Read on Twitter
Across the country, public school kids will stay home this fall while college kids return. This makes zero sense--unless we recognize a kind of liberal Trumpism, a more sophisticated kind of denial, at play in higher ed. 1/
To be sure, some of the college presidents denying reality actually are Trumpers, such as Mitch Daniels at Purdue or the unnamed college presidents who told Pence a top priority for them was liability protection. 2/
But most college presidents have conflated a high sense of mission with anxiety about the bottom line. "Dorms must be filled, or the virus will have won!" Of course, filling dorms is sort of like saying, "Here, virus, let me pour you another." 3/
I've identified 75 k-12 districts in college towns that will be remote or hybrid while college kids flow back in from around the country. I'm not including major cities, so no NYC universities, no Boston, LA, Chicago, Houston, DC, Miami. Just 75 college towns. 4/
My college town, Hanover, NH, isn't one of them. 2200 @dartmouth students are coming back--& our schools are opening full in-person. *Maybe* we can do it; we're in better shape than almost anywhere in the country. But maybe not... 5/
Yesterday I was speaking to a member of the hospital's covid response team. Not a doctor or a nurse, just expressing an opinion: "We think Dartmouth will have to turn around & close its doors not long after it opens." 2200 students, + those coming just to live in town... 6/
It's too easy to blame college kids for not being responsible. Here in Hanover, a lot of them party, maskless. Callous? Yes. Predictable? Even more so. The fault, then, lies in those with decision-making power, those who fooled themselves into thinking it would be otherwise. 7/
Maybe Trump, colleges & my district are right, reopen it all. I admit I wish it was otherwise. If college kids come back, school kids stay home. Better yet: College kids stay home so school kids might not have to. 8/
Because right now, what I see is a bizarre experiment higher ed is running on America's youth, its school kids as well as its college students, and the communities around them. 9/9
