The Plain Talk We Need
/I didn’t hear many answers yesterday. Did you?
Neither to my own four questions (see below) nor from local and state elected leaders telling us what they think about Washington’s threat to cut funding for schools. At a time like this.
We are now well accustomed to the latter - this unhelpful fear of most elected officials to speak out against even the strangest statements issuing from the Trump White House. Has that reluctance has now reached to the level of elected school board members? Have you calculating that President Trump has so worn out his welcome as any kind of policy-maker, that he has so squandered any credibility his office has that what he says or tweets just doesn’t matter? Then, let us hear you say at least that.
But let’s forget Trump and his empty bluster for a moment.
We are still clinging to the hope that Metro Nashville Schools leaders will state more clearly - and very soon - how our own schools will safely re-open sometime this fall. We know the problems you face. Let’s have some frank talk about the answers, and the basic Four Questions of yesterday morning are still good ones:
How will our classrooms actually work?
How will elementary schools and high schools differ in functional arrangements for the fall?
How will the issues surrounding remote-learning, especially the hard learnings of last spring, be corrected now? Almost a third of Nashville students’ homes don’t have computers.
What level of creativity are Nashville’s school leaders bringing to this critical planning? Will there be new variations of the school day, facilities usage, and transportation schedules to make possible enough separation of children?
This is a time of worry and great stress on the part of parents who are your constituents. So drop the jargon and speak plainly. We don’t need more talking heads, ceremonially introducing other talking heads, at any more flag-adorned podiums. Parents are worried and deserve good answers.
We’re waiting.
© Keel Hunt, 2020
