AASA's Daniel Domenech Responds to Guidance to 'Reopen America'
Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of AASA,
The School Superintendents Association, issued the following statement
in response to the latest guidance from administration relating to
reopening America:
“The CDC and FEMA are to be commended for their work to achieve a
balanced approach in their guidance to reopening America, with the important
and appropriate deference to state and local leaders, who are working day in
and day out to guide their states through the pandemic and toward a post-COVID
reality.
“With a goal of reopening the economy, this guidance focuses on
businesses and is premised on the idea that states have the capacity to both
readily test people for the highly contagious COVID and trace their contacts to
monitor spread, a premise that does not match reality.
“Specific to what this guidance means for schools, it is an
unfortunate continuation of information that appears to be clear and concise
but when applied to the context of schools, is inconsistent and incongruous, at
best. While we appreciate the deference to state and local leadership, when it
comes to decisions about whether to open or close schools, state and local
education leaders rely on the information and experience they have in running
school districts day to day, and make any operational decisions beyond that
perspective—like those necessary in the context of an unprecedented pandemic—by
relying on experts.
“In this case, state and local education leaders are looking to
the federal government for guidance that is clear, concise and applicable, not
guidance that leaves them scratching their heads and wondering, ‘But what does
that really mean for schools?’. An excellent example is the continued reliance
on the recommendation to avoid social settings with more than 50 people and
that large venues can operate under moderate physical distancing protocols. The
average American public school will far exceed 50 people—including staff and
students—every single day.
“In the same breath that the guidance highlights a path forward in
opening schools, it establishes a scenario where every single school would be
in direct conflict with another recommendation. We are not asking the federal
government for a prescriptive mandate or script on how and when to open
schools, but we are asking them to use the expertise inherent to their policy
experts to ensure the guidance they draft is informative and actionable,
empowering state and local leaders to implement it with minimal confusion and
with confidence in the science behind it.
“It is clear that we are all working toward the same goal, a safe
return to economic and academic normalcy as soon as possible, and we call on
the administration to continue to improve its guidance to be clear, concise and
actionable at every level.”