Together Louisiana Demands Action from Congress to Safely Re-Open Schools

With the state of Louisiana continuing to reel from the impact of the coronavirus, parent and community leaders of Together Louisiana are calling on Congress to invest the funds needed to safely reopen schools.   Parents and teachers worry that students' return to in-person classes without necessary health and safety precautions will spread the virus further and expose people with pre-existing conditions to lethal risk.  

Building on online civic academies with experts including Tulane epidemiologist Dr. Hassig and Danielle Allen of Harvard University, leaders are turning to Congress to finance the cost of ensuring health safety at schools.  Measures proposed by Together Louisiana include funding to: 

  1. bridge the digital divide with school districts providing broadband internet free of charge for every public school student who needs it;
  2. hire more teachers, aids & tutors to decrease class size for districts where contagion levels make in-person school safe;
  3. make a "pod school" model accessible to low and moderate- income families, not just the wealthy, for districts where in-person school is *not* safe;
  4. build in-school testing capacity with same-day-results, so that EVERY child gets tested before school starts and periodically throughout the year;
  5. extra bus routes and drivers to allow for social distancing in transit; and
  6. create a school-based contact tracing operation, with adoption of masks and where appropriate, PPE.

Together Louisiana Calls on Congress to Provide Dollars to Ensure the Safe Reopening of Schools, Fox News