End School Closures On Whitmer’s Watch
Freedom Fund Demands Governor Whitmer Open the Schools – or Give Funding to Parents to Choose Open Schools
LANSING, MI – Detroit and Flint public school districts are fighting to keep kids locked out of classrooms indefinitely just days after the Michigan Democratic Party posted a statement critical of parental rights in education. The Detroit Schools Superintendent is asking for a vaccine mandate before students return while Flint has announced their schools will be virtual indefinitely despite receiving the largest amount of COVID money per student in the state.
Michigan Freedom Fund’s Executive Director Tori Sachs condemned the continued school lockouts across the state and demanded Governor Gretchen Whitmer advocate to get kids back in their classrooms – or send funding directly to parents so they can send their kids to a school that will educate them.
“Thousands of students have been locked out of classrooms for over a month in large cities whose districts received the most COVID money for schools,” said Tori Sachs. “If Whitmer won’t fight to ensure students get an education that works for them, then it’s time to give families the money to send their children to a school that does.”
“Students in districts like Flint and Detroit haven’t been in class for more than a month, but Governor Whitmer won’t lift a finger or make a single phone call to help them,” Sachs continued. “Michigan school districts have received billions in COVID funding in addition to record per-pupil state funding, so there’s absolutely no excuse for locking school doors and leaving kids in the cold. Michigan children deserve an education.”
Columnist Ingrid Jacques writes in today’s Detroit News: Forget parents. Dems think ‘society’ knows what’s best for kids
“Too many families are getting taken advantage of by Democrats and the teachers unions who fund them. This is apparent in the ongoing wars over whether schools are ‘safe’ to open, which has wreaked havoc on parents, especially mothers who’ve had to quit their jobs over the uncertainty.”
In the last year, Whitmer has vetoed reading scholarships, opportunity scholarships, and refused to hold closed schools accountable, despite millions of dollars in federal COVID relief meant to keep kids in the classroom.
Across the state of Michigan, an estimated 95,000 children were locked out of their classrooms at the beginning of the calendar year by union bosses and school bureaucrats. Many of those students remain locked out of their classrooms – some indefinitely.
Democrats, Republicans, and public health experts across the nation continue calling for a return to in-person learning and are opposing devastating school closures by bureaucrats in response to COVID-19 case rates, but Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer still refuses to stand up for Michigan’s kids.
Related: School Closures Were a Catastrophic Error. Progressives Still Haven’t Reckoned With It.
