FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear (D) wants schools to hold off on in-person classes until Sept. 28, a date he feels confident about despite Kentucky's coronavirus cases.
What You Need To Know
- Beshear defends delay on in-person classes
- Beshear confident students can return to schools Sept. 28
- Republican lawmakers disagree with Beshear's recommendation
- Beshear doesn't plan to interfere with individual school plans unless there's an outbreak
“But if we can continue to do these good practices, we should see that plateau eventually starting to dip and our positivity rate starting to dip,” Beshear said.
Beshear has faced backlash for his recommendation.
Republican lawmakers say superintendents should be able to decide their own plans.
“There’s a thousand different variables as to how a school system in the community works, and I have yet to hear an argument as to why these decisions shouldn’t be made at the local level,” state Sen. Stephen Meredith (R-Leitchfield) said during a committee meeting Tuesday.
Beshear said the problem is statewide.
“One size doesn’t fit all, but if the virus is so out of control that we have over 60 counties in the red and the yellow, and everyone from the federal public health officials to the state say it’s too hot on a statewide basis right now, then it’s not safe for anybody right now,” Beshear said, citing a White House report showing several Kentucky counties with a positivity rate of 10 percent or higher.
Republicans also want Beshear to consider liability protections for school districts, protecting them from potential lawsuits as they prepare to reopen. Supporters of the plan say districts are worried about having an outbreak despite their best efforts.
Beshear said those protections may allow districts to act irresponsibly.
“I’d have to look at what they’re looking at, but this seems in response to opening at a time when we shouldn’t be opening,” Beshear said. “That doesn’t help the kid at all, that doesn’t help the teachers that are exposed to it at all and that doesn’t promote good decision making at all.”
Beshear doesn’t plan to intervene in any district’s plans unless there is an outbreak.
By Sept. 28, Beshear's hopeful we’ll have the virus more under control so outbreaks are less of a concern.
Eric Kennedy with the Kentucky School Boards Association told the Interim Joint Committee on Education Tuesday that districts plan to have in-person classes to start the year, including the Green County School District, where students returned on Monday.