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With the school year quickly approaching, the question of whether or not schools should reopen is still the pressing issue.
For most, if not all Americans, the main concern is the safety and health of students and teachers. The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) have stressed the importance of reopening schools and have strongly encouraged escorting children back into classrooms this fall. Studies have found that children are a low-risk population and are unlikely to contract or spread Covid-19. The CDC has also cited evidence supporting the fact that the rate of spread from child to family and student to teacher is low, especially when proper precautions are followed. Both the AAP and the CDC have proposed similar guidelines for reopening schools, which includes social distancing and disinfection. Despite mounting evidence that reopening schools is safe for everyone, many continue to oppose the decision— the largest resistance stemming from teacher unions.
Teacher unions are organizations based on district, state, and national levels that protect and advance the collective interests of educators. However, despite their seemingly good intentions, teacher unions are a thorn in the public education system. In California, for example, the teacher union work rules have made incompetent teachers hard to fire, leading to decreased student performance. Moreover, the system of guaranteed step-pay has disincentivized better teacher performance, as public school teachers get raises based on seniority and not merit.
Recently, teacher unions have politicized and capitalized on the topic of school reopening. Major teacher unions including the United Teachers Los Angeles, the Boston Teachers Union, and the Chicago Teachers Union have insisted that reopening should not happen without the state acquiescing to certain demands. Some of these requests, such as banning charter schools, have been on the unions’ plans for years. Other requests, such as increasing the state wealth tax, implementing Medicare for All, and defunding the police are common left-wing proposals and are also part of the demands from the Democratic Socialists of America. Besides outlandish requests and proposals, teacher unions have also protested in-person classes with fear-mongering tactics. In Washington D.C., public school teachers lined up body bags outside school offices, while members in Arizona, Texas, and Florida have staged similar protests outside of state capitol buildings. The politicization and fear-mongering of school reopening not only metastasizes fear, but it also diverts attention from the scientific evidence. Keeping schools closed and changing to fully online learning will lead to severe learning loss for students, take away necessary public school services from families, and harm the development of adolescent social skills.
The move towards online learning has been damaging to children for a plethora of reasons. Distance learning is challenging for low-income families, as they don’t have resources necessary for online learning. A Pew Research survey discovered that one-in-five teens ages 13 to 17 do not have reliable access to the internet or a computer. School closure has also resulted in severe learning loss, as a study at Brown and Harvard found that, after a month of online school, student progress in math decreased by half, with the negative impacts more noticeable among low-income students. Furthermore, The Center for Reinventing Public Education reviewed the response plans of 477 school districts and recorded that two-thirds of school districts set low expectations for remote instruction, and only one in three school districts communicated the expectations for teachers to provide instruction, track student engagement, or monitor academic progress. Urban and suburban districts had a significantly higher chance to have these expectations conveyed compared to rural and small-town districts.
Furthermore, the lack of school mental health services is hurting students’ well-being, as nearly 80% of students with a mental illness receive treatment in schools. In a recent ACLU survey, more than half of the students responded that they have needed mental health support— 22% of students said that they had limited or no access to support services, and an additional 32% said their mental health needs have risen since schools closed. Not only do schools provide mental health assistance, but they also offer essential therapies and services for children with intellectual or physical disabilities.
To solve some of these issues, parents are coming up with creative alternatives to teaching their kids. One of these solutions is Pandemic Pods, a Facebook group created by Bay Area mom Lian Chang, where groups of children learn at home together with a hired teacher or a parent. Other families are suggesting that taxpayer dollars for education should be refunded if schools don’t reopen, as children aren’t receiving the desired quality of education. Many parents are also switching to homeschooling their kids, while some are hiring private tutors.
Overall, with numerous scientific backings and the “go ahead” from medical professionals, there’s little reason for schools to remain closed. School services benefit students and families immensely, and reopening ensures that students will maximize their learning this year.
