BY KANSAS AND MISSOURI AAUP CHAPTERS
In the following petition directed at state and local politicians, Kansas and Missouri AAUP chapters demand equal prioritization for Kansas and Missouri post-secondary workers as their pre-K-12 counterparts: namely, that Kansas post-secondary workers be included in vaccine Phase 2 and Missouri workers in Phase 1b, Tier 3.
Seventy-two percent of the nation’s states afford higher-education employees the same vaccination status as pre-K-12 employees. The decisions of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to exclude post-secondary workers from the same priority group as pre-K-12 workers alarmingly dismiss the CDC’s recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination prioritization (which places both pre-K-12 employees and post-secondary employees in a recommended Phase 1b), as well as the recommended status of post-secondary workers as equally essential to critical infrastructure as pre-K-12 workers, provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Kansas currently affords post-secondary workers no priority status, while Missouri places them after all other critical infrastructure employees.
Post-secondary workers are also potentially at greater risk than other parts of the education sector due to: 1) teaching higher density classes and/or a greater number of students, 2) teaching a student population more likely to carry and transmit COVID-19, and 3) employing a large number of contingent faculty who do not have health insurance or equitable access to health care.
The decision to disregard national protocol and agency recommendations has dire consequences in terms of delaying vaccination for an essential component of our nation’s population, placing Kansas and Missouri teachers and institutional staff at risk of illness and death despite the place they hold in our country’s critical infrastructure. We thus demand this be urgently, directly addressed, and that post-secondary workers be prioritized alongside their pre-K-12 counterparts immediately.
To view the full petition and sign to support, go to:
https://www.change.org/p/laura-kelly-protect-ks-mo-post-secondary-workers-covid-19-vaccine-priority
Ohio is in the same boat while our neighboring states of Pennsylvania and New York include post-secondary and preschool instructors in their phase II of vaccinations.