FAYETTE COUNTY, Ky. — The White House Administration designated teachers as essential workers, but what does that mean? 

Teachers are deemed "critical infrastructure workers" like law enforcement and doctors and can continue to work even after being exposed to COVID-19, if asymptomatic. 

According to Vice President Mike Pence, teachers will be prioritized for resources like personal protective equipment (PPE). The guidance is still voluntary, but some Kentucky educators feel the new designation is meant to pressure schools to return to in-person learning.

Many Kentucky teachers have been out of the classroom for months, and will continue to teach remotely for at least several weeks this fall. 

One teacher, Laura Hartke, is glad her district in Fayette County is going virtual, but she feels naming teachers as essential workers is a tool to coerce schools to return to classrooms prematurely. 

"It really just feels like we're constantly being used for whatever situation they want to happen," Hartke said. "All of the reasons that they want us to go back to school are the things teachers have been screaming about for years."

She names the benefits politicians have listed as reasons to return to in-person learning, like feeding, counseling, and providing a safe space for students. Her group of teachers, KY 120 United, has said that teachers have been essential for these reasons, long before coronavirus.

The Prichard Committee is a group of education advocates, too. President and CEO Brigitte Blom Ramsey feels another action is required of the White House.

"What we would like to see the president do right now is support a big push from Congress to provide funding for broadband internet access infrastructure and affordability in the next stimulus package," she says. "If we're worried about community spread, it seems premature to encourage all of our teachers to return to a traditional school setting."

"How many catastrophes are they gonna ask us to lay in front of, you know? We're already asked to jump in front of bullets...now we're supposed to be... science experiments?" Hartke added.

It's hard to say whether the essential worker designation will affect any of the districts already choosing to learn virtually. 

Brent McKim, President of the Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) told Spectrum News 1, "If the designation allows teachers in schools that return in-person to have access to the more protective N-95 masks, and so forth, that may be positive, but if this is part of an effort to try to pressure schools to return to in-person instruction before it is safe to do so, then that would [be] very inappropriate."