This petition is for the Kalamazoo County community. For every single parent household who can’t afford to stay home for their children’s virtual learning. For the dual working homes requiring dual incomes. For the service industry (healthcare, grocery, retail, daycares, technicians, etc) who have been risking their health to serve the community and keep us functioning. For the teachers and public school staff that will undoubtedly lose their jobs due to increased costs involved with virtual learning.

Health care workers are the largest group of employees in the region. Your grocery workers, your technicians, among other workers; do not have the luxury of staying at home from their jobs to monitor their young children while they are involved in virtual learning. 

As has been argued in the courts, education is vital to our daily lives. It is not something we can take for granted and toss aside for one year. Young children as our teachers have argued for years (for smaller class sizes in elementary) are at pivotal ages of development that could impact their entire lives, especially in their success in middle school and high school academics.

Concern with class size. Take a survey and gather information on how many students will be face to face. I’m sure you will be surprised to find that number will not be the average 22-25 it is right now. As there are families willing and capable of keeping their children home. That is a blessing for them. Unfortunately, that is not a luxury for everyone. Nor would you want it to be if you are in a car accident and the trauma doctors and surgeons and their staff are understaffed due to inability to work and teach their young children. This option alone will allow for more safety as there will be less students in the classroom.

Many daycares have been open from the beginning and there have been no significant increase in pediatric cases across the nation. to argue that daycares are safer than a public school is illogical as any parent can tell you the number of viruses and infections our children come home with each year. Speaking of, they are full. There is not enough space for all of the children that would now require daycare. For those who would still argue, remember that public school is significantly more structured learning where children come in prepared to learn. Daycare is all about socialization and independence in a supervised area. If you look at any Y-5 or K preparation information, the requirements for students speak volumes to what they expect when student begin their academic endeavors. It is not a bunch of children licking each other all day. My young child will tell you how they were adamant about hand washing and hygiene. Our 1st grade teacher would send weekly reminders regarding health and wellness. 

The numbers of parents who can and are willing to keep their kids at home is actually quite large, so the risk will already be significantly reduced.

Follow the CDC’s guidelines and realize the children will be fine. This is not about the children, this is about you. I guarantee parents will be more than happy to assist in providing protective equipment that is available to protect you. Of which is more than the majority of the healthcare, grocery, and daycare workers.

One of our own, Bronson’s Director of Infectious Diseases and professor at WMU has already provided for the reality of the situation. That a vaccine does not solve this virus, as 80% of people will not get the vaccine. That this virus will continue for at least one more year. This is the reality. We cannot destroy our community over the fears of one group while every other group is sacrificing. 

Imagine if you you will, the impact on our local and State economy if the many parents are forced to stay home. Imagine the parents who will now become homeless as they will be forced to choose to not work or pay an excess amount for in home care. Imagine the healthcare community which is already short handed at Borgess, Bronson, and the smaller facilities, if they lose valuable staff and are unable to function efficiently. Imagine your local grocery store that cannot staff enough to keep inventory. Imagine the technicians who come to your home or work on your vehicles in emergency situations. The list goes on and on. Every industry is doing their part. Now is not the time to act as if one groups lives and fears are of more value than another. 

We are all concerned and have anxiety, yet everyone (relatively speaking) is doing their part to keep safety. We are trying to stay functioning and risk our health to continue normalcy and provide services to the community. Nothing less is being asked of teachers. 

Teachers have concerns. As they should. Address the issues as they arrive. Like they teach our children every day in regards to problem solving. The Portage Public School district came out with a fair plan suitable for all families. What lesson is this, that we invent issue after issue, without any regard to solving the problem. Providing input and ideas to consider the families who CANNOT provide for remote learning. 
This is not a debate. There must be an option for face to face learning for the families that absolutely need it.