Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has ordered all public schools to reopen to students in-person when the new year begins, even as cases of Covid-19 continue to surge in Florida.
That has teachers around the state nervous, they have many reasons to be; underlying health conditions, worries about infecting family members, and frustrations over a lack of training and guidance, both from Corcoran’s office as well as the Governor’s Office.
There are serious concerns that the lack of training doesn’t allow teachers and families to make informed decisions about returning to the classroom, and just what shape that return will take.
Chief among them, are teachers being sacrificed in order to reopen the schools, and by extension, the economy?
According to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Florida teachers spend over $470 of their own money each year on classroom supplies.
This figure, writes EPI economist Emma García in a blog post, “does not include the dollars teachers spend but are reimbursed for by their school districts.”
Nine out of 10 educators will not be reimbursed for their back-to-school purchases, whether it’s pencils, notebooks, whiteboards, posters, or software.
This year teachers may also end up paying for hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks.
Hopefully none will pay with their lives or the lives of a loved one(s) when they unknowingly bring Covid-19 home, along with stacks of tests and papers to be graded, and all the other work they routinely do at home.
“Hopefully” That seems to be the State of Florida’s plan for reopening the schools.
