolds about people’s concerns with schools reopening, including students, as well as teachers, possibly getting sick or even dying as a result of the virus, she characterized the question as media “scare tactics” and said she’d also heard from parents, including single moms, about the importance of reopening schools.
Here’s that clip.
Right now, one school (Rolling Green) has received a waiver. On Monday, two school districts moved toward online learning; the Waukee school district gave a statement arguing that by state law, school districts can make decisions about potential health hazards (such as closing schools in dangerous weather), and thus they will not follow Reynolds’ order, as reported by local outlet KCCI. The Urbandale school board voted on Monday to continue virtual-only learning. The district did request to extend virtual learning at the school, but the state denied the district’s request, as reported by KCCI.
At the press conference today Reynolds addressed this matter, saying in part that “schools that choose not to return to school for at least 50% in-person instruction are not defying me, they are defying the law," as reported by local outlet KTIV.
Is any of this terribly surprising for Iowa’s pandemic response? No. Iowa is one of the last states without a statewide mask mandate, with the Republican governor instead encouraging people to rely on their personal responsibility amid the public health crisis. As Daily Kos previously covered, hundreds of physicians in Iowa recently signed an open letter pleading with Reynolds to issue a statewide mask mandate.
Even outside of Iowa, schools reopening are seeing frightening results. One school in Indiana, for example, dealt with a positive COVID-19 case within hours of reopening. One county in Georgia was not even able to reopen to students before dealing with positive cases; 260 school district employees were out with either positive coronavirus tests or contact with a case.
Of course, Betsy DeVos still hasn’t answered these questions about schools reopening, either.