And the Answer Is ……

First the question:  Do you think the Bedford Schools should open in the fall of 2020 with in-person instruction?

This was our closest poll yet.  52% vs 48% of The Citizen’s readers think schools should not open for in-person instruction this autumn.

There has been some discussion as to whether a binary poll will tell you much.  We understand we took a very complicated dilemma and reduced it to its simplest form.

Before people can make a definite decision we understand that depends on many things.  How will schools be taught?  What plans will be in place? What are the options? And there are many more variables we did not delve into.

We also understand that sending your high school junior back to school is a much different question than sending your first grader.   The idea was just to get a very raw feel for what people are thinking.

When the protocols are decided and shared by the schools, we will share them with you in The Bedford Citizen.  I’m sure we will have many more discussions.

Nationally, the polls skew even more to not opening the schools this fall.  A recent Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracker Poll reported, “On balance, most parents with kids in school (60%) say it is better to open schools later to minimize infection risk, even if students miss out on academics and social services and some parents will not be able to work, while about half as many (34%) say it’s better to open schools sooner so parents can work and kids can get services.”