Letter to Colorado's Governor Polis On Distance Learning for K-12 Schools

Dear Governor Polis, I noticed in your VIRTUAL news conference that you have declared it is safe for children to go back to schools.

1) Children also get COVID-19. Some get very sick and need to be hospitalized. We don't yet know the long-term effects of COVID-19 on children.

2) Children spread COVID-19 at the same rates as adults.

3) Teachers and school staff are at a significant risk of getting infected.

4) Colorado is flooded with tourists, who are contributing to our increasing rates of COVID-19. Down here in Durango, about 1 in 5 license plates are from out of state. Yesterday I saw plates from TX, AZ, NM, UT, OK, MO, KS, SD, IN, OR, HI, CA, WA, the Yukon, and other states. Whatever is in other states is now here.

5) There still is not enough funding to safely reopen our schools, and there is not enough information on how to reopen schools safely. We need input from actual teachers on what resources we need, what class sizes allow adequate social distancing and supervision to follow health guidelines, and what is age-appropriate for our students.

6) Reopening schools communicates to teachers (who often weren't even asked about our needs or preferences) that our lives aren't worth as much as other people's comfort and convenience. It also sends the message that our primary job is to keep the economy going so that more wealthy people's stocks can continue to go up, and that no one has a problem with asking us to bear the costs. Colorado already had a teacher shortage before last March. How are teachers supposed to be motivated to start or continue a career in a profession that prioritizes free babysitting over our lives or welfare?

7) School budgets were already cut past the bone before this. Teachers have been "doing more with less" for decades. We have been working unpaid overtime and buying supplies out of our own small paychecks for decades. We keep being told that the state will fix its chronic school underfunding issues, but it hasn't. We keep getting admonished to just try to keep going and make it work for another year or so while the courts (Lobato vs. State of Colorado), state government, and Governor's office play "pass the buck" with our children's futures and our careers. We keep being told that if we care about the kids, we will find a way to make it all work. At this point, state and local governments basically bank on having teachers spend their own time and money to subsidize other people's TABOR and Gallagher Amendment tax cuts. This was already unsustainable before COVID-19, and there is no way we can do everything required in the face of additional cuts. Given that safety during a pandemic is a matter of life and death, teachers cannot solve this for the rest of Colorado with dollar store purchases and Pinterest hacks. If Colorado wants schools to reopen safely, our citizens need to find a way to pay for it.

8) Having sat in on planning meetings for two districts or institutions in my area, and having reviewed leaked plans from a couple of other districts, I know that local leaders are trying their best to follow directions from the state and federal government. They need firm mandates and guidelines, rather than "each district can decide what is best for them."

9) "Make your own choice" is NOT an appropriate option during a pandemic, where decisive, collective action is required. This is why we need school closures to come from your office rather than from communities where a majority of voters might have been brainwashed into believing that COVID-19 is a hoax. "Majority rules" doesn't protect children's or teachers' health or lives.

As someone who is starting her 12th year as a Professor in Teacher Education, many of my former students are now teachers in schools around my region and state. Some are new in their professions and don't feel able to speak out about their own safety or the safety of their students without facing persecution from their districts (this has already happened to at least one person I know and now her district will probably lose an excellent teacher). Many of my former students and friends and colleagues in the schools are having trouble sleeping at night. Have you been waking up at 4:00 am having panic attacks?

Teachers are discussing whether to buy their own scrubs, ordering masks in bulk, buying face shields, exchanging strategies for making PPE screens out of dollar store shower curtains and PVC pipes, exchanging recipes for making their own disinfectant that is in compliance with early childhood standards, etc. They are spending their own money to keep themselves and their students safe because the necessary money and materials have NOT been supplied by their districts. Many are trying to do COVID-19 math and figure out how to fit 30 students into a 20X30' space, or how to sterilize the classroom between groups of students when there are only five minutes between classes, and they will need to sterilize 20 desks and chairs plus tables, doorknobs, etc, and when the spray is supposed to stay untouched for five minutes, and when that will be the only chance to use the bathroom between 7:30 am and their lunch at 12:20. We're trying to figure out how to get young children or teens to keep masks on all day and how to stay six feet apart -- without coming within six feet of them ourselves. We're trying to figure out what we're supposed to do when a child decides they aren't going to wear a mask -- or when their parent sends a note saying that they don't think their child should have to wear a mask. We're asking what will happen when a child gets sent to school sick, which was previously almost a daily occurrence in many classrooms. Some clarification from your office on how we should do all the things that are required to keep ourselves and our students safe in the midst of budget cuts would be helpful.