{"id":2556,"date":"2021-01-20T12:39:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/mulletarchive\/?p=2556"},"modified":"2021-01-20T12:46:13","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:46:13","slug":"subject-line-why-we-should-open-schools-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/mulletarchive\/2021\/01\/20\/subject-line-why-we-should-open-schools-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we should open schools now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear friends and neighbors:<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a parent, there\u2019s a strong chance you share my interest in getting our kids back in school. I say this not just because I\u2019ve heard from scores of concerned parents but because I\u2019m a father with six kids and the husband of a schoolteacher. Whatever we do legislatively, I\u2019m going to have to live with personally.<\/p>\n<p>The thing is, we need to act now if we have any hope of getting schools reopened in time to salvage a meaningful portion of the school year. That\u2019s important, because if there\u2019s anything kids, parents and educators can agree on, it\u2019s that remote schooling is nowhere near as effective as in-person classes.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why this has been my biggest priority since before the legislative session even began. I\u2019m working to provide schools the funds they need to provide safe classrooms and get students and teachers vaccinated, because I know that education is the best and most lasting investment we can make. But that investment can\u2019t pay off if we don\u2019t ensure a safe environment. And I am confident we can do exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot to do, but I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. What\u2019s more, we can\u2019t afford not to. Getting kids back in school will allow many parents who are staying home to return to their jobs and help restart our economy. It makes sense for our kids, for our households, and for our communities.<\/p>\n<p>I commend the governor\u2019s accelerated timetable for getting teachers vaccinated, but I think his metrics for reopening schools leave room for improvement. Since there\u2019s no correlation between areas with high rates of infection and kids attending schools, there\u2019s no good reason to keep kids home. Many other states where kids are already attending school nevertheless have lower infection rates than Washington.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I\u2019m the lead cosponsor of <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary?BillNumber=5037&amp;Initiative=false&amp;Year=2021\">Senate Bill 5037<\/a> and am pushing for its swift passage. I thought it had a good hearing Monday and am optimistic it will be passed out of committee.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, I\u2019m looking to increase my feedback back to the district by providing short, weekly video updates. You can find this week\u2019s update on my <u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/294414537927088\/posts\/720940838607787\/\">Facebook page<\/a><\/u> and on my <u><a href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/mulletarchive\/2021\/01\/20\/video-update-why-we-should-reopen-our-schools\/\">Senate webpage<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>Best regards,<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1531\" src=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/mulletarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2020\/01\/mullet-signature.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"49\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear friends and neighbors: If you\u2019re a parent, there\u2019s a strong chance you share my interest in getting our kids back in school. I say this not just because I\u2019ve heard from scores of concerned parents but because I\u2019m a father with six kids and the husband of a schoolteacher. Whatever we do legislatively, I\u2019m going to have to live with personally. The thing is, we need to act now if we have any hope of getting schools reopened in time to salvage a meaningful portion of the school year. That\u2019s important, because if there\u2019s anything kids, parents and educators&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":1532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why we should open schools now - Mark Mullet Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/senatedemocrats.wa.gov\/mulletarchive\/2021\/01\/20\/subject-line-why-we-should-open-schools-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why we should open schools now - Mark Mullet Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear friends and neighbors: If you\u2019re a parent, there\u2019s a strong chance you share my interest in getting our kids back in school. I say this not just because I\u2019ve heard from scores of concerned parents but because I\u2019m a father with six kids and the husband of a schoolteacher. Whatever we do legislatively, I\u2019m going to have to live with personally. The thing is, we need to act now if we have any hope of getting schools reopened in time to salvage a meaningful portion of the school year. 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