By now, educators and support professionals across Pennsylvania have been given the opportunity to receive the covid-19 vaccine through a special initiative to get school employees vaccinated.
I want to thank the Joint Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, Gov. Tom Wolf and supportive policymakers and state officials for making this happen in such a remarkably short period of time.
It was only about a month ago that Wolf announced the plan to provide the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine to preK-12 school employees in an effort to create a safer environment for in-person instruction.
From the very beginning of the pandemic and throughout this school year, our educators and support professionals have gone above and beyond to teach and serve their students — wherever they are. And, throughout all of it, they have wanted one thing more than anything else — to be with their students in school and in person.
Today, thanks to the bipartisan support for Pennsylvania’s educator vaccine program, we are one step closer to getting more students back in the classroom, more parents back to work without worry, and our economy back on track. And, most importantly, we are doing it in a way that protects the health of everyone in our schools.
Rich Askey
Harrisburg
The writer is president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.