There have been talks among California state officials saying schools could begin the 2020-21 school year in late-July or early-August to get “caught up” on the learning students missed over the final 11 weeks of the 2019-2020 school year. 

However, I do not think that should be the case because students and teachers still need a summer and there should be a vaccine before returning to school.

While students may be at home, they are still getting school work and spending hours a day on their class assignments, and passing or failing their classes, even if it may be in the form of “credit” or “no credit.” The two-month break every summer gives students a chance to get a break from the chaos school brings. 

The summer vacation will still begin on the same date as it would have without the virus going around, and shortening students’ summers would be detrimental for students, and even teachers, who were looking forward to two months of vacation without having the stress of turning in their school work and grading said school work on time. 

If schools were to reopen there would have to be a vaccine for coronavirus in order to not put students and teachers at risk, so even reopening in the fall is likely out of the picture with the unlikelihood of a vaccine being created by then. 

Some in favor of reopening schools early, assuming there is a vaccine, argue that many California students are not participating in online school activities, which is backed by numerous sources including ABC News and the Los Angeles Times. 

While that may be true and a select number of students are choosing not to do their work over the internet, it would not be right to punish every student while the majority of them are doing their work. 

Those students who choose not to do their work should have to suffer the consequences that would happen in the real world by choosing not to do work. 

Schools should not reopen early next school year, and instead, begin at the same date it normally would, with or without a vaccine. With or without a vaccine?