Sen. Charles Grassley said on Monday he favors re-opening of schools for several reasons.
“But No. 1, in Iowa, it’s going to be done in Iowa different than in other states and within Iowa there’s 330 school districts so I assume there’s going to be 330 different ways of doing it,” he said. “Except for what the Governor has said must be done. But within that, there’s still going to be 330 different ways of doing it.”
Classroom teaching is much more effective than distance learning, Grassley said. And, he added there’s also an economic benefit to opening the schools.
“If we want people to go back to work, for a lot of families the school is part of their planning for whatever job they have and whether or not they can go to work,” Grassley said. “So, it has something to do with opening up the economy.”
Pediatricians, Grassley said, have also said it is important for kids to be in school with their classmates because of socialization.
“There’s been some harm done to the kids over the last three months not being in the classroom,” he said. “It sounds to me like, as long as it’s done in a safe way, it’s the wrong thing to not have kids in the school for the benefit of the kids, for the benefit of the parents, for the benefit of the general economy of our country.
“I think too often we’re worried about everything except the kids. And the kids ought to have the first consideration of whether or not the schools ought to be opened up more so than the teachers, more so than the parents.”
