MD: Hogan overrules county mandate for private schools to go virtual

Do benefits outweigh risks when reopening schools?

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday revoked the authority of county officials to mandate schools close amid a clash with local health officials.

Local health officials in Maryland's Montgomery County last week made the decision to keep private and parochial schools closed through October for in-person learning, arguing that having students in the classroom would present a danger to pupils and teachers as the state grapples with COVID-19.

But Hogan amended an emergency executive order, which he issued April 5, that allowed local health departments to have the authority to close any individual facility deemed to be unsafe. He called the Montgomery County mandate "overly broad."

"The recovery plan for Maryland public schools stresses local flexibility within the parameters set by state officials," Hogan said in a statement. "Over the last several weeks, school boards and superintendents made their own decisions about how and when to reopen public schools, after consultation with state and local health officials."

Hogan added that "private and parochial schools deserve the same opportunity and flexibility to make reopening decisions based on public health guidelines."

"The blanket closure mandate imposed by Montgomery County was overly broad and inconsistent with the powers intended to be delegated to the county health officer," Hogan said, adding that the state’s recovery "continues to be based on flexible, community-based approach that follows science, not politics."

"As long as schools develop safe and detailed plans that follow CDC and state guidelines, they should be empowered to do what’s best for their community," he said, thanking parents, students and school administrators "who have spoken out in recent days about this important issue."

Hogan's move Monday came after Montgomery County Health Officer Travis Gayles in a statement Friday said that opening those schools in any capacity would be unsafe, and as private and parochial schools had signaled their wishes to open for in-person learning, citing their classes, which are smaller in size than public schools, could make them more flexible to follow social distancing guidelines.

Montgomery County Public Schools, as well as most other public school districts across the state, have announced their decision to offer virtual-only instruction this fall.

"At this point the data does not suggest that in-person instruction is safe for students or teachers," Gayles said Friday, according to The Baltimore Sun. "We have seen increases in transmission rates for COVID-19 in the State of Maryland, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly in younger age groups, and this step is necessary to protect the health and safety of Montgomery County residents.”

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Cowboys latest victim of leftist cancel culture at local New Jersey school district

The leftist cancel culture scolds have brought their prejudice to my old high school, Pascack Hills, erasing over fifty years of school tradition in a blink by voting to eliminate our school mascot, the Cowboys, in a vote of the Board of Education on June 22, 2020.  The admitted predicate by those who advocated for the change is the conclusion that the term “Cowboy” is racist and sexist. Board member, math teacher and incoming Assistant Principal Charleen Schwartzman stated after the vote: “The cowboy is in no way free of bias as it excludes women and people of color,” demonstrating the all-too-common prejudice of the radical left.

Prejudice.  It literally means something.  To pre-judge.   It is universally accepted in the sane world that prejudice is wrong.   By definition, prejudice is un-just for it renders a conclusion based not on facts, but on negative stereotypes.   Sadly that is exactly the activity cancel-culture leftists regularly engage in.

Even a cursory examination of the history of the Cowboy reveals a remarkably diverse and inclusive culture and way of life.    Historians agree that approximately 25 percent of cowboys in the American West were black, and that as many as one in three cowboys were Mexican vaqueros.  I’m no math teacher turned Assistant Principal, but those percentages make Cowboys as diverse an identifiable group as there is in America.

While Cowboys of color no doubt faced discrimination, according to William Loren Katz, a scholar of African-American history and the author of 40 books on the topic, including The Black West:  “Cowboys had to depend on one another. They couldn’t stop in the middle of some crisis like a stampede or an attack by rustlers and sort out who’s black and who’s white. Black people operated “on a level of equality with the white cowboys,”

As to Cowboys being exclusionary of women, I’m pretty sure legendary Western icons “Stagecoach” Mary Fields, Belle Starr, Calamity Jane and especially longtime New Jersey resident Annie Oakley, would be surprised at that view.  The term “Cowboy” is akin to terms like “Freshman” or “Craftsman” and is, in fact, gender neutral.  By this standard, an endless number of mascots like Tigers and Lions, are just as “exclusionary”.

As someone who has lived his life closely associating with cowboy culture, I know firsthand that Cowboys are as inclusionary, diverse and tolerant a society as there is.   Cowboys believe in the same things that have built our great nation:  Hard work, honesty and respect of others.

But, cancel-culture leftists are not interested in historical facts, nor are they interested in worthy American traditions.   Anything, and anyone, that does not comport to their ideological bend are ‘racist’ and ‘exclusionary’ and are to be eradicated without regard to an objective analysis of the actual history.  The violent mobs defacing and tearing down statues of American patriots, emancipators and abolitionists demonstrates the level of ignorance at play.

The self-examination of our society and its norms is something that has been done throughout the existence of the United States, and often has yielded remarkably positive results.   Our founding fathers built into our system of governance the mechanism by which those changes could be implemented into our Constitutional structure, a method that has been used successfully to correct and eradicate wrongs, abuses and shortcomings throughout our nation’s history.

Have Cowboys been portrayed as virtually all white and male in our popular culture?  Absolutely.   Rather than eradicate the Cowboy as a symbol due to this false exclusionary perception, Pascack Hills could serve as a leader in representing the true ideals of tolerance and inclusiveness inherent in the cowboy code and to educate others on the historic multi-cultural nature of Cowboys.    To do that would take the acknowledgement of actual facts and actual history into account, something that cancel-culture leftists will not do when those facts and history do not conform to their prejudiced mindset.

I care deeply about this issue not just because this is the High School I proudly graduated from over thirty years ago.  I care, and worry, because it is this level of ignorance and hatred of America by cancel-culture leftists that is resulting in their clear desire for the removal of solid venerable traditions cherished by Americans, of all races and genders.

Ignorance and prejudice do not produce a better society for all, and that is what cancel-culture leftists peddle at an alarmingly increasing rate.   It’s going to take the grit and determination of a Cowboy to stop it.

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Gov. Cuomo Makes Major Announcement on New York Schools

Governors across the country are trying to determine whether or not to send kids back to school in the fall, with the coronavirus still a present problem. Teachers unions have begun making a show of "writing their wills" or placing bodybags outside of their schools to demonstrate how dangerous they think it would be to return to classrooms this fall.

The science largely puts those fears to rest. A child transmitting COVID-19 to an adult is extremely rare. And the majority of K-12 teachers are under the age of 55. Half of them are under the age of 41. Meaning, they are well below the age in which they'd be in the high-risk category. For educators who are in the danger zone, experts suggest there are ways to protect them, such as practicing social distancing from their students and installing Plexiglas in their classrooms.

Friday marked the deadline for New York to look at the infection rate and make a determination about schools. After viewing the data, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that it's time to reopen.

"By our infection rate, all schools can re-open in all regions of the state," he said. Every district, he explained, is below the threshold they set. He called it "great news."

He added, however, that individual districts still need to have their specific plans approved. For instance, Cuomo expects that students will have to get their temperature tested when they arrive at school. He wants to see those plans online by the end of next week. Cuomo then said he'll hold conversations with both parents and teachers.

The governor said that if there's a spike in the infection rate, then they'll "revisit" their plans.

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