LANSING, Mich (WLNS) – President Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos want the schools reopened in the fall and want every child to spend five days a week in the classroom.
But some Michigan educators have something to say about that.
“It’s more a matter of a health discussion than an education discussion for the fall,” insists Don Wotrubs, CEO of the Michigan School Boards.
Great Lakes Education Project director Beth DeShone adds, “I would argue the mental and emotional well being of students is also a public health problem.”
And the president and Secretary DeVos feel the best place to address those concerns to be in a classroom seat every day.
Ms. DeVos asserts, “a choice of two days per week in the classroom is not a choice at all.”
But some Michigan educators view that statement this way.
“A blatant statement of everybody needs to be back in schools this fall is just unrealistic and doesn’t comport with the reality we are facing,” says Wotrubs.
State surveys show that upwards of 30% of parents won’t send their kids back to school thus forcing them to sit in front of a computer and not a teacher.
Wotrubs adds, “districts are planning how they can provide online learning, if not parents will go to charters for online learning and for the secretary, who has championed choice for years, this should be a choice that local public schools get to make.”
But Beth DeShone who runs the Great Lakes Education Project, with money from the DeVos family, counters that Ms. DeVos recognizes parents should have that option and the five-day school objective is a goal, not an inflexible demand.
“It’s a guiding principle that the secretary realizes the final decisions will be made locally,” says DeShone. “For GLEP giving every child an opportunity for five days in the classroom is the goal but there could be underlying health and safety concerns.”
Local schools are still trying to figure out what school will look like this fall with kids in, or not in, the classroom.
