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Posted from Tate Reeves Facebook page
Today, we talked extensively about the plans for reopening schools. All districts will have their plans submitted to us by the end of the month, and I look forward to personally going over them in detail. Most are looking at a combination of in-person classes and virtual learning.
We all agreed that we can’t go any longer without our kids learning in classrooms. That’s not reasonable. It’s not possible. We talked a lot at the beginning of this pandemic about essential services and workers. I can think of nothing more essential than a child’s education. Missing so much time, especially early on in their schooling, would destroy lives. Kids, especially those without fancy iPads and parents who can watch them full-time, would never recover.
We’ve got at least $150 million going to schools to pay for masks, hand sanitizer, and other necessary PPE. I’ll personally guarantee, if you need masks we’ll get them to you. We’ve already given out about 5 million.
We’ve got every school district in the state working on plans. I know that some people must think that I’m a genius, and that I know better than every one of those local school leaders. They want me to do an executive order mandating that every school acts the same. I just don’t see that as the best course of action today.
The American Academy of Pediatrics came out and said something that I think is very important: “The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school. The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020.”
I’ve seen some intense rhetoric saying that opening schools will mean people will die. The American Academy of Pediatrics also said that closing schools means more children will be at risk of death. They’re right. We have to provide that structure for children. It is a tremendous privilege to be able to stay home, get paid, and have no worries. Most families can’t do that. We can’t force every parent to home school their kids indefinitely. It’s insane to think that’s a sustainable policy.
Our goal is to get kids back in school so that they can have structure, safety, and learning. We’re going to do it with an overwhelming focus on public health. I believe we can. We know that there is no safe way to abandon education.
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