Linn County has an opportunity.

Gov. Kate Brown’s announcement last Friday, Oct. 30, is making it a bit easier to get students back in school (see story on page 1).

Indeed, across Oregon, 130,000 students were immediately allowed to return to school in person following the governor’s press conference, in which she announced she was lowering the COVID metrics that effectively kept most of Oregon’s kids at home.

Our own students in east Linn County aren’t quite there, though. Our COVID case numbers are still slightly too high for a return to in-person classes.

Linn County has had 14...