NC Senate leader: Give students option of returning to school full time

Sen. Phil Berger says sending students to school five days a week during the pandemic is no riskier that every few days or every other week.

Posted 2:17 a.m. Jul 17, 2020 — Updated 3:38 p.m. Jul 17, 2020

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said this week that all students should have the option of in-person schooling and that plans for online classes will leave struggling students behind.

Berger, R-Rockingham, acknowledged the risks coronavirus presents but said he doesn't see much more risk in offering families a full in-person schedule, compared to schedules that would rotate groups of students through in-person classes and online learning.

"If you're practicing the social distancing and doing all the other things, it just strikes me that that's not a higher-risk situation," he said.

Given the number of families already opting for full online learning, Berger said, "I don't think you're talking about having 30 kids in a classroom."

Gov. Roy Cooper announced this week a hybrid plan to hold some classes online and some in person, with school systems also having the option of full online learning. A regular, in-person schedule isn't an option under the governor's plan.

Some systems are contemplating full online classes, at least to start the school year. Some students, who already missed the spring because of the pandemic, may not be inside a classroom again until August or September 2021, Berger said.

"I don't know how we find ways for that child to make that up," he said.

Berger spoke with WRAL News on Wednesday for a back-to-school special that aired Thursday night. He also discussed the state's mask mandate, saying businesses should have the option of requiring them but that a government mandate "seems to me to cut against the grain."

He acknowledged COVID-19 as a serious public health crisis but said "we have failed to address that problem in a way that really targets the more serious adverse consequences."

"We've allowed sort of blanket solutions, and those blanket solutions, I believe, have missed the mark in probably a majority of situations," he said.

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