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This weekend, our School Board is discussing returning to in-person learning. I believe strongly we should asap because experience in this region and around the country show it can be done safely, & bc there is no question it is better for the kids academically and socially./1
But these are and always have been tough questions, involving many complicated trade-offs. I personally fully acknowledge that, respect the very heavy burden of making such a decision, and want to express my gratitude to those serving in public office in these insane times. /2
By the same token, I feel it's important to clearly reject the over-simplification of this debate. Those who dismiss advocates 4 in-person learning as "just mad at being inconvenienced," or, worse "not caring about black and brown people" are creating a false moral high ground/3
This makes a hard question seem easy by fundamentally dodging it. There r health risks connected with the virus and there r health + long-term social mobility risks associated w/extended remote learning. It's one of the challenges our time to think about how to balance them.
it is much easier to simply ignore one of them. /5 https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/students-falling-behind/2020/12/06/88d7157a-3665-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
We've stumbled into a two-tiered education system for this school year - one private and/or suburban and in-person, and one public and urban and remote. With full recognition of how hard a decision it will be, I want to encourage the school board to embrace this challenge.../6
...(which I believe our administration and school staffs are up to meeting) and bring kids back to their buildings, their teachers, and each other. Safely. /7
And then beyond that, I want them, and us, to focus all our efforts on making up for what we lost this year. /8
Let's be the district and the region that writes the playbook for using the federal stimulus funds to, as our incoming President says, Build Back Better. Extending the school year? Summer programs? Let's be the place that figures out how. /end
addendum: for those arguing for a return, we must also acknowledge the factors that increase health/COVID spread risk in urban districts, including higher % of kids in multi-family housing and higher % of kids riding buses. /1
There's no benefit to either side of this debate pretending the choices are easy. They are wrenching, and we should all acknowledge that. /end
