NC GOP presses Gov. Cooper to get students back for full-time, in-person classes
North Carolina Republican leaders, joined by a group of parents, demanded Wednesday that families be given an option for full-time, in-person instruction at schools.
Few, if any, of North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students are getting daily face-to-face classes at the start of the school year. Senate leader Phil Berger, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and GOP state superintendent candidate Catherine Truitt said Wednesday that they intend to mobilize people across the state to pressure Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to give parents the option of in-person, full-time school. They held a news conference at the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh.
Berger said virtual learning is especially failing students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students with exceptional needs.
“Virtual learning is a slow-motion train wreck,” Berger said at the news conference. “It’s a slow-motion train wreck from which Harvard’s public health experts are telling us that some children will never recover.”
Forest and Truitt also said that state health officials should be more concerned about the anxiety, depression and addiction among students during remote learning.
Most North Carolina public schools aren’t offering full-time, daily instruction due to the restrictions put in place by the state to control coronavirus.
Reopening takes partisan tone
The school reopening debate has taken on a partisan tone at the national, state and local level.
Berger said “very little learning” is happening virtually. He blamed Cooper’s decision on listening to NCAE.
“Governor Cooper created this problem, and he needs to fix it,” Berger said. “He needs to direct school districts to give parents the option of full-time, five-day-a-week, in-person instruction now.”
Many Republicans have criticized the decision not to resume daily in-person instruction, saying it’s a hardship for families. Speakers said that families and teachers who aren’t comfortable with returning to school should stay with online learning while giving others the option of in-person classes.
“As governor, I would open the schools. That would be the plan,” said Forest, the Republican running against Cooper.
Forest did not offer specifics about reopening schools. “You really don’t need a plan. You can follow people that are doing this all over the world,” Forest said.
But many Democrats say schools are making the right call in being cautious about returning students to school.
“Instead of trying to bully school districts into reopening, our elected officials should be working to ensure every one of our North Carolina schools have the funding they need for PPE, contact tracing and learning technology to make sure our students and educators are safe,” Jen Mangrum, the Democratic candidate for state superintendent, said in a statement.
“While Governor Cooper has prioritized giving schools the tools they need for success, Republicans in the General Assembly have given up and left town to go campaign for re-election.”
Senate Democratic leadership responded to the Republicans’ news conference Wednesday with a statement.
“We all want students back in the classroom,” said Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Wake County Democrat.
“But, we also need to keep kids, educators, and families safe. There is no perfect solution to this unprecedented public health crisis. School leaders need to consider appropriate safety practices for in-person learning, and how to manage the workload for staff who are juggling in-person and virtual classes,” Chaudhuri said.
Many students not in school since March
The majority of the state’s students haven’t had face-to-face classes since Cooper ordered school buildings closed in mid-March to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Cooper allowed schools to reopen in August under social-distancing rules that limit how many students can ride buses and be on campus. Students and school employees also have to wear face coverings and pass daily temperature checks and health screenings before they’re allowed on campus
But the majority of school districts took the option Cooper gave to continue using online classes only. But even when students return, they’ll likely not get full-time, in-person instruction.
The state’s social-distancing restrictions mean that schools can’t operate at full capacity. At those schools, student get in-person instruction for a few days a week or every other week or two. The rest of the time they take online classes.
In contrast, many private schools have reopened with daily in-person classes. They’re not subject to the same reopening rules as public schools.
Face masks questioned
The issue of wearing face coverings has become political as well.
“I don’t think that there’s any science that backs that up,” Forest said of wearing face masks.
Forest also said the state shouldn’t require students and teachers to wear face coverings in schools.
“When I’m governor I would lift the mask mandate for the state and allow individual freedom to decide whether they wear a mask,” Forest said.
Berger said it should be a local decision whether face coverings are required to be worn at school.
“Some of the systems may decide that kids in kindergarten don’t need to wear masks,” Berger said. “Some may decide that they should wear masks.”
Cooper’s office challenged the statements made by Berger and Forest.
“It’s stunning that these elected leaders want to fill up our classrooms today without a safety plan, take away the state-wide mask requirement and put our children at risk, all to try and make a political splash,” Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said in an emailed statement.
“We all want to get our children back in school as soon as possible but we must follow the science and data and make sure we do so safely,” Porter said.
Frustration grows among parents
The continued use of online classes has led to growing frustration among families.
“Remote learning has been detrimental the well-being of our kids,” said Sandy Joiner, the parent of a Wake County high school senior.
Joiner said her son asks each week when he can return to school. The Wake County school system has a target date of returning students on Oct. 26, but no decision has been made yet.
Tara Deane, a Wake County parent, said that remote learning is failing her two adopted special-needs children from China. Deane says she’s had to put one child on medication because remote learning has made her so agitated that she’s been self-mutilating.
“COVID isn’t killing my children right now,” Deane said. “But they are dying inside from a lack of schedule, socialization, education and due to total isolation.
“I’m begging you to put these vulnerable children and others at the forefront of the discussions and the decision making and allow schools to reopen today before any further damage is done.”
Michele Morrow, a Wake County parent and nurse, said teachers have a ‘great immune system” and shouldn’t worry about returning to classrooms. She said those teachers who are immune compromised should be teaching online classes and not delaying students from returning to school.
“If you’ve been a school teacher for years, you have the immune system of steel because, just like healthcare workers, you are around children all day long who aren’t the best at covering their mouth or nose when they sneeze or cough,” Morrow said. “They’re not good at washing their hands after they go to the bathroom.”
Some teachers responded skeptically to Morrow’s comments.
“I might have an ‘immune system of steel’ but that doesn’t mean I want to put family members at risk who are immune-compromised,” Dawn Ward, a Wake County teacher, tweeted Wednesday. “I am ready to return to face-to-face instruction, once it’s safe for us all.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 11:47 AM.
.jpg)
