Mandate requires Texas schools to open after eight-week delay

HARRIS COUNTY - Facing the potential consequence of losing vital state funding, Texas public school districts are under orders to offer some degree of “in-person” classroom instruction no later than eight weeks after the launch of this Fall semester.

“We don’t want them to get sick, but we have got to start educating these kids again. You know it will be six months when you think about it, six months that kids will not have been in school,” said Representative Dan Huberty of Humble, Chairman of the House Public Education Committee.

Huberty says kids without connectivity, students subject to abuse at home, and children with special needs will benefit most from the return of face-to-face instruction.

And perhaps most critically,  Huberty says each local district will decide just how many or how few students will be allowed back on campus after the eight-week deadline.

“The reality of it is we don’t want to dictate to the districts what is their best plan,” said Huberty.

There is no bigger advocate for the return of Texas kids to Brick-and-mortar classrooms than Dr. Bob Sanborn.

That said, the leader of the well-known advocacy group Children at Risk says it shouldn’t happen until local COVID-19 infection rate dramatically diminish.

“Let’s wait for 5 percent positivity ratings or lower. We are not near that in the state of Texas. There may be communities in Texas that have less Coronavirus and are ready to go back to school. We are not one of those communities right now… We have the government saying rush your kids back to school when in fact the parents, teachers, the school district is at odds with that idea,” said Sanborn.