Keeping Conn. schools open a vital goal
COVID-19 has taught us not to be confident about what the future holds. We all want to keep Connecticut’s children in schools. No one can guarantee that will happen. The one thing we can be sure of when the calendar flips in a couple weeks is that the discourse over how to handle the pandemic will be infected by the gubernatorial election.
Gov. Ned Lamont embraced executive privileges as if to prove the maxim that the person who walks fastest walks alone. He got a lot done, and quickly, to navigate Connecticut through the pandemic’s most treacherous waters.
But those waters have turned out to be deeper than expected. The state has been staying afloat for 21 months, largely due to Lamont’s conservative approach to reopening business and schools. The new wave of recent cases has many parents and educators wary that winter will deliver more remote learning. Lamont remains steadfast this will not happen. “Our schools opened a year-plus ago, they opened safely, they were some of the safest places in Connecticut,” he said Monday. “I’m doing everything I can to make sure we keep our schools open for inperson learning.”
It’s the right goal, and one we’re confident will be shared by Republican challengers hoping to knock Lamont out of office next November. But it’s important that politics not get in the way of the best decisions being made for families and educators.
COVID infections spiked during the bustling holiday season a year ago, a pattern that is sadly repeating 12 months later. Understandably, that’s causing some school districts to blink.
With the virus spreading locally, Stratford officials started considering a revival of remote learning, even sending a warning flare in the form of a letter home to parents.
The New Britain school district tried to go remote early in the school year, but was thwarted by the state. State education officials pointed to its latest rules that “generally do not permit remote learning for the 2021–22 school year.”
Someone had the wisdom to include that conditional word “generally,” as rules might as well be written in sand during this crisis.
All politicians should at least agree for the coming months that the goal is to keep students in the classroom. It’s the safest place for them physically and emotionally. Distance learning has also reminded us that students with the greatest need also have the most to lose. It’s not just the challenge to provide computers and internet access. They also need a nearby adult with a flexible schedule.
Keeping students in the classroom doesn’t mean disregarding other safety measures. Health experts still advise masking and, yes, getting vaccines. For the harping naysayers, it’s worth bookmarking that more than 80 percent of the 1,800 recent COVID cases in schools were not vaccinated.
And, of course, there is one rule for parents that’s as evergreen as the traditional flu: If children are sick, keep them home. No one needs a governor’s mandate to practice common sense.
COVID infections spiked during the bustling holiday season a year ago, a pattern that is sadly repeating 12 months later. Understandably, that’s causing some school districts to blink.