Should El Paso Open Up Schools?

It's one of the big questions surrounding us right now. Should schools open up for the 2020 - 2021 school year? Here in El Paso, the plan was you got to choose between two different plans. One was a 100% online program, and the other was split between home schooling and online. At least, that was the options for my 8 year old who is about to go into the 3rd grade. Whichever choice you went with, you were locked in on that choice for a semester and you weren't guaranteed to get a teacher from your kid's school.

We're hearing all kinds of different things when it comes to whether or not to open the schools. The latest from the city in which we live (El Paso) is that there was an order being drawn up by El Paso City-County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza that would effectively prevent any school from opening up. It would make it so public schools weren't allowed to open for face-to-face classes until after Labor Day.

Socorro ISD tweeted out the following:

Honestly, I'm all for the opening of schools, but it needs to be done with the children and teachers being protected as much as possible. Maybe we do need to wait a bit. In an ideal world, we would have an overabundance of tests, that were accurate, so the proper precautions could be taken if a positive test were to pop up. Teachers have it tough enough already, we need to do what we can to not add any more to their plate.

But this can be contained as long as everyone follows the rules. Wear a mask, keep your distance, and wash your hands. That's incredibly difficult when you're dealing with groups of 6 to 12 year olds, but it can be done.