On March 15, 2020, Dr.
Anthony Fauci advised, “If it looks like you're overreacting, you're probably
doing the right thing.” His advice still
rings true.
What is the right thing for
K-12 schools?
No child, no teacher, no
staff, no associated families should be put at risk. Schools must not re-open, except virtually.
This is still being debated
because all our actions and inactions to date have prioritized businesses – the
ECONOMY – over schools, our children.
That must stop. Now.
The President and his
Secretary of Education are pressing hard for schools to be fully open in September. It appears they have even beaten the Centers
for Disease Control into line. Why? Never strong advocates of public education before,
they are now hell-bent on forcing schools to open. The explanation is obvious. School children have been chosen as the
lever to pry open the economy.
In recent months, we have
been inundated with dogma:
· People must go back to work to feed their families and
keep a roof over their heads. (Government
could mitigate this for the pandemic’s duration, but it hasn’t.)
· Businesses must open to survive and keep their workers
employed. (Government could mitigate this
too.)
· Children must go to school for education and social
needs. (Safety is notably absent from
this equation.)
All these things are
interconnected. The single greatest
impediment to parents returning to jobs are children at home. Schools are being valued not for education,
but for daycare.
So far, Congress and public
officials have adopted temporary fixes, band aids for a pandemic. We have seen one-time payments, temporary
unemployment expansions for some (not all) workers, premature openings of
nonessential businesses leading to resurgence of infections. The country is bleeding through the
band-aids. Better solutions to ensure
safety and security are possible while the pandemic rages, but Congress seems
incapable of acting accordingly.
Other options having failed,
the President wants to sacrifice our kids to restart the economy. That’s code for enhancing his re-election
chances, by the way.
He tells us, infections in
kids are infrequent; serious complications in kids are uncommon; deaths in kids
are exceedingly rare. True enough. Now, you choose. Which kids are going to live with lifelong
consequences from COVID-19? Which kids are
going to die? You choose.
As a practical matter, no school
or school district has the room, the staff, or the funding to accomplish a safe
return to school buildings. Years of
experience on a local school board tell me it is just that simple.
In the spring, schools were
forced to shift to distance learning without much notice or time to plan. They did the best they could under the
circumstances. In the spring, that was the
only possible response. It is not a
strategy, however, that anyone should willingly adopt for the fall. Yet, that appears to be what is happening. The summer has been squandered with dreams and
plans to reopen “normally.”
That won’t be possible. Repeat:
There will be no normal reopening.
The pandemic still rages in most states, uncontrollably in many. With little time left, robust plans for
distance learning must be developed.
What should that planning emphasize?
· The highest, non-negotiable priority must be educating
our most vulnerable students. They
cannot be allowed to fall through the cracks.
Period.
· Distance learning must be extended to families without
Internet access. It can be done, with
adequate funding. Instead of spending Federal
money on nonessentials (like roads), Federal dollars should be targeted to get
our kids connected and keep them connected to their schools.
Tick tock. Get creative.
The greatest deficits throughout the pandemic have been indecisiveness,
impatience, and failures of imagination.
Delays and an abject unwillingness to accept how the virus behaves are a
deadly combination. Remember Dr. Fauci’s
advice.
Instead, we act like children
on a pandemic road trip.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?!
No, the end of the pandemic road
is not just over the horizon. That’s not
reality.
Let’s accept where we are and
adapt. No life should be deliberately
put at risk in any school building. No
teacher, no staff member, and especially no child should be sacrificed.
