Mayors in Ile-de-France are speaking up against the reopening of schools planned on May 11th by the government. So, in an open letter published this Sunday May 3rd on La Tribune website, the association of mayors of Ile-de-France “solemnly” demands Emmanuel Macron to postpone the reopening of schools to later than May 11th.
All in all, 316 mayors including Anne Hidalgo have co-signed this letter. “Mr. President, in Ile-de-France, the State cannot withdraw from its responsibility as of reopening schools on May 11th; and this calendar is in most of our towns unsustainable and unrealistic” it reads. “The preparation of deconfinement goes on in a fast-moving agenda, whilst we still do not have all the news we need to make the population ready and instructions are changing”.
In addition to reopening schools later, signing mayors demand the President “not to assign the legal, political and moral responsibility of reopening schools to mayors but associate them in a concertation with the departmental Prefect. Softness and adaptation to the local conditions are necessary, and mayors obviously wish to be associated to this concertation (…). But the State’s withdrawal from its responsibilities in terms of education and health, amid the crisis and while the health emergency will be extended, is unimaginable”.
Local mayors also condemn the lack of information for the upcoming weeks: “many are those who have not received news as for teachers who would be available for our schools, the number of supervisors available for after-school centers, not even the number of students to welcome”. Signatories ask the State to “clearly prioritize children who can/should go back to school in Ile-de-France by taking account of the family situation of each child”.
