Cooper Loosens Grip, Says NC Elementary Schools Can Bring Kids Back Next Month

RALEIGH – One day after Republican leaders blasted the governor for banning full-time in-person instruction for K-12 public school students across the state, Governor Roy Cooper is announcing that elementary schools may welcome students back full time next month, if they wish.

WRAL, always quite cozy with the Left and Cooper, breaks the news:

“Children in kindergarten through fifth grade could return to in-person learning in early October, if their school system agrees to it, under a new plan Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to announce Thursday afternoon, WRAL News has learned.

The move is an option for public school systems across North Carolina, not a mandate, according to a source familiar with the governor’s announcement. Details on capacity requirements and other safety measures will be announced during a 3 p.m. news conference, which WRAL.com will stream live.”

This comes right on the heels of building pressure to let school district open, with GOP leader citing the deleterious that virtual-instruction-only is having on kids, parents, and teachers. They also pointed out how the closures are not supported by ‘science and data.’ The governor likely knows how unpopular school closures have been, and, while he doesn’t think twice about ruining livelihoods of bar owners, he cannot afford to have Republicans get the upper hand.

We can already see the angle being drawn here. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Forest has pledged to open the schools if he becomes governor. Cooper, with help from his media friends, is making a point to say that his plan would not mandate schools open, merely give them an option.

They’re framing it just that way because they want to continue demonizing Dan Forest and other Republicans as evil monsters that want to force teachers and students to expose themselves to a (mostly mild) virus in a continuation of the Pandemic Panic.

There’s another wrinkle here with the media as well. After the Wednesday press conference in qhich GOP leaders blasted Cooper and called for allowing schools to reopen, the Leftists of the Raleigh News & Observer editorial board wrote this:

Wow; what a difference a day makes. We’re guessing the sycophants at the N&O editorial board won’t be penning a piece about how Cooper’s caving to school reopening pressures is a naked attempt to once again race to get in front of the North Carolina people and save himself politically.

But, make no mistake, that is what is happening here. It’s not some wild new revelation that the Cooper regime has come across. The science about schools and COVID has been pretty clear and consistent from very near the beginning of this panic.

Only now, Cooper saw the politics slipping against him, and this reversal is the result.

There’s now word on middle school and high school allowances as of yet, so we’ll have to wait on King Cooper to tell us what those kids are allowed to do under his subjugation. There’s a press conference scheduled for 3PM Thursday, which you can view here.