Parents left hanging as state prescribes distance or hybrid learning for most students

Following the announcement by state officials that most students will not start the 2020 school year in classrooms full-time, Catrin Wigfall, policy fellow at Center of the American Experiment, released the following statement:

“Parents have difficult decisions ahead of them now that the Walz administration has decided most students will start the school year with hybrid or distance learning. If parents had control over their children’s education funding, they could pursue any number of alternative learning models. But with the state controlling each student’s education dollars, the unique needs of families will be impacted, and health, economic and academic disparities will continue.

“The Walz administration is attempting to spin this as a decision for school districts to make, but the education commissioner has veto power over any school district that decides to hold classes in-person. That’s the opposite of local control.”

Catrin Wigfall graduated summa cum laude from Azusa Pacific University in California, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She began her policy research work at The Heritage Foundation, then became a Teach for America Corps Member, teaching 5th-grade general education and 6th grade Latin. Her classroom experience informed her work in education policy at the California Policy Center before she joined the Center of the American Experiment in 2017.