Schools
Lamont: Don't Want Lost Year Of School For Kids
Gov. Ned Lamont said he doesn't want students to lose a year of education due to schools not reopening.
CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont said he doesn’t want a lost year of education for students, which is why it’s imperative to get them back in school in the fall.
“I do not want a lost year and when everyone says lets not go back to school until its perfectly safe … I worry that could be a lost year of education,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday.
Connecticut's positive coronavirus test rate has remained around 1 percent for about six weeks, Lamont said. The state was also one of the first in the country to close schools when the pandemic began and has been cautious in reopening the economy.
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“So I think if Connecticut can’t get reopened I don’t know who can in the country,” he said.
Lamont encouraged any teacher who wants to get a coronavirus test to do so at one of the 160 testing centers in the state.
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He said it was a tragedy that tens of thousands of children didn't log on to do remote learning during the spring. He said it was a challenge because it required parental supervision and said that there would be better coordination for this school year.
Connecticut is giving local school districts the option to have a full in-person school experience or a hybrid experience at the beginning of the year. Districts can also apply for a waiver for full remote learning, but the state is discouraging that.
The state is using $43.5 million of federal money to help close the digital divide for remote learning. The money is being used to buy 50,000 laptops and provide in-home access to broadband internet, as well as bolstering local Wi-Fi hot spots.
Connecticut is making $266 million available for reopening schools. About 55 percent of school districts are planning for full in-person learning and 44 percent are planning some sort of hybrid model, according to the state Department of Education.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said that schools should try to open for in-person learning because it offers psychological and in many cases nutritional benefits for children. Safety and welfare of children and their teachers still has to be the driving factor behind deciding how to open schools, he said.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that schools can help keep infections down by mandating mask use, maintaining social distancing to the maximum extent possible and increasing ventilation. He conceded that is easier said than done.
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