Local control is usually a good thing...but not always.
COVID-19 is showing us the weaknesses of local control, specifically local control of public schools. Kentucky has 120 counties, each of which has its own school district; in addition, there are 51 “independent districts”, each of which is limited in size to a specific municipal authority. Each local school board has the authority to set its own policies, procedures...and school calendar. Naturally, the reaction to COVID-19 has been, shall we say, inconsistent at best.
Let’s start this story a few weeks ago, when Governor Andy Beshear (D) announced a recommendation that public schools delay any in-person education to September 28th or later. Now, Beshear had to make this a “recommendation” because:
(a) He doesn’t have specific statutory authority to direct individual school boards in this fashion, and
(b) The Republican Attorney General, Mitch McConnell protégé Daniel Cameron, has already challenged Beshear’s COVID-19 orders in court and is obviously willing to do so again.
So, what did Kentucky’s school districts do in response? Well, you can see their reactions in this map from the Kentucky School Boards Association; counties/districts in orange have already launched in-person instruction or will do so before September 28th:
Yes, roughly one-third of Kentucky’s school districts are ignoring the Governor’s recommendation...
In response to requests from various local authorities, Governor Beshear has just released more specific “Mode of Instruction Metrics” for school districts, based upon the case rate (daily average cases per 100,000 persons) in each county:
School metrics based on local community spread — seems reasonable...
For those of you who might have trouble reading that image, the categories are:
- GREEN: < 1 case per 100,000 people daily — in-person or remote learning
- YELLOW: > 1-10 cases per 100,000 people daily — in-person or remote learning
- ORANGE: > 10-25 cases per 100,000 people daily — consider remote learning ONLY
- RED: > 25 cases per 100,000 people daily — remote learning ONLY
You may be wondering, “gosh, how do Kentucky’s districts stack up against those metrics today?” Well, I’m glad you asked, because here are the current COVID-19 case rates for every Kentucky county:
So, here’s where the counties fall (as of September 15th) in the modes-of-education metric AND whether they’re following the Governor’s initial recommendation of holding back on in-person education until September 28th:
- GREEN: 3 counties (1 district in-person now or before 9/28)
- YELLOW: 54 counties (14 districts in-person now or before 9/28)
- ORANGE: 54 counties (30 districts in-person now or before 9/28)
- RED: 9 counties (6 districts in-person now or before 9/28)
Obviously, no county in the ORANGE or RED categories (i.e. rolling daily case rate at or above 10 cases per 100,000) should be considering in-person education, yet we see 36 districts either currently running with in-person or planning to do so before September 28th. Even more concerning is the fact that some independent districts are disagreeing with their local county district, so “city kids” are going to school in person while “county kids” are not, or vice versa.
The Governor IS ordering parents to report student cases of COVID-19 to the schools, and every school and school district to report cases of COVID-19 among students, faculty and staff to the Department of Public Health within 24 hours of detection, so we should at least be able to turn on a dime as needed. It’s worth noting that one of those RED-level districts that insisted on starting in-person education early lasted only two weeks before seeing the consequences and moving accordingly:
They only lasted two weeks before going back to virtual...wait, what’s the COVID-19 incubation period?
I suspect that we in the Bluegrass State will see a furball of starts, stops, restarts, and retrenchments as each district tries to balance parental expectations, irrational demands, and public health.
Tell us about your local schools in the comments!
