Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely
he Oklahoma City Public Schools’ “Roadmap to Readiness” is a good blueprint for reopening schools. It is consistent with the leaked 69-page Center for Disease Control analysis that the Trump administration refused to release, which also described school reopenings as the “highest risk” for coronavirus spread.
However, President Donald Trump pushes forward, saying, “We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.”
That’s one of three reasons why OKCPS’ “Roadmap to Readiness” should be subtitled, “Minimizing the Harm This Year.” As Oklahoma’s largest school district creeps toward a potential return to the classroom this fall, governmental policies will determine whether schools can limit the inevitable damage.
Looking at all models, ‘none of them are great’
To understand what it would take to safely reopen schools, we should recall the third week of May. After studying published CDC recommendations, OKCPS Superintendent Sean McDaniel addressed the balancing of in-school instruction and virtual learning.
“We looked and talked about all the models,” McDaniel said. “None of them are great, and every one of them is going to cause a level of alarm.”
Two months ago, such honesty wasn’t the only thing the OKCPS had going for it. Oklahoma City was doing an excellent job combating COVID-19, following the CONTINUE READING: Why it keeps getting harder to reopen schools safely
