WASHINGTON — Speaking with and listening to the conversations of friends and co-workers with children, I know that their thoughts have been lately focused on one thing: How is schooling going to work in the fall?
We're still in the middle of a pandemic, with seemingly no end in sight, and no one knows this more than a parent dealing with the thought of putting their child on a bus to send them into a crowded school.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put a list of guidelines that school districts could implement for the health of students, teachers, staff, and parent's peace of mind, things like: offering a mix of online and in-person teaching, bringing in students on a staggered schedule -- meaning fewer students in the schools -- offering more room to socially distance, physical barriers in bathrooms, emphasis on hygiene and masks.
Administrators have begun reaching out to parents, trying to map out an acceptable path forward for all involved.
Sensibility, compromise, caretaking -- this didn’t sit well with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, nor our president, who on Tuesday ratcheted up pressure on governors to fully open the schools in the fall, as if your aggression will make the virus go away.
DeVos called the distance learning models that schools used in the spring "a disaster," and slammed the ideas put out by administrators for the upcoming year, but didn’t offer any of her own. Neither then, nor now. She thinks that planning is best left up to local education and community leaders, which I believe is exactly what they had done and were doing to the best of their abilities. And according to parents I know, with good results.
Trump, for his part, blamed Democrats -- I know, shocking -- saying on Twitter that they want to keep schools closed for political, not health reasons. Am I to believe that he doesn't see the re-opening of schools as being tied into his upcoming re-election chances?
Still, other officials added that children are far less likely to become ill and die of the virus than older people -- less likely doesn't mean can't and won't. Also, nothing was said about those that work at schools, nor parents and grandparents in homes that the virus might be taken back to.
It's agreed upon by health care officials that children get far more than an education at school. That they need to be with their peers for socialization and their mental health. We all know this. We were all kids once. But they are our most precious resource, and we must not allow their health and safety to become a political football.
Those that have the most experience working with them, educators and administrators, should be allowed the space and freedom to work with parents to come up with the best solutions for them. And they should be able to do this without agenda-driven politicians looking over their shoulder.