Re: “Our View: Maine schools will need money to reopen” (June 21):
We can all agree with the editor’s initial statements: “Maine’s economy won’t really be open until the kids are back in school. Parents, who have been juggling child care and home schooling since March won’t be able to fully re-enter the workforce until their children are out of the house on a reliable schedule.”
Beyond that, here is where we differ: Statistically, the latest federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Maine fatality numbers for all citizens under age 64 simply do not remotely support the rationale for school closure!
Over the last three-plus months there have been no COVID-19 deaths in the age 0-64 student-staff population range. Thus, the actual risk level of reopening all schools on schedule is very, very low. Who has been hardest hit? Only us seniors.
Further, not only are the draft Maine CDC-Department of Education distance/part-time classroom guidelines are both physically and logistically impossible to implement, but also an acceptable level of educational results cannot successfully be delivered. Educators and students can teach and students can learn at the optimum only when in the classroom – full time! A question: If students are not in classrooms full time, why should Maine’s taxpayers be required to shell out billions of our hard-earned property tax dollars for a substandard educational result?
The Press Herald Editorial Board promotes the idea that Maine should instead go begging for federal money – for substandard K-12 learning. No! Come September, full-time classroom education is the only real answer!
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