Biden's plans to bring back in-person education
By Juliet Swimmer, Staff Writer
As COVID-19 case numbers surge across the country, president-elect Joe Biden has laid out his plan to combat the pandemic. On Nov. 9, Biden announced his COVID-19 task force which is composed of virus experts and scientists.
Biden has laid out his plan for once he comes into office with five important steps to return to in-person learning. First, his administration is going to make testing easily accessible and free by doubling nationwide testing and tracing, double the number of drive-through testing sites and make the treatment free. Biden’s teams of medical experts plan to deploy necessary supplies (PPE) such as masks, goggles and other protective gear by qualifying them as emergency protective measures, and will implement a mask mandate, not only for students but for everyone.
Samo H-House principal, Tristan Komlos, discussed Samo’s plan for how they will eventually reopen.
“We have a campus COVID-19 Compliance Team (comprised of our nurse, administrators, custodial supervisor, activities and athletics directors) that reviews weekly reports from the county,” Komlos said.
This compliance team also looks at protocol compliance, adjusts protocols as instructed and would activate contact tracing if any employee or student on campus tested positive for COVID-19.
Many Samo students are still trying to figure out how they feel about both the district’s and country’s approaches.
“I agree with the plan of mobilizing the federal government to help safely reopen Schools and Child Care Programs but I am worried that reopening can still be dangerous [if there is] no vaccine,” Max Morley (’21) said.
One of the most important tasks for president-elect Biden is reopening schools safely. His plan starts with giving more authority to state and local officials to discuss the safest ways their communities can go back to in-person learning by discussing the possibilities of hybrid learning options.
Samo Principal Dr. Shelton believes it’s wisest to trust the authorities when it comes to reopening school.
“We still would do whatever the Public Health Department tells us to do, and what the science says—it wouldn't matter if [Trump] won or not. We're going to go by science and that's the appropriate way to approach this,” Dr. Shelton said.
Furthermore, Biden is working on plans for effective and safe distribution of a vaccine by working with major pharmaceutical companies like CVS and Walgreens. This could make getting the vaccine easier for Samo families since many already go to these places for their everyday pharmaceutical needs.
President-elect Biden also acknowledges the importance of providing emergency funding for public schools and child care providers. He wants to do this by urging the Republican majority Senate to pass the $58 billion bill to stabilize public education and save jobs for local school districts. Biden’s final ideas are closing the COVID-19 educational equity gap by increasing broadband access and ensuring high-quality learning during the COVID-19 pandemic through giving teachers and students adequate resources to continue with online learning.
