SAFE Grants Press Release July 20, 2020 Garry R. Smith District No. 27
Greenville County www.garrysmith.org
“What learning will look like across South Carolina when the school year starts will be a hodgepodge of in-classroom and online-only learning, despite Governor Henry McMaster’s request that all parents have the option of sending their child to school five days a week.” (Quote from Seanna Adcox, Post & Courier, July 18, 2020). That quote was very generous to say the least.
South Carolina Representative Garry Smith offers comments on the newly enacted policy
Just 20% of South Carolina’s 81 school districts complied with Governor McMaster’s request. 80% ignored it, or in the Greenville County School District’s case, openly challenged the request and publicly called the leadership of the General Assembly that supported the request, “cronies”, while proposing a plan that has been called “the most complicated of any posted so far.”
The last thing parents in Greenville County needs is a complicated and confusing system that does not genuinely open schools.
In the meantime, parents who struggle to make ends meet, and who both work outside the home are left with a confusing, and complicated plan. A plan that gives them little options except to quit work in order to get their children the education that the law requires the school system to provide, and that the parents are paying for through their taxes.
What kind of choice is that?
Parents have suffered through the lockdowns, layoffs, limited work, school closures, the fear of the virus spreading through their family only to see their child’s education suffer greatly in the process.
They are rightly concerned that the damage to their children’s education will have lasting effects.
Meanwhile, 20 countries have opened schools, and a few never closed.
Greenville County School’s response has been to call those who ask them to provide options names instead of listening to reason from healthcare experts such as the American Pediatric Association.
The SAFE Grants will give parents the choice that they have asked for, and that they deserve.
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The SAFE Grants will give parents the education for their children that the law requires, that they are paying for with their tax dollars, and that they will not get with the confusing and over complicated system being proposed by Greenville County Schools.
Our children deserve better than that. And with the SAFE Grants, they will be able to get the education they deserve■.
