The Battle to Reopen Schools

If we've got this mostly under control this Summer, with a fair amount of active cases still bouncing around, there will be a huge debate midsummer when the early districts decide whether to reopen or not. The teachers' unions will argue that reopening the schools is too risky. It could cause a New York/Italy style outbreak. Online teaching is still the safest best way to do things.

The parents will argue that daycare/childcare expenses for a typical family are staggering, and few two-income families can afford $1000+ a month in daycare.

So, what does a state do? Provide daycare vouchers? Take a gamble and cautiously reopen schools? Maybe split the classes into thirds and teach 1/3 of the class every day? You could do a fair amount of social distancing with only 10 kids in the room, but that leaves the parents on the hook for the other 2/3 of the school days.

 

Why should the government provide daycare vouchers? If you have a kid figure it out. Besides slot of people are now working from home because of this.

 

Is stuff like this not what the stimulus is for?

 

Isn't this kind of an unusual circumstance? Responsible family planning is one thing, but you're talking a level of preparedness no normal person will reach, nor should they. That's WHY we have government: for emergencies like these.

 

Schools will start to reopen in early August. If we're still mailing out checks by then... we are in deep trouble.