North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, far left, asked Gov. Roy Cooper, who sits beside him, to let local school officials and health officials make decision on school reopenings. | By Jim Greenhill/Wikimedia Commons
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, far left, asked Gov. Roy Cooper, who sits beside him, to let local school officials and health officials make decision on school reopenings. | By Jim Greenhill/Wikimedia Commons
North Carolina’s lieutenant governor called on the state to create a clear set of guidelines for reopening schools.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest said all the more than 120 pages of guidelines, recommendations and requirements — the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education — created will do is confuse families, he posted to the official lieutenant governor's website in June.
He criticized Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration for not answering one question: “What are the metrics being used to determine how schools will operate?” Forest said, the North Carolina Lieutenant Governor’s office website reported. Forest, a Republican, is running against Cooper, the Democratic incumbent, for the office of governor.
"All the details have been hashed out, but the goals have not been determined. Our students, parents, educators, superintendents, and lawmakers deserve to know which metrics are being used to make the determinations of what the next school year will look like,” Forest said, his website reported.
He does not want all school districts to be forced into operating under the same reopening plan, he posted, arguing in favor of districts and local experts deciding on their own plans.
“Instead, it seems as though the Cooper Administration can unilaterally close schools based on whatever metrics they are using, not science or data,” Forest said, his website reported.
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