Anne Arundel is holding 84,000 students hostage

The Anne Arundel County Public School System educates 84,000 future leaders, entrepreneurs, thinkers, andproblem solvers. We are home to dedicated teachers and staff who lift up every child to meet their full potential.

As many parents may know, you learn that all your kids are different — not just in personalities, but also in their learning styles. Understanding these differences has helped me as a parent make the best decision about choosing what kind of school setting is best formy kids.

County leadership and the teachers union are obstacles to parents being able to have that option. The teacher’s union is wielding its power unchecked and stifling the growth of our students.

They are doing their best to keep our dedicated teachers out of their vitally importantpositions. For the record, there is no doubt that teachers hold one of the most challenging jobs out there. Constituents are not satisfied with politics affecting their children and howthey earn an education.

Unfortunately, the reality of not reopening schools is considered political because the persona is political. On many different levels, we are being disproportionately affected by county leadership in their idea of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Anne Arundel private schools have demonstrated their ability to effectively host in-person classes, so why is it that Anne Arundel public schools cannot?

If Anne Arundel County Public Schools cannot meet this expectation, are they then demonstrating ineffective leadership incapable of proposing strategic planning? This supports my statement that the persona is political because an ineffectively run service is being funded by our taxes.

The taxpayers have spent their hardearned money to offer topnotch education opportunities for children regardless of who they are. We have invested to ensure that special needs learners are offered services that allowthem the same opportunities in life as their peers who learn differently. Families who are low income are supported to ensure that regardless of a family’s economic status their kids have the same opportunity for success as those with higher incomes and more resources. What we are silently and complicity witnessing is the deteriorations of all those necessary efforts.

The fact that children are not back in school is exacerbating the education gapwe have worked hard to minimize. If virtual learning is effective for your child, that’s great.

For the kids who struggle with learning online and do not have the resources or home environment to effectively participate in class, there should be an option for them also. We have spent countless dollars, energy, thought, and heart into investing in all children to give up on them now!

Let’s be a part of the solution and not the problem: safely reopen our schools, even if a hybrid system is in place. We cannot only consider a virus and then forget about depression, special needs learners, lower income-families, andevery single childwho deserves to have their future be as bright as we possibly can; within the means that we have.