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President Joe Biden has said he wants most K-8 schools to reopen in late April, but even if that happens, it is likely that millions of students, many of whom are minorities in urban areas, be left out.
“We’re going to see children falling further and further behind, especially low-income students of color,” said Shavar Jeffries, president of Democrats for Education Reform. “There is potentially a level of generational prejudice that students have suffered from being out of school for so long.”
Like some other education officials and advocates, Jeffries said powerful teachers’ unions oppose the return of students. The unions insist that they act to protect teachers, students and their families.
In a Thursday night appeal with teachers’ unions, Dr Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease specialist, said reopening K-8 classrooms nationwide may not be possible within the time frame specified by Biden. He raised concerns about new variants of the virus that allow it to spread faster and could be more resistant to vaccines.
Biden is asking schools for $ 130 billion to address concerns from unions and school officials as part of a larger coronavirus relief program that faces an uncertain fate in Congress. If its goal of reopening is met, millions of students may need to continue learning from home, perhaps for the rest of the school year.
California was an epicenter of infection in the first part of January, and public health officials say many districts of the state are in areas where transmission remains too high to reopen. But a statewide group called Open Schools California is pushing for its reopening as soon as public health standards are met.
“I think the data will confirm that the most disadvantaged children will be low-income children, black and brown children, children with special education, learning differences, homeless and foster youth,” he said. said Megan Bacigalupi, a mother of Oakland Public School students and one of the organizers.
It is difficult to calculate exactly how many schools are open in person currently due to the size and diffuse nature of the country’s school system – and because district approaches change frequently.
By early January, about a third of students in a sample of 1,200 US school districts had been in schools where classes had been held exclusively online since last March, many in cities. Last week, more than half of students were enrolled in schools where in-person learning was at least an option, according to Burbio, a data service that tracks policies for opening schools.
For the first time since schools closed in March, Atlanta began bringing younger and struggling students back to in-person learning last week. Other districts that plan to reopen in early March include Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas; Kansas City, Missouri; Boston and the major Ohio school systems.
Young New York City students already have the opportunity to attend school in person. Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Friday he expects middle and high school students to return to some extent later this school year.
Jeffries acknowledges that there are reasons it is more difficult to open schools in cities: they are more densely populated, which means the virus can spread faster; more people depend on public transport, a potential hotspot for contamination; and more and more parents are working in frontline jobs that could expose them, and, in turn, their children, to the virus.
But he said the main obstacle to reopening the city’s schools was political. “Teacher unions tend to be stubbornly against going back to school,” Jeffries said.
In Chicago, only pre-beginners have been to school so far. This week the Chicago Teachers Union voted to teach online only in a face-off with the district over plans to bring students to school starting February 1. The union has authorized a strike if school officials retaliate, but negotiations are continuing.
Claiborne Wade, 31, has three children in the Chicago public school system, aged 10, 9 and 7. Wade believes the district is not quite ready to reopen schools and is prioritizing distance learning for the time being.
Despite this, he said minority students in large urban districts have fewer resources for online learning. He has seen students in better-off schools get laptops and tablets, and even desks, while his kids only have a laptop to work with. Having both a laptop and a tablet helps as students can see their teacher on one screen and follow instructional material on another, he said.
“This has been going on for years, even before the pandemic hit,” he said. “We have always been at the foot of the totem pole, to receive the resources we need.”
Public health officials increasingly say that virus transmissions in schools are low, as long as measures such as mask wearing and social distancing are in place – even if teachers and other school staff have not been vaccinated.
On Jan. 21, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said, “There is no public health reason for school boards to prevent students from going to school. No.”
Last week, Maryland State Education Association president Cheryl Bost wrote to Hogan, saying her statement “would be laughable if it weren’t so dangerous.” She said the coronavirus is unpredictable and dangers are heightened with the spread of new mutations. The risk of infection increases when people congregate indoors for long periods of time.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said it might be safe to return to school in the spring semester with rigorous testing programs in place and the ability for students and teachers to stay online. if they wish.
“Teachers know how important face-to-face teaching is, but we have to make it safe. Testing and vaccination, along with masking and distancing, are essential, as are accommodations for at-risk educators, ”she said in a statement last week.
Keith Benson, president of the Camden Education Association, which represents teachers in a New Jersey town with a long history of poverty, crime and high dropout rates, said conditions were different in the town and in the ‘outside. Schools there plan to keep buildings closed until at least April.
“What keeps a person safe in a suburb is not the same thing that keeps people safe here,” Benson said, adding that while distance learning isn’t ideal, he thinks students may eventually catch up.
Dr Lavanya Sithanandam, a pediatrician who practices in suburban Maryland in Washington, said she has seen a record number of children and teens with mental health challenges since online learning began in her area there. is over 10 months old.
“Initially, many doctors, including myself, were very reluctant to have children go back to school,” she said. “But as the data evolved, many of us realized that reopening schools was extremely important.”
Most of her patients are children from low-income minority families. She said the students she sees in private schools where classes are held in person tend to do better than their public school peers in terms of mental health.
“They did the basics of masking, of distancing, sometimes with the windows open. With that, they were able to minimize epidemics, ”she said.
Grace Lovelace Guishard, a second-grade teacher, also has three children enrolled in public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland, a large, racially diverse district where classes are to remain all virtual until at least March 15, a schedule that will depend on the spread of the virus.
She said schools cannot take shortcuts to prepare to reopen and teachers must have the right to refuse to work if they feel conditions are unsafe. It also means ensuring that students like hers, many of whom come from Spanish-speaking homes, receive equal treatment.
“Any plan to reopen schools must focus on equity for all,” she said.
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Sainz from Memphis, and Kunzelman from College Park, Maryland. Associated Press writers Collin Binkley in Boston also contributed; Jennifer Peltz in New York; and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; and AP data reporter Larry Fenn in New York City.
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