Yadkin Valley News

The North Carolina Senate president called the governor's decision to reopen schools without allowing in-person instruction is an "unspeakable travesty," particularly for low-income students. 

Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) made his comments in a lengthy July 17 Facebook post criticizing Gov. Roy Cooper's education decision and based his opinion in part on a Wall Street Journal article related to how the learning gap will increase because of virtual instruction. 

"Gov. Cooper's decision to allow schools to close down entirely to in-person instruction will cause some children, many of them from low-income families, to fail," Berger said in his Facebook post. "It's an unspeakable travesty for those children that's fully caused by the governor’s ill-advised decision and something that is completely preventable."

Republicans have made it clear that they would prefer schools to fully reopen to in-person instruction. A July 14 news release on Berger's Medium press website cited studies that suggest students are a low risk for getting COVID-19 and also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that in-person learning is better for students. 

"At a minimum, Gov. Cooper should require school districts to accept students whose parents request full in-classroom instruction," Berger said in his Facebook post. "Those are likely to be students from lower-income families who do not have the resources to supplement 'virtual' learning."

In mid-July, Cooper said gave school districts a hybrid option to reopen with a mix of virtual learning and reduced class sizes to meet social distancing requirements among other health and safety regulations, or to offer full remote learning.