Austin News

Reopening schools for in-person instruction in Texas and nationwide has been a hotly debated issue, but the Centers for Disease Control believes it is the best course of action for students despite the continued presence of COVID-19.

"I don't think I can emphasize it enough, as the director for the Centers for Disease Control, the leading public health agency in the world, it is in the public health interest that these K-12 students get the schools back open for face-to-face learning,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told Congress earlier this month, the College Fix reported.

The CDC has endorsed in-person classes and touted the health benefits of children returning to school.

CDC Director Robert Redfield | File photo

"Aside from a child’s home, no other setting has more influence on a child’s health and well-being than their school," the CDC stated on its website. "The in-person school environment does the following, it provides educational instruction, supports the development of social and emotional skills, creates a safe environment for learning, addresses nutritional needs and facilitates physical activity."

The CDC indicated that it is aware that cities, states and communities across the nation are experiencing different levels of coronavirus transmission, and "jurisdictions should ensure that appropriate public health strategies are in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 as the first step in creating a safer school environment." 

The agency also added that school administrators could work collaboratively with state and local health departments on strategies to match their needs to ensure students, teachers and staff are protected.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has indicated that local school districts should have the decision on when and how to reopen.

"The bottom line is the people who know best about that are the local school officials," Abbott said during a news conference reported on by ABC13 last week.

Some teachers' unions, however, are threatening to strike if schools reopen without safety measures and if their demands for reopening schools are not met, NPR reported. Some of their unions' demands are unrelated to COVID-19 safety in the classrooms but include police-free schools, rent and mortgage cancellations, direct cash assistance for the unemployed or those unable to work, a standardized testing pause, and a moratorium on new charter schools and school vouchers, Education Week Teacher reported.

Texas has seen a rising number of coronavirus cases and testing has dropped, which has worried some public health experts.

"Opening the schools is a really complicated problem, and the best thing we can do is get the number of cases down so kids can go back to school safely," Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston, told the Texas Tribune. "There are so many reasons why kids need to be in school, particularly younger kids, but we’re finding out more and more that they can get infected, and the concern is them bringing it home and spreading in the community and spreading to teachers."