By Senator Craig Brandt
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has come out with a report recommending guidelines for school reopening. In short, their recommendation is that kids need to go back to school in person. So why isn’t our Governor listening?
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Lujan Grisham has made every decision without input from the people most affected by her decisions. She has closed businesses, and forced the layoff over 100,000 workers. Hundreds of those businesses are closed for good and thousands of jobs are gone forever.
Her administration kicked senior citizens out of their nursing home with less than 24 hours notice to make room for more lucrative residents – Without Their Consent! She has decimated our economy and ruined lives without regard for the long-term consequences of her decisions.
The new school year is here and she is doubling down, but this time it is our children who will pay the price. Why would the AAP tell us to send our kids back to school? Studies have shown that: 1) COVID-19 is less dangerous than the flu to children, and 2) closing schools last spring was detrimental to their well-being.
When doctors are telling you to do something and a politician is telling you to do the exact opposite, it should be a no brainer who to listen to. Governor Grisham claims that science drives her every decision but she is ignoring the science. Is there something else going on here?
Just last week Human Service Secretary Dr. David Scrase stated that – “One of the nuances we’re learning from doing the reading is that what actually increases spread is not the kids going to school, it’s that the parents are now free with their kids in school to go out and about, have more contacts, go to stores – you know go back to work for example in person, rather than working from home.”
In other words, they are keeping kids out of school not because it is dangerous to them, but because it allows their parents to go out and work, and live their lives. Using children to control their parents is outrageous at best and scandalous at worst.
The Governor’s hybrid school model will result in children going without in-person instruction three days a week. Working parents will not be home to help with “remote learning,” or they will be forced to quit their jobs. Those are the awful options.
One-in-five, mostly poor and minority children, who don’t have a computer or internet access will be completely out of luck.
How long will it take to recover from a full year of lost instruction? How many high school students will simply drop out of school for good? How much further behind will our children drop in national rankings, can we do worse than 50? Maybe 54 behind the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and Samoa?
The hybrid model is a recipe for disaster and it’s simply not necessary. We should allow families concerned with getting sick to go with an all online model. That would immediately reduce class sizes across the state. Online instruction discriminates against poor and rural families, so give them the option to put their children in school 5 days a week. This solves every problem (including the Martinez / Yazzie Lawsuit) and is consistent with what pediatricians are saying.
Parents should have some say in their children’s well-being and education. It’s time for the Governor to listen to parents, listen to doctors, listen to the science and do what is best for our kids.