STAN ALBAUGH RE: RETURN TO SCHOOL

In the last several days, most of us have been appalled at the threats from Washington to withhold funds from our most vulnerable children if our public school systems do not return to requiring all students to attend school in person with full classrooms. Fortunately, most decisions about how to operate our schools are made at the local level by school boards and communities who know best how to educate our young people. But it also takes leadership from the top level of state government and we’ve seen very little of that from Governor Holcomb and his super-majority Statehouse colleagues.

Our public schools are not designed, equipped, or funded to provide, during a pandemic, the same quality of education that our children receive in “normal” times. Indiana already fails to properly fund public education and now our schools, teachers and students are facing an unprecedented challenge with limited resources and no guidance from our elected officials. How is a first grade teacher supposed to keep 25 children six feet apart while also making sure they keep their masks on and don’t share crayons, books, toys and other school equipment? What is the plan for making sure all school employees have the appropriate type and amount of PPE on hand for themselves and for students? Where are the funds for ensuring that those children who must stay home have access to the right technology that will allow them to continue receiving their education? And how does our state legislature intend to address the fact that despite all our precautions, the coronavirus will inevitably be shared and spread in our public schools by those who are asymptomatic carriers? 

This virus isn’t on its second wave – it’s still riding the first. And if Indiana does not protect its public schools and the children who attend it, even more Hoosier families will lose parents, grandparents, spouses and, yes, children to this horrible virus. We must work proactively with our education communities and assist them with whatever resources they deem necessary for meeting this enormous challenge. Hoosiers are resilient and always ready to rise to the task but we need to work together. I ask Governor Holcomb and the Statehouse majority to stop listening to the threats from D.C. and start listening to Hoosiers.