The Biden administration claims they want the country to heal. They claim that they want to get the economy back up and running. Yet, at the same time, there are still schools closed around the country.
Students are suffering. They’re not getting the same education at home from a laptop that they would if they were in the classrooms.
Years from now, we’re going to see the educational impact of COVID in youth if we don’t get the schools re-opened.
Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, is pushing to get the schools reopened. Catholic schools are already open. Yet, the public schools continue to come up with excuses as to why they cannot open.
Scott has suggested that schools be denied additional funding if they don’t reopen. These schools received $82 billion to open – and those same schools are still not open. As he comments on “America Reports” on Fox News, “If you are not willing to put the kids back in schools, why should we give you more money to open schools?”
He’s got a valid point. These schools are making money by staying closed. Meanwhile, kids are at home, struggling to understand the lessons. Some may get help from parents. Others are at home alone while the parents go off to work.
Scott points out that there is a significant amount of learning loss. It’s particularly evident within the lower-income families where kids don’t have access to the internet or digital devices. In some areas of the country, such as Las Vegas, suicides are up.
The kids need to get back into the classroom. Their education depends on it. The economy depends on it. The future of America depends on it.
It’s as if Democrats have decided that there’s no need to open up schools. They blame COVID-19, but that’s not really it. There are plenty of states where in-classroom learning is open – and you don’t hear about any significant outbreaks.
Particularly in elementary schools, the likelihood of contracting the virus is minimal. In many areas where there are outbreaks, kids are going to school as normal. It’s happening in Florida, Texas, and plenty of other states.
However, there are states such as California, Nevada, and others that insist that the schools have to stay closed. And why? So that the teachers don’t have to do their job? So that they can suck more money from the federal government?
The school districts that remain closed are running out of valid reasons for why they need to be closed.
Now that the vaccines have been rolling out across the country for two months, the infection rates have dropped dramatically. This is the time that schools should be opening.
If the Democrats think that there is an educational disparity between high-income and low-income families now, what do they think will happen if they keep the schools closed for much longer?
In every area of the country, there are reports that high percentages of students aren’t logging in for online learning. Why? They don’t have what they need. They don’t have parental supervision.
Things are different when the schools are open. Parents drop the kids off at school. The parents go to work and the kids are in classrooms where they learn. It ensures that they’re attending school. It ensures that they’re receiving an education.
America has to be educated. The kids have to learn. The parents have to get back to work. The economy has to heal.
The problem is that the Democrats want to keep the schools closed because they know that it helps them to create the disparity that they’re constantly complaining about. They have proven that they don’t care about the kids or the families. They’re making it political.
Meanwhile, as Scott points out, the Catholic schools are opening so that the kids can come back and learn.
Let’s stop giving the public schools the funding they demand until they’re ready to open and start teaching once again. a
