Gov. Kevin Stitt will announce on Thursday new measures aimed at getting kids back in school.
Stitt said they were coming at a news conference announcing the COVID-19 vaccine’s arrival in southwest Oklahoma Wednesday afternoon.
"There’s a couple school districts in Oklahoma that have still not given an option of in-person since last March, and it is my goal to get kids back in school. That’s a non-negotiable," Stitt said. "The health and lives of Oklahomans are non-negotiable, but educating our young people is as well. And so, we’re giving PPE, I’m moving the teachers up the list."
The governor's office said Wednesday evening Stitt would announce increased priority for teachers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Stitt’s office also on Wednesday afternoon posted to Facebook a video of him talking to Stillwater Public Schools parent Taurean DuHart, who said kids and parents are struggling to make distance learning work and claimed failure rates in her kids’ district were up 400%.
"I feel like our school board is very much into listening to the CDC until it tells us we need to go back to school, and I feel like as long as the OEA is so loud in spreading fear to our teachers, I don’t think we’ll go back," DuHart said.
In September, DuHart spearheaded a petition to push Stillwater Public Schools to return to traditional, in-person learning.
The CDC says it’s critical schools open as safely and quickly as possible for in-person learning. The Oklahoma Education Association has actively supported a statewide school mask requirement but has said teachers want to work.
