Ron DeSantis and Richard Corcoran should close schools for the rest of the year; there’s no reason not to and every reason to do so

The time to officially close schools for the remainder of this school year is now. Gov. Ron DeSantis should stop dallying, rip off the bandage and make the call.

Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran is expected to make a decision on his recommendation Wednesday. He should make that decision based on public safety not political expediency.

He has previously said he would.

“Optimistically, if you can get some sense of normalcy, that’s where we’d like to land, but never for one second sacrificing all of the safety issues that need to be addressed. We’re reviewing all of the data that comes in…. but our first priority is the safety of our students. We’ll keep following the CDC guidelines (evaluating every 15 days), but the decision will be based on safety,” Corcoran said during a virtual roundtable last week.

What’s safest is closing schools for the duration of the year without delay.

With so much uncertainty, Florida families need to have, at the very least, the ability to know what to expect as they navigate some of the toughest days ahead in the battle against a pandemic.

They need to see a Governor who is working to protect their children. Teachers and other education support staff need to know they’ll be protected, too.

That need is even more pressing now considering DeSantis’ ill-advised comments claiming the virus doesn’t affect children as part of the reason to get kids back into classrooms this year.

He claimed last week that no one under the age of 25 has died of the virus, later amending that to clarify he meant in Florida. Nationally, kids have died. That includes Charlotte Figi, the 13-year old girl for whom Florida’s Charlotte’s Web law allowing cannabis treatment for kids with seizures was named.

By saying kids are somehow immune to the harshest effects of the virus, DeSantis, inadvertently or not, sent the message to every parent in the state that their Governor isn’t worried about their kids getting sick because, meh, it’s not like they’re going to die.

Sending kids back to school this school year doesn’t make any sense. They’d go back for, what, two weeks? What’s the point?

And doing so not only puts their health at risk, it’s an unnecessary move that could be potentially deadly for school workers. Teachers often work well into their 60s and 70s. Some support staff work into even later years. An asymptomatic child heading off to the classroom puts those at-risk individuals at even greater risk.

DeSantis said at a recent briefing that he thinks parents want the school year to resume, even if it’s only briefly. There is no doubt school closures have been a burden for parents and caregivers forced to take on a new and unfamiliar role as educators. It also has created a childcare issue for those who need to work but can’t.

There are also significant challenges with maintaining adequate education in an online setting, particularly in at-risk communities. But now is the time for creative solutions to those problems, not a stick-your-head-in-the-sand sort of approach the Governor seems to be employing with his failure so far to make a decision.

In Miami, school officials are using log-in data from the district’s online platform to identify students who are falling behind and then reaching out to those families with targeted solutions. Some students will work into the summer to catch up while others will start school earlier in the fall.

No sensible parent is going to want to ship their sons and daughters off to schools, which were Petri dishes of germs even before the pandemic? There is still just too much at-risk.

The virus isn’t expected to peak until later this month, and even then, there will be weeks of decline before orders can start to lift. A PBS analysis found that testing won’t amp up until sometime this month. Serology tests on immunity won’t be widely available until June. Nor will the first national wave of workers returning to jobs occur until June.

That analysis also showed vaccines won’t be available for health care workers until at least October and not widely available for everyone else until next March.

Others are recognizing what this timeline means even as DeSantis twiddles his thumbs. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry extended the state of emergency in his city for another 30 days, covering part of the time DeSantis is mulling re-opening schools. Boston University is delaying its fall semester and potentially not letting students back on campus until January.

Wrestle with that for a moment. Taking all of the available information into consideration, one must wonder what the hell DeSantis is thinking.

Closing schools for the remainder of this school year is a victimless move considering the time back in classrooms would be essentially null. Opening schools with little benefit, on the other hand, could be deadly and could counteract all of the sacrifices that have already been made by prompting a new surge in community spread.

Whether he’s pandering to a reluctant base or just acting on bad advice, every moment that DeSantis delays in making the call to close schools for the rest of the school year adds anxiety to an already anxious state.

It’s a no-brainer. Make the call, Governor.