Dear Governor Hutchinson: You don’t know me, at least not well. I’ve interviewed you by phone when you were a young U.S. attorney in western Arkansas and I was a reporter at The Associated Press. I interviewed you again last year about Henderson State University’s financial troubles.
You were always professional and polite. I have no reason to think you are anything other than the good man and astute leader you appear to be. For the most part, I think you’ve also been a good, even moderate governor at a time when the word “moderate” is abhorred and the word “extremist” is revered.
Now, I am asking you not to leave the coronavirus plague, especially in our public schools and colleges, for the next governor to address. First, it will be too late then for the more than 1,000 who already have died in Arkansas and for others who no doubt will die by that time. Second, that next governor may well be too extremist to choose to do anything substantial unless it’s politically popular with their base.
As a former teacher, I know the challenges many teachers have faced for years in Arkansas, a state that has never adequately compensated them. Add to that the daily fear teachers now face for their lives and for carrying the coronavirus home to their families, and I can only imagine what they face.
I understand the practical and educational needs for children, especially the youngest, to attend school on campus if at all feasible. But we have long agreed that when children are sick, it’s not feasible or morally responsible for us to send them to school. When there’s a deadly out-of-control pandemic, we also should agree that health needs to trump school absentee rates. That’s especially true because many people who have the virus are asymptomatic and unknowingly spread the illness.
A few things Johnny Key, who heads the state’s Department of Education, and other state officials may not have told you:
Teachers have some classes with so many students that the seats cannot be spaced far apart enough even to pretend they’re socially distanced.
Not all schools have provided teachers with adequate personal safety equipment such as masks or plastic shields. One teacher I know said his school provided teachers with paper towels and antiseptic cleanser to clean desks as well as soap for each room. But the school did not give teachers a single cloth mask or face shield. Each student gets two masks and one more if needed.
Even the grocery store chain Kroger gives employees a clean mask each day. I know because a close relative of mine is a part-time employee there.
Schools sometimes have unusually small advanced classes. One teacher told me he had one class of six students, five of whom were in quarantine as of last week. That same teacher doesn’t know from one period to the next how many students to expect in classes because some parents are dropping their children off at school at lunch time or at other times of the day.
We’ve effectively told the public that our teachers are babysitters, not instructors, so hours are apparently voluntary these days. We call politicians who often make more than teachers public servants, but treat teachers like teenage babysitters.
Those who have labored in public schools (certainly not Betsy DeVos) know better and want better for our students and our teachers.
We should also be more protective of our college students. As it is, we now tell those students to practice social distancing, to wear masks, to avoid parties. Then, we not only allow but encourage then to run onto a football field and tackle each other, after we postpone a game so that we can get enough healthy players on the football field.
Last week, Arkansas State University announced the postponement of its game against the University of Central Arkansas. ASU’s news release was a perfect example of a government agency using jargon, omission and platitudes as a way to confuse readers.
The release never mentioned the coronavirus and said in part, “The game’s postponement is due to Arkansas State being unable to assemble a full two-deep depth chart at a specific position group due to player unavailability.
“It was not the volume of total players unavailable, but rather the inability to field a safe number of players among the depleted position group that required the game be rescheduled,” the release added.
There was also the token voice of concern. ”While no one wanted this outcome, the health and safety of our student-athletes will always come first,” Athletic Director Terry Mohajir said. “We will remain diligent in our health and safety protocols.”
How transparent of a publicly financed university not to mention the virus or its statistics at the college, at least among athletes. The school didn’t have to publish names, but it should have been forthright.
Are we Arkansans really going to pretend to rely on our young people and their teachers to bail us out of the virus-related economic problems? We already are allowing them to take the chances the rest of us are too scared to take physically or financially when we should work together to follow health guidelines. Until then, the economy won’t return to normal.
If college and public-school students went fully online for the rest of the semester, we might be free of this virus far sooner than we otherwise would be.
I understand colleges need the money they get from students who live in residence halls and eat on campus. But is that money worth one student’s life? Is it worth the life of one, two or three relatives the student might expose to the virus?
I gather, Governor, that you said college athletics have a more “controlled” environment than some college activities. That may be true, but if one 19- or 20-year-old player doesn’t follow the rules (hard to fathom, I know), then that “controlled” environment is suddenly uncontrolled.
My wallet is important to me. My life and my family’s lives are more important. I hope you and other Arkansans agree.
Debra Hale-Shelton can be reached at dhaleshelton@gmail.com . Follow her on Twitter at @nottalking.