"The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights, and the blessings of life…"
—Preamble to the Massachusetts Constitution
"AS TWO MOTHERS who work in education policy, we have been steeped these past 18 months in the ongoing deliberations regarding public education during this pandemic. Where students were educated, under what conditions they were educated, on top of the ongoing questions of how and how well they were educated has been what we have lived for the past year and a half. As we prepare for our third school year impacted by COVID, much of the energy of this discussion has settled on masking.
Gov. Baker and state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley have abdicated their responsibilities for the public health of our schoolchildren and school staff. As a result, this decision has devolved to local school committees, who are on the receiving end of heated arguments of individual choice regarding this public health issue. School committees have been flooded with petitions and messages from abled, medically healthy families making claims to individual rights. However, school committees oversee government schools, and these public schools thrive only when the common good is available to all its students, not just the abled and medically robust. "
Continue reading the essay online -> https://commonwealthmagazine.org/education/baker-should-protect-all-students-with-mask-order/
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| A young girl on the playground at the Mather Elementary School in Dorchester on October 1, 2020, the first day some students returned to in-person classes. (Photo by Michael Jonas) |
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