Teachers are reacting to the Massachusetts Board of Education's approval of the Baker administration's plan to force school districts to resume full-time, in-class learning. In an 8-3 vote Friday, the board greenlit the plan that was announced by state education commissioner Jeffrey Riley last week. It calls for students from kindergarten through fifth grade to return to the classroom starting at the end of April.
Anthony Parolisi, a middle school teacher in Haverhill and union president of the Haverhill Education Association, is criticizing the vote. In an interview with GBH All Things Considered host Arun Rath, Parolisi said that it takes power out of the hands of school districts.
"I just think it's pretty unfortunate that an unelected board voted to give an unelected commissioner unilateral authority over the decisions that should be made at the local level," Parolisi said . "Everybody wants to have more in-person learning. Everybody knows that's the best way to learn. But the idea that we could return all students to full in-person learning along the timeline suggested by the governor and the commissioner is simply absurd."
The board's vote comes two days after Gov. Charlie Baker reversed course and announced that starting next week, teachers would be allowed to sign up for the coronavirus vaccine. Baker had originally opposed prioritizing teachers for vaccination, but he gave in as educators ramped up their insistence on being vaccinated after Riley came out with his April reopening proposal. The governor's decision also follows President Joe Biden's call for teacher vaccinations.
Parolisi welcomed Baker's reversal but said he's frustrated that the governor hasn't approved a vaccination plan backed by the state's largest teacher's union, the Massassachusetts Teachers Association, of which Parolisi is a member. Under the MTA proposal, doses for teachers would be sent to and administered by individual school districts, allowing them to bypass the state's beleaguered vaccine appointment website and the mass vaccination centers.
"We've got a turnkey plan ready to go that we're still pushing the Baker administration to let us implement," Parolisi said.
