Making the Fight Over School Reopenings a Turning Point for a Just Pandemic Response
A lot has changed in the last week, and the next few will be critical
Dear friends, old and new—
When I first began writing about the debate over school reopenings, the momentum was with those arguing to open schools. The American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) released guidelines arguing that a full return to in-person schooling must be the central goal and suggesting that the CDC guidelines were overly cautious. Of particular note to educators used to working in over-crowded classrooms, the AAP explicitly stated that an inability to reduce class sizes to meet social distancing guidelines should not be a deterrent to opening schools.
While I raised a number of criticisms of the AAP guidelines, most of the press was reporting them favorably. School districts—in red states and blue—were moving forward with reopening plans despite the rising number of coronavirus cases. The argument for school openings was wrapped in the language of equity and gender equality and sought to pit teachers’ concerns over their own health against the presumed needs of families.
And then Trump opened his mouth. He and Betsy DeVos’ aggressive push to open schools and their attacks on the CDC guidelines as “too expensive” made clear what should have been clear all along: opening schools is not about the kids, but about the economy—and teachers, staff and families have been deemed acceptable casualties.
But now the tide has begun to turn. Major school districts—from Los Angeles to Atlanta—have announced that they will not be returning in-person. Teachers’ unions have become more vocal and insistent that the conditions do not exist to open schools safely. And parents are also beginning to speak up as the media finally covers polling showing that a strong majority of parents are not comfortable with sending their kids back to school.
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My Most Recent Piece: The Fight Over Reopening Schools Is a Turning Point In the Response To the Coronavirus
In this piece, I argue that we must use the fight against school reopening as a turning point for a just pandemic response. I describe how the push to open schools is part of a process of normalization of mass deaths:
It is in this context that the push for reopening schools comes. While schools need to be open for people to go back to physical workplaces, this is only part of the picture. With record unemployment levels and nearly 1 in 2 adults not working, it is not clear that there are jobs for people to go back to.
Just as important is the role that opening schools would have in the ongoing process of normalizing this new state of affairs. School closures are one of the most obvious and collective signs that we are not past the crisis. They highlight the pressing childcare needs of millions of working parents. Remote learning has exposed the deep and pre-existing inequities in our educational system. Schools reach deep into every facet of our society and their closure has shone a glaring light on the failings of our system:
That 1.5 million of our nation’s schoolchildren are homeless. That tens of millions of children are food insecure and rely on schools for what may be the sole meal they receive in a day. That there are children suffering from trauma and precarious home situations who rely on schools for stability and support. That school provides the only respite for many parents, mostly mothers, from the intensive care they provide for their children with disabilities.
For all of the talk of equity, the drive to reopen schools is more about covering up this gaping wound than it is about addressing it. This is made abundantly clear by the fact that there is no commitment to increasing the funding and resources that addressing these needs would require.
I hope you will read the full piece here via this free friend link and share it with others. (By sharing this link, you help me make sure everyone can access the story without hitting a paywall.)
Looking Ahead
Thanks to all of you who subscribed when I launched last week and shared this newsletter with friends. I had wanted to include a roundup of teachers’ unions and parent groups that have come out against opening schools in August and September. But the tide has shifted so quickly that the list is growing and I wanted to get my most recent story out to you. I’ll be working on that roundup over the next day or two and hope to get it out to you. It’s inspiring to witness how teachers and parents have stepped up to fill the vacuum of leadership and point a way forward. Until then, I want to make sure that you all saw the working papers by the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) titled Same Storm, Different Boats. As they write:
We’re all in this together is a common slogan during this crisis. What this platitude fails to acknowledge is that, while we may all be in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. The United States is at an unprecedented moment of overlap between a global pandemic, deep economic recession, and an uprising for Black Lives that exposes the structural race and class fissures that have resulted in higher unemployment, exposure, infection, and death rates in Black and Brown poor communities.
I’ll have more analysis and stories next time, but these two unions provide a framework that anyone fighting against a premature and dangerous return to school buildings can draw on. I hope you’ll find them helpful. If you have stories, especially in places that we might not usually hear about, that I should include in a future round up—or there are topics you’d like to hear more about—please feel free to drop me a comment.
Until then, thanks to all of you who are on the front lines of fighting for the safety of our school-based staff and the schools our children deserve.
Jen Roesch