“School’s out for summer. School’s out forever.” So sang Alice Cooper in the ‘70s. Most schools were scheduled to resume Jan. 3, the Monday after the New Year’s holiday, but many did not. While some cited hazardous road conditions thanks to snow and ice – a regular reason for closing classrooms this time of year – many others said it was because of the pandemic.
From the fear of the virus spreading through the student body, to staffing issues, and even teachers union demands, schools across the country have either delayed their grand reopenings or put them off entirely to go virtual. Even some that will accept students in person “took precautions” that had folks wondering if administrations are actually hoping for a homeschool revolution. Today, school’s out for COVID – with government schools and teachers unions biting the hands that feed them, it may soon be out forever.
School’s Out
Across the nation, schools that expected classrooms to fill once again have delayed up to a week to give students time to get tested for COVID. But many more are either going virtual or simply staying closed.
In Massachusetts, more than a dozen school districts did not resume class. Snow was a culprit for some, but COVID chaos was the reason for others. In Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Public Schools announced the shuttering of 12 locations due to staffing shortages. Several more schools in Connecticut did not reopen because of the virus and absent staff. According to Burbio, a site that tracks school disruptions, 3,229 closures in the United States were announced as of Jan. 2.
Milwaukee Public Schools opted for a virtual education program rather than in-person classes, as did most urban districts in New Jersey. One of the largest districts in the country, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), might revert to distance learning soon, if officials cave to the pressure of union demands.
From the Inside
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has scheduled a vote for its more than 25,000 members on Tuesday, Jan. 4, to see if they will refuse to work on site beginning Wednesday. “Our union proposes Mayor [Lori] Lightfoot and her CPS team must put mitigations in place – including COVID-19 testing – by Jan. 3 to ensure safety as classes resume,” a union statement from the previous week read. “If mitigations are not in place, in-person learning must be paused so the district can implement proper safety measures.” At a virtual town hall Sunday evening with 8,000 of CTU’s members, 80% said they didn’t want to work in the classroom under current conditions.
Though many Bay State schools were closed for COVID, Massachusetts denied its teachers union’s request to keep them closed statewide for COVID-19 testing. Will the Windy City also hold the line? Teachers are allowed to work only remotely in Chicago Public Schools if the board of education approves, and the last word from CPS CEO Pedro Martinez is that he stands “firmly behind the decision to protect our students’ physical and mental health and promote their academic progress by keeping CPS schools safely open for in-person learning.”
In other words, “no.”
(Photo by Paul Bersebach/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
It seems quite likely that the union will vote to either work remotely or not at all. Would this result in a massive walk-out of Chicago teachers, effectively closing the city’s schools? Lightfoot called it more “saber-rattling” and said that distance learning has been devastating to children and their families. “We need to keep our kids in school, which is what we’re going to do in Chicago,” she declared, adding later that “schools are the safest place for students to be.”
That’s an interesting take, that schools are the safest place to be, and Lightfoot isn’t alone in that opinion. In New York City, Eric Adams, who just took over as mayor, agreed. “We want to be extremely clear: the safest place for our children is a school building,” he proclaimed during a visit to an elementary school in the Bronx. In the Big Apple, just a single location was closed for COVID on Jan. 3.
Here’s a question: What makes public schools the safest place to be during an allegedly world-threatening pandemic? Is it the regular class periods spent in close proximity to others? Perhaps it’s the several hours per day spent wearing a mask inside a building rather than breathing fresh air unimpeded. Maybe it’s the food, prepared in the industrial kitchen all at once for hundreds – often thousands – of students at a time by the same few hands. No, no, surely it’s the communal bathrooms and water fountains.
Adams claimed the transmission rate in the city’s schools was low – but surely it can’t be lower than at home?
A Cold Reception
For students who do return to class, the conditions can be trying. Burbio reported that, as of Dec. 31, 61% of the top 500 school districts in the nation require students and staff to wear masks. There are around 13,800 school districts in the nation – and you can bet that a good portion of the 13,300 or so smaller districts have the same requirement.
The CDC recommends vaccination and masks for students, as well as regular screening – that means nasal swabs. Follow that up with contact tracing and mandatory quarantining for those “exposed,” and school is rather uncomfortable these days. Plus, any given student may be barred from entry the day after they have been around someone who tests positive. Some districts are even taking more extreme measures. Ostensibly as a way to ensure social distancing, Lake Washington School District #414 in King County, near Seattle, is making kids eat lunch outside. But don’t worry, they won’t be made to endure the elements if it’s too cold. From an email sent to parents:
“On Sundays during January-February I will send a brief message indicating whether students will be eating indoors due to frigid weather in the coming week. This week students will remain eating outdoors as the temperatures are expected to be above 38 degrees.
“Stay warm,
“Heather”
(Photo by Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
Cold is a relative term, but it’s doubtful many Washington parents want their children eating lunch in the fresh air when it’s just five degrees above freezing. And the audacity to add “stay warm” as her sign-off!
No More Mr. Nice Guy
With thousands of schools across the nation requiring that kids stay home – and many others accepting students only to treat them like cattle – one wonders how long the public education system can remain afloat. Homeschooling was on the rise well before the pandemic began, but the COVID-19 chaos pushed many on-the-fence parents right over to the DIY side.
Teachers unions may believe that their members have guaranteed paychecks – but that’s the case only so long as there are students to teach. As more schools close due to staffing issues – whether that’s refusal to vaccinate, to work on site, or to work at all – the number of kids in virtual learning programs that don’t involve the state grows. How many more students can public education afford to lose to homeschooling before the funding well runs dry and school’s really out forever?
~ Read more from James Fite.
