A reckless Republican stunt on reopening NC schools

There’s legitimate debate to have about whether North Carolina public school districts are moving fast enough toward in-person classes. In Charlotte and Raleigh, parents are drumming their fingers at the proposed pace of bringing students back to school. We hope districts continue to listen to families with genuine concerns about their children’s education.

Then there’s the political stunt N.C. Republican leaders, including Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, pulled this week.

In a news conference Wednesday, Republicans irresponsibly demanded that Gov. Roy Cooper give all public school parents a choice to send their children to full-time in-person classes, a move that essentially would result in all N.C. schools being forced to reopen their doors regardless of the level of COVID-19 spread in their communities.

Not satisfied at being merely unreasonable, Forest also declared that students and teachers shouldn’t be required to wear masks at school. “I don’t think that there’s any science that backs that up,” he said.

The lieutenant governor might want to introduce himself to a search engine. A few keystrokes would unearth the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that “appropriate and consistent use of masks is most important when students, teachers, and staff are indoors and when social distancing of at least 6 feet is difficult to implement or maintain.” The World Health Organization feels the same, and school districts across the U.S. are overwhelmingly requiring the use of masks.

Forest might also find that laboratory studies and epidemiological studies have affirmed the effectiveness of facial coverings against the spread of COVID-19. Just Wednesday, CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield held up a mask in congressional testimony and said, “I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.”

Redfield added that Americans hadn’t yet embraced the use of masks to a level that could effectively control the outbreak. One reason for that is public officials like Forest, who is running for governor and regularly appears at campaign events without wearing a mask and while standing closely to supporters. Forest spokesperson Andrew Dunn told the Editorial Board Wednesday that “The Lt. Gov. believes people should have the freedom to choose to wear a mask or not wear a mask and that it should not be mandated by the government.” When asked if Forest believes masks work against COVID, Dunn declined to answer.

Politicizing COVID is not new to Forest, who sued Cooper earlier this year over the governor’s virus restrictions and said closing restaurants and dining rooms was a bad idea. He’s consistently delivered the wrong message to North Carolinians on the virus, and that signal, delivered for too long by too many Republicans, is part of why so many of our children are looking at their teachers on screen instead of in-person.

NC Republicans, led by Senate leader Phil Berger and State Superintendent candidate Catherine Truitt, would like those children back at school. So would we. Students, especially those with technology struggles and troubling home situations, are best served in a real classroom. But it’s reckless to mandate that schools open to any parent who wants to send a child each day. Such an order would create logistical and workload chaos for administrators and teachers (“You don’t really need a plan,” Forest said, incredibly, of reopening) and it’s not safe yet to open fully across the state.

It’s also, quite simply, not going to happen right now. Berger and Forest surely know this, but November is coming and Republicans apparently see some political currency in parents’ impatience. It’s irresponsible politics that creates unrealistic expectations, and it doesn’t help the important discussion that needs to happen about how to realistically, and smartly, do what’s best for our children.

This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 9:59 AM.