President Trump and his crony, Betsy DeVos, appear to value schools as child warehouses--if children are at schools, their workers, many of them underpaid and overworked, can return to work. Should schools be child warehouses? Is that what we believe education should be?
Clear lack of support for schools as true education centers is clear now as many heinous politicians seek to re-open schools, not made for safe social distancing and COVID-19 safety, simply to warehouse children so their parents can go back to work. The country, in general, let schools down over time by not keeping schools up to date with healthy buildings, sufficient staffing, adequate spaces, and state-of-the-art service to ALL children. Some school systems are in good shape, but many, many school systems are in poor shape.
I also cringe when I hear heinous politicians cry out for schools to open in order to feed children--why did schools become nutrition centers? While I believe it is important for children to receive the food they need, I worry about schools being centers of that nutrition. I would rather see nutrition centers in neighborhoods that people of all ages can access.
I think we've lost focus about the role of schools and education in society. Schools should not be there simply so family members can go to work. Instead, I would like to see society rethink the role of families in society and quality support for those families including supports for quality homes, good nutrition, safe neighborhoods, healthy recreation, accessible quality health care, and quality child care too I would like to see us look for ways to support a parent's ability to stay at home during a child's first two years of life, and then support quality pre-school programs after that.
Teachers all over the country have been working around the clock to find ways to teach children well with the conditions that exist. We've made lots of good progress, and in many cases that progress has been made without adequate public support. The public has been satisfied in turning a blind eye to the inequity that exists in schools and education across the country. One simple way to look at this is to look at the beautiful campus of the school Trump's son attends and compare that to the campuses that many many students attend across the country. The privilege gap is great when you compare these experiences.
COVID-19 wakes all of us up to the questions:
- What is the role of schools in American society?
- Why are schools across the country not well funded or cared for?
- How are schools supporting the great wealth of corporate leaders in the United States by providing child care for America's workers? How can schools and school staffs earn part of those profits rather than be relegated to the relative low pay they now receive?
Respectful state leadership will consider re-opening schools with a lens on good science and good education. Schools are not child-care centers, schools are centers for education. State leadership should separate concerns about family care and school support. To support families during COVID-19, states should make sure that they do the following:
- Provide local nutrition assistance for all family members?
- Provide accessible, affordable health care for all family members?
- Work to create safe neighborhoods, child-care supports, and adequate homes?
With regard to schools, states should look deeply at the science, and not create a greater COVID-19 dilemma by opening schools that will greatly increase potential COVID-19 spread. For example, one child in my classroom admitted to me that her family was not social distancing and they were getting out there and communing with lots and lots of people from all walks of life. The likelihood of spread in that family is great, and upon return to school it's likely that child will spread the virus on the bus and in school to classmates and teachers, and then it is likely that those classmates and teachers will bring the virus home to their families. One child could potentially spread the illness to 20+ students on the bus and 20+ people at school, and then those 40 people could potentially spread the illness to about 200 more people, and those 200 more people could spread the illness to their co-workers, classmates, teachers, neighbors, and more. One family neglecting social distancing rules turns into 1,000's of people infected with the virus, and amongst those 1000's will be deaths too.
Rather than create move COVID-19 spread simply to provide day care so mostly low paid workers can return to work, I think it's better to shore up at-home learning by providing families with needed supports and increasing the quality, depth, and reach of at-home learning. Create neighborhood nutrition centers, funds to support at least one adult in a family to stay home and care for the children, and supports for remote learning equipment and capacity.
This is the best solution for the long term. Yes, it's not ideal, but hopefully this will mitigate spread and buy us time and survival while scientists come up with a vaccine. Let's look at the long term gain a positive solution like this creates. We can do this.
