GAE Statement on making Teachers Essential Workers

Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE), made the following statement on making teachers essential workers:  “Designating educators as essential workers shows a complete disregard for the health and safety of not only educators, but our students as well.  The Georgia Association of Educators has advocated for health and safety to be the priority in decisions concerning the reopening of school buildings and that remains our position today.  We know that large numbers of educators and students are being asked to quarantine in many of the districts that have reopened for in-person instruction.  Districts are facing the inevitable issue of having enough educators available to maintain in-person instruction, thus the requests for Governor Kemp to designate educators essential workers.  Designating educators essential workers would eliminate the need for those educators to quarantine unless they were actually experiencing symptoms.  This designation will only further increase the chances that there will continue to be asymptomatic individuals in our school buildings with the result of increased transmission of the virus.  The guidance from the Department of Homeland Security (Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce) that is the basis for the essential worker designation, also includes the following:  ‘Workers should be encouraged to work remotely when possible and, organizations are encouraged to identify alternative methods for safely engaging in activities that typically required in-person, non-mandatory interactions.’  We encourage Governor Kemp, school superintendents, and school board members to make these decisions with one priority – the health and safety of every student and educator.  The answer is not changing guidelines so possibly-infected individuals do not have to quarantine.  The answer is ensuring that the quarantines are not necessary. The answer is in our communities working together to reduce the spread of coronavirus in our state.  When we do that, we will not have to make policy decisions that disregard the health of our educators and students.”