Centner Academy rejected COVID guidelines, but had no issue taking taxpayer-backed loans | Editorial

The story of Centner Academy in Miami’s Design District just keeps getting more absurd: from the school’s owners telling teachers not to get vaccinated, to their adherence to internet conspiracy theories that women’s menstrual cycles could be disrupted by being in contact with a vaccinated person, to the “shielding blockers” installed in the school windows as a protection against 5G tower radiation.

Welcome to Florida, where anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers enjoy ample protections under a new law and executive order signed on Monday that ban vaccine passports and any remaining COVID restrictions.

If vaccine-hesitant parents — or unsuspecting ones who are attracted to the Centners’ “happiness school” New-Age mantra — want to send their children to a school that promotes misinformation easily debunked with a Google search, have at it.

We can only lament that those kids may be fed lies about vaccines. A fifth-grade math and science teacher told students they shouldn’t hug their parents for more than five minutes if they’ve been vaccinated, CBS Miami reported (surprisingly, owner Leila Centner said the teacher violated school policy by discussing the issue in class).

Or point out the contradiction that a school that’s so health conscious — it has mindfulness coaches, chiropractors and private chefs preparing sugar-and gluten-free meals — is preventing teachers and students from staying healthy during a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of 35,400 Floridians.

We’re paying for this

The problem is when taxpayers and teachers, many of whom might not be able to afford to lose a job during a pandemic, end up footing the bill for Centner’s wild disinformation. The private school, which balked at federal guidelines on mask use and vaccinations, still received a loan of more than $800,000 in government money — from the taxpayer-funded, federal Paycheck Protection Program.

That loan, which the institution does not actually have to pay back, is intended to help avoid layoffs, meaning it’s supposed to save the jobs the Centners are threatening if staff members choose to get vaccinated. Not to mention that barring employees from taking a vaccine might be illegal and violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects workers’ right to seek medical treatment, the Miami Herald has reported.

Centner also is eligible to accept students from Florida’s school voucher programs — scholarships funded through corporate tax credits or taxpayer dollars that allow low- and-middle-income students to attend private schools. Thankfully, only one student attends Centner on one of these scholarships, but nothing prevents the school from receiving more voucher funds in the future, because the state has no requirements that schools adhere to basic scientific knowledge or simple requirements such as teacher certification or curriculum standards.

Legislature does nothing

A 2017 Orlando Sentinel investigation titled “Schools Without Rules” showed some schools were teaching that humans and dinosaurs lived together, and that the Loch Ness monster may be real. To be fair, there are also many schools in the program that have high standards and serve a population that public education has failed. But, shamefully, schools are also free to discriminate against LGTBQ students and teachers. It’s unclear what Centner’s policies are on that.

Lawmakers this year approved expanding taxpayer-funded vouchers and making more students eligible for them.

The Legislature also had a chance to stop the shenanigans happening at Centner, but the Senate rejected a proposal by Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, that would have prohibited government and private entities from preventing people from getting vaccinated. The measure was an amendment to the bill that banned companies from requiring proof of vaccinations.

Since Centner made national and international headlines, it has become a “beacon for anti-vaxxers” with “hundreds of queries from all over the world” about teaching positions, the New York Times reported. If the school is their “beacon,” Florida has become their safe haven. That, too, is a shame.