In light of the growing number of coronavirus cases in state, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced Wednesday that schools should wait to reopen doors after Labor Day.
The state has 79 districts that were slated to start next month, but the governor announced in a press conference that classroom instruction should be online only across South Carolina until after the holiday, noting that in-person class instruction could exacerbate the the outbreak.
“Try as we might, virtual education is not as good for most children than face to face with an excellent qualified teacher,” McMaster said, planked by Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, and other legislative leaders.
According to The State, the governor noted that a change to in-person instruction would help in the case of students that had been isolated at home during the quarantine and who may not have been receiving proper online instruction. If his plane is enacted, school would open on Sept. 8, one day after Labor Day.
The state currently has a more than 20 % positive coronavirus rate, so concerns have grown for residents about mask wearing and other social distancing measures, according to WIS story.
Data has shown that South Carolina is one of the top five worst states in the country for coronavirus infection. Twitter data collected over the past 30 days indicates that the state ranks eighth of states where people are refusing to wear a mask or are defying mask mandates. The study, which was put together by Survival at Home, is based on geotagged Twitter data that tracked anti-mask tweets and hashtags over the past 30 days.
McMaster has said he won’t issue a statewide mask ordinance because he says it’s unenforceable, but he’s supportive of cities and towns passing them on their own.
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