Texas, California Governors Take Heat in Battle Over School Reopenings

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday sought to reassure parents he is doing all he can to keep students safe as most schools in the state prepare to reopen next week.

But a top adviser to Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden’s campaign in Texas blasted Abbott, a Republican, for what he called a lack of planning and funding for safely reopening schools, especially with the statewide coronavirus positivity rate hitting a record 24.5% this week.

“What we learned from the reopening of the Texas economy is that if you don’t do it right, people are going to die,” said Mike Collier, senior adviser to the Biden campaign in Texas. “Parents and teachers are being forced to make life and death decisions.”

Polls show Biden in a dead heat with President Donald Trump in Texas, long a Republican stronghold but where the Democratic Party made significant gains in the 2018 midterm election. How Abbott handles the pandemic and the reopening of schools could have a big impact on how voters cast ballots in November.

Abbott defended his mandate giving local school boards the right to determine if and when schools reopen, curbing the power of local health officials to intervene and order schools closed if COVID-19 outbreaks occur.

The Texas governor said schools are ready and argued that in-person classes would not be a significant spreader of the virus if schools follow basic safety precautions.

“The ways that COVID-19 will most likely spread in the school setting is in gatherings after school is over,” Abbott told a press conference after meeting with local authorities in Lubbock.

Abbott said a clear pattern has emerged across Texas in recent weeks, with people spreading the virus in smaller, informal gatherings with friends and family. He encouraged parents and teachers to curtail such gatherings of students and ensure they and their children wear masks.

Texas, like other states in the U.S. South, avoided severe outbreaks of coronavirus early on in the pandemic, but became hotspots in the second half of June after reopening their economies shortly after Memorial Day weekend.