1/ opening schools for K-6 or K-8 in the fall is really not that difficult. The key variable for the most part is space: we need fewer students per class and we can't re-open if restricted to current classrooms. Basically we need to increase # of rooms by 50-70%
2/ our unis will be closed for the most part. There's nothing preventing us from using mid-sized class rooms on campus to house classes of 15 K-8s. Same with secondary schools. Throw in churches, community centres, etc. There is loads of space to be had if we get creative.
3/ we are going to need more teachers too obviously. Going to need to pull in every supply teacher, former teacher, trainee teacher...it won't always be pretty I expect b/c you can't conjure up tens of thousands of trained teachers overnight, but that's ok. Better than nothing.
4/ Would this be cheap? No. But it's peanuts compared to the cost of keeping parents (mothers, mostly if we're honest) at home. No schools, no functioning economy.
5/ There is non-zero risk associated with this obviously. But until there's a vaccine, everything carries risk and we have to live with it as best as we can Keepimg kids (and their parents) shut up inside until the vaccine arrives isn't an option.
6/ And you know, keep the goddamn bars closed so we eliminate an obvious source of disease spread. Not that tough.
7/ Pretty sure if we put @ldobsonhughes and @FrancaGucciardi in charge of everything this would be fixed by Labour Day.
8/ And no, these solutions don't work in all locales and it's predicated on 9-12s staying in remote teaching for a term, which sucks. There are no perfect universal solutions. Striving to do better where we can will sometimes mean tradeoffs and triaging. That's life under COVID.
