Schools can be operated safely when resources are put into place to support safe schools. I'm deeply troubled that these assumptions are made without reference to the need to properly support safety measures, including with funding to keep classes small and students safe.

I also worry that we have had the wrong priorities in re-opening, as we've brought back luxuries like bars and movies before essential services like schools. We have a societal budget for re-opening before case counts rise, and we should spend that on education before nightclubs.

It's good for children to come back to school where possible - the evidence is pretty clear on this - but re-opening of schools is being done without additional funding to school divisions and in a context of other poor policy decisions to prevent transmission in the community.

I'm put in mind of Jens Qvortrup's work on what happens in decision making when adults and children are in win/lose positions related to a decision - in these cases, the desires of adults tend to win.

This means, as Alberta re-opens, we've considered adult desires - for movies, restaurants, bars, and so on - before children's need to be able to return to schools safely without putting them and their teachers at higher risk.

And so, our children are going back as cases are already rising because of increases in risky behaviour accompanying the re-opening. We will continue work to keep students safe, but we have to consider the school as a part of larger society.

And so, as you consider the safety of children, teachers, and staff as schools re-open, we need to also ask about the broader policy and funding context in which the re-opening is taking place.

If we want open schools, we need to ask what we are doing to keep the community around the school safe. Are we mandating masks? Are we pulling back on the opening of optional social spaces? What are we doing to reduce community spread so we can reduce spread in schools?

I'll also add that the reserves boards are using to adapt to COVID are reserves of funds meant to address education needs, and those reserves represent what's left after cuts over the last couple of years. I'm disappointed that we continue to be told we get to make choices.

The reality is that those choices are things like paying for EAs or putting in sanitizer stations. They're not choices that have no impact on classrooms. Yes, we have local autonomy, but that autonomy is always affected by the provincial funding context.

I hope families, teachers, staff, students, and other caring community members continue to speak up for schools to have everything they need to return students to class safely and to prioritize the needs of children when we consider the broader context of COVID and public health.