Governor Gretchen Whitmer held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to update the state on the fight against COVID-19. With the state’s numbers improving across the board, Governor Whitmer wants to get kids back in schools.
From the beginning of the pandemic, Gov. Whitmer said she will use science and data to make her decisions.
The science and data is saying that it is safe for students to be back in classrooms for in-person learning. It also says that students are falling behind when they don’t have that in-person learning. That’s why Whitmer wants all school districts to at least offer that option by March 1 but not everybody is agreeing.
“There is not a correlation between schools being open and community spread,” said Whitmer.
There are still some school districts that do not want to bring their teachers and students together until the teachers are all vaccinated.
“Vaccinations for educators is not a prerequisite to return to in person learning,” said Whitmer, “But it is a priority of our administration.”
“We have not had any in school transmission of COVID-19 during the school year,” said Craig Carmoney, superintendent of Meridian Public Schools.
Whitmer says 97% of districts plan to meet her March 1 deadline.
The term “deadline” is more of a recommendation as the state will not enforce the rule given each district’s individual hurdles.
“We wanted the decision to be at the local level,” she said, “We want to empower districts to get back into the classrooms.”
During the press conference, Whitmer was also pressed about re-opening restaurants, from 25% capacity up to 50% and maybe getting rid of the 10 PM curfew. To that she responded that she expects to have more details on a decision in the coming days.
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