OPINION:
When I moved to Fairfax County 22 years ago, its public schools were among the best in the nation. No longer. FCPS schools are failing at their primary responsibility: ensuring students receive a first-rate education.
After nearly a year of distance learning, our children’s education is diminishing; their social and emotional health is disintegrating. Families are at a breaking point.
Fairfax County has an enviable education budget. But students are not in school. Buildings go unused. Sports, music and extracurriculars are offered only in diminished form, if at all.
The teachers union now advocates for school closure through fall 2021 and continues shifting goal posts for resuming in-person learning. Initially it was insisting teachers be vaccinated before returning to the classroom. Now it is demanding vaccination for all students and zero community spread.
By contrast, Anthony Fauci (NIAID), tells us spread among children is “not big at all.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Redfield concurs: “K-12 schools can operate with face-to-face learning, and they can do it safely.” Schools in other states are doing this now.
Unfortunately, elected officials are listening more closely to the teachers union than to science.
Families are scrambling to adapt, turning to private or home school or moving to jurisdictions with in-person learning. If school doors remain closed, more will follow.
A bill in the Virginia Senate offers hope. SB 1303 supports in-person learning. State senators should vote yes. If they don’t, voters should remember that these politicians put the teachers union before the children.
WENDY PETERSEN
Vienna, Va.
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