February 19 – With local school board meetings on the schedule for this coming week, discussions on bringing kids back to school cranks up.Attorney Clint Barkdoll, Pat Ryan and Michele Jansen on Friday morning’s “Big Talk” live after 7:11am on 103.7FM discussed the issue.
The scientific community has offered a nearly unanimous opinion that schools are safe places, yet many of them remain closed.
“We are really failing the kids in these public education systems,” Barkdoll said. “These boards that are refusing to open, I don’t think they understand the long-term consequences that this is creating.”
The fear is if this goes into April, the argument may be made that at this point, the schools should remain closed for the rest of the year and they’ll tackle the issue again in the fall. That means, students would have lost an entire year in addition to what was lost last spring.
Jansen believes the public unions are way too cozy with politicians, particularly school boards.
“(Teacher’s unions) donate the most money to the Democrat Party of any institution,” she said. “This is not good for our society. Our children are being affected by this. Can you imagine the outcry if some industry donated that much money to the Republican Party and they were basing decisions on that industry’s input?”
Barkdoll noted that reopening schools has become an issue that is crossing party lines.
“You’re seeing a lot of sort of leftist progressive groups joining this chorus saying there’s no reason to stay closed,” he noted. “You’re seeing the same calls from the right.”
Indeed, the city of San Francisco, Ca., a particularly liberal city, is suing the school board to reopen the schools.
