State Board of Education Member Ruben Cortez, D-Brownsville, sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday calling for an executive response to the COVID-19 situation in regards to Texas schools.
Most notably, Cortez asked the governor to cancel the 2021-22 STAAR test and to deploy state resources — including the Texas National Guard — to address staffing shortages in schools and hospitals created by the coronavirus surge.
In his letter, Cortez called for swift action to address the spike in cases, citing positivity rates and tens of thousands of new cases.
He wrote that conditions have caused massive staffing shortages in schools and hospitals in his district, along with a shortage of COVID tests.
Local education leaders have described those staffing shortages, and say that demand for COVID-19 tests at local campuses remains high.
“Schools need COVID-19 tests to keep students and staff safe and classrooms open, but many in my district have exhausted their supply or are awaiting backorders and report they are unable to obtain additional tests,” he wrote. “The lack of testing combined with staffing shortages has already caused classes to be disrupted or canceled at a time when we cannot afford a return to remote instruction. We must also keep our hospitals staffed in order to continue to provide emergency care and to avoid canceling procedures for those with ongoing medical needs.”
In addition to asking for STAAR to be canceled and for the Texas National Guard to be deployed to testing sites and hospitals, Cortez asked for Abbott to provide emergency funding out of the governor’s discretionary CARES Act monies for schools to spend on hiring extra substitutes and support staff; he did not call for a return to virtual learning.
Cortez wrote that his “office stands ready to help.”
Coincidentally, Abbott was in the Rio Grande Valley on the campaign trail Monday, being endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council.
Cortez is making an election bid himself, for the District 37 seat in the state House of Representatives.
