The U.S. attempt to return children to the classroom this fall has turned into a slow-motion train wreck, with at least 2,400 students and staff either infected with COVID-19 or self-isolating because of exposure, and the vast majority of large school districts opting to go online this summer amid rising
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have mostly waved off the situation unraveling this week in states like Georgia, Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee, where schools opened their doors after a months-long hiatus due to the pandemic -- only to quickly backtrack as soon as infections popped back up.
But what is"safe" is not at all clear to most school officials and at the heart of a bitter debate unfolding just months ahead of the presidential election. There were other schools too. A community college in Mississippi told 300 of its students to quarantine after nine positive cases were confirmed, along with students in Gulfport and Corinth districts. Indiana schools were also hit with an estimated 500 students in quarantine across several districts, as administrators expressed concern that there would not be enough staff available to continue instruction.
"We pay absolutely no attention to what the White House has to say on this and neither do most big city school districts," said Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest urban public school systems. The hybrid model has been sharply criticized by DeVos when it was initially adopted earlier this summer by a Virginia school district. At the same time, DeVos has argued that a national plan for schools isn't needed because schools are run by local officials.
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