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MSEA, BTU, and Maryland PTA Call for Virtual Start to School Year to Protect Student and Educator Safety

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“A perfect solution does not exist. A safe one does.”

Today the Maryland State Education Association, the Baltimore Teachers Union, and the Maryland PTA issued a joint call for the fall semester of the upcoming school year to be virtual. The three groups sent a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan and State School Superintendent Karen Salmon encouraging them to support this course of action to protect the health and safety of Maryland students, educators, and families.

“We must rise above politics and focus on the reality and complexities of safely reopening schools,” the letter reads. “If we open our schools too quickly and without adequate safety precautions, the result will be that some educators, students, and their family members will contract the coronavirus. Some will recover, some will face debilitating health consequences or healthcare bills that they cannot pay, and some will die. These are stubborn facts. And they are costs and consequences that we must refuse to accept. A perfect solution does not exist. A safe one does.”

The full text of the letter is posted at this link.