Sumter senators push back on Gov. McMaster's school reopening plan

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Sumter's two state senators say getting K-12 students back to in-person classroom instruction is critical but that health care professionals should be making the decisions as to when that should occur, not the governor.

State Sens. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, and Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, spoke Thursday after Gov. Henry McMaster recommended Wednesday that all public schools in the state should open this fall five days a week for face-to-face instruction, regardless of COVID-19 spread.

The Republican governor said it should be up to parents to decide whether to send students to in-person classes or let their children take classes online at home, meaning schools should offer both options. He proposed the Tuesday after Labor Day, Sept. 8, as a start date for public schools across the state to give districts more time to prepare, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, also an elected Republican, reportedly declined McMaster's invitation to the news conference and released a statement later saying her goal is to reopen schools for five days a week "as safely and as soon as possible." But she indicated the choice should be left with local school districts on when it's safe.

McElveen and Johnson both said McMaster was off-base with his recommendations to Spearman and that the state should follow the guidance of health professionals, not a politician or elected official, on when it's safe to return to in-person classroom instruction.

Both senators referenced the governor's decision in mid-March to close schools because of the virus' spread and that current health conditions related to COVID-19 cases are worse than they were in March.

All school districts moved to distance learning, mostly via online instruction, for the final 2.5 months of last school year.

On March 15, the day McMaster announced he was closing schools through March 31, DHEC reported 12 new cases, according to the state agency's data. On March 24, when the governor closed schools through April, DHEC reported 42 new cases.

On July 15, when he said schools should reopen on Sept. 8 to in-person learning five days a week, DHEC reported 1,850 new cases of the virus.

Both also agreed that everybody wants in-person instruction for children, but the safety issue just won't allow for it right now. McElveen added that what he heard from McMaster's news conference didn't contain any clear plan.

"No one disagrees that we have got a significant number of students in this state who are falling behind and some are totally unaccounted for, and that's terrible," he said. "But when you sit there and say, 'We're going to go back to school and it's going to happen five days a week, it's going to happen in all 46 counties and all 81 school districts,' I just think that's not realistic, and that's not a plan."

He added that everyone needs to adjust with the virus and be fluid, but a one-size-fits-all approach will likely not work for everybody. The start of in-person instruction in schools may be at different times in different places across the state.

Logistics, resources and demographics are different in rural counties, such as Lee, Bamberg and Allendale counties, McElveen said, as opposed to counties like Charleston, Greenville and Lexington.

"For McMaster to give this blanket instruction," he said, "it's just not well-conceived. My point is I don't want to be cast as somebody who's saying, 'We shouldn't get kids back in school.' We should be doing everything we can to get them back in school. But it may have to look different depending on what that school's resources are and what are the demographics of their service area."

That's unfortunate, he said, but we don't live in a normal time right now, given the coronavirus.

Efforts to reach state Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, on Thursday were unsuccessful.