As school systems throughout Maryland wrestle with questions of how to open in the fall a statewide coalition of educators called on state leaders Tuesday to open schools as virtual academies, not only in the fall, but for at least the first semester.

The Maryland State Education Association, the Baltimore Teachers Union, and the Maryland PTA asked Governor Hogan and state schools Superintendent Karen Salmon to “not roll the dice” on the students’ and teachers’ health this fall.

Physically reopening schools in September would be a more drastic – and dangerous undertaking than any of the reopening steps in the past, the coalition wrote in a letter released Tuesday afternoon.

Reopening Joint Position Le... by Mary Rose Madden on Scribd

Teachers have "not been provided funds for the upcoming year from the federal or state level needed to make our schools healthy and safe," said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association. "Health experts still consider a return to school high risk."

The next six weeks should be spent, she said, increasing virtual learning efforts by getting the technology to every family in need and making the necessary adjustments to the virtual learning curriculum.