The Virginia Department of Education on July 16 publicly announced locations across the commonwealth where “community conversations” are to be held to gauge the public’s mood when it comes to student phone usage in schools.
Earlier this month, Gov. Youngkin used his executive powers to get the ball rolling on statewide regulations that, when enacted, will be the minimum local school districts will be required to meet in terms of limiting access to phones during the school day.
(School districts will be able to go beyond that minimum, should they choose.)
We bring this up only because the eight locations chosen for the events did not include any venues in what we’d call Northern Virginia, or at least the heavily populated inner suburbs of Northern Virginia – Arlington and Fairfax counties and the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church.
The closest opportunity was scheduled for Manassas on July 18, a mere two days after the announcement was made. The next closest were Fredericksburg on July 30 and Waynesboro on July 31. In either instance, pack an overnight bag, as they are hardly close by.
There will be other ways for the public to have its say on this issue, and one presumes the public is not beating down the doors at these community-conversation events. But we find it curious that there was no room in the schedule for a venue that might be more accessible to the roughly 1.6 million Virginians living in D.C.’s inner suburbs.
Or, apparently, interest in making room for one.
