Almost every question regarding how schools should operate in the Time of COVID leads to this problem – no matter how well intended and accommodating, plans for re-opening schools do not allow all children to receive an equitable and equal education. A second outcome of almost every plan is that a segment of teachers, staff, children, parents and community are unhappy with its outcomes. Our educational systems have worked hard to create accommodating options in every area where the education of children is not equitable and equal. And, educators have worked to create parent, family and community partnerships in school programming and services to assure equity and equality. COVID is leaving educators without options to provide the kind of options that make education equitable and equal for children and amiable with parents. No options is not an option.
I posit this as a given. There is a real difference between in-school and at-home learning for students, regardless of how diligent schools are in providing remote instruction. At-home just is not the same as being in-school and this this builds conditions of inequity and inequality.
The first divisor of COVID is the reality of health conditions. Children and their families and teachers and their families who have health conditions that are imperiled by COVID have no option. Their baseline consideration is “I cannot participate in any schooling that presents my exposure to any person who is infected or contagious or has been exposed to such.” Because the infected and contagious may be present in any social situation, this immediately eliminates in-person teaching and learning for these students and teachers. Their parameter must be safety first. Students and teachers with health conditions have no options for in-school attendance.
The second divisor is perception – perceived danger or perceived safety. Whether a person perceives danger or perceives safety, their perception is right. Prevalent COVID data yields this “glass half full or glass half empty” proposition. Our county is rated by our Department of Health Services as being “high in COVID activity” – community spread. Our county has a suffered few COVID-related deaths and a low number of hospitalizations. The “high” rating of community spread builds the perception of present danger. The “low” number of deaths builds the perception of relative safety. No argument can convince either perceiver that their perception is erroneous. Perception is reality and the reality is that some children and teachers believe they should be in-school and some children and teachers believe they must be at-home. Students and teachers who perceive the dangers of in-school attendance are separated into at-home students and teachers. No options to be in-person.
The third and fourth divisors are real time factors. Some schools have the physical capacity for all children and teachers to be socially distanced in-school. A combination of lower enrollment and available in-school classrooms spaces allow for a socially distanced instruction of all children. At the same time, some schools do not have this capacity. At best, these schools can offer a combination of either in-school and at-home instructional days for all children or in-school all week instruction for some children and at-home all week instruction for other children. Social distancing requirements are dividing children into full-time or part-time in-school and/or at-home students.
Internet access is the fourth and highly significant real time divisor. Synchronous screen time between teachers and students has become a strong tool for delivering in-school teaching to at-home students. Some homes have high speed connectivity and some have little to no connectivity at all. And, of those homes with connectivity, some Internet is not strong enough to support streaming and Zooming. Additionally, the amount of school time required for at-home learning can be very expensive given a family’s Internet plan. Internet connectivity has divided students at home in the “haves” and “have nots”. Access to the Internet is a very real creator of inequality and inequity.
A fifth divisor is the presence or lack of parental supervision and support for at-home learning. This is a true have and have not division. The economics of some homes require that adults work full time. Their need is inarguable. Children in these homes do not have adult supervision and daily support of their at-home learning. The economics of other homes allows an adult to be at home. Children in these homes have adult supervision and support. However, not all adults are suited for supervising and supporting at-home education. The lack of an adult at home or an adult who is suited for at-home education leaves at-home students without needed options for their learning supervision and support.
The final divisor lies in the community. Local economies work best in the school year when children are in school and adults are available for work. When COVID forced schools to shift to at-home student learning last fall, local economies suffered. Reopening the economy pushes schools to provide in-school teaching and in-school learning. When educational leaders attend to health data’s indicating the need for at-home student learning, an immediate adversarial relationship erupts between economic and educational interests with small to no options for compromise.
To reclaim needed options for educators, students and parents, we need:
- Community commitment to following medical guidance that drives the local infection rate to one (1) case per one hundred thousand citizens (100,000) and hold that rate over time. In our count of less than 100,000 in population, the rate is no more than one (1) new, positive COVID test per day. This requires enforced masking and social distancing mandates.
- Suspension of school until the above local infection rate is achieved. The 180 days of school year for all schools, teachers and students will slide back in the chronological calendar until this rate is achieved. Education will be achieved, just not now and not with the current examples of inequity and inequality.
- Governmental financing of ubiquitous high speed Internet for every community regardless of population density and commercial subscription. Every aspect of life in a community needs this.
- State and local financing to employ enough essential school employees to achieve social distancing in all school operations – classroom, transportation, food service. If essential personnel are not available, schools cannot provide in-school teaching and learning.
- State and local financing to ensure that all areas of a school can be sanitized quickly and effectively is machine and not hand labor. Cleaning builds both the reality and perception of safe school environments.
- PPP coverage for an adult to be an at-home supervisor and learning supporter for 4K through grade 6 age children.
It is absurd that a nation of such resources should not ensure an equitable and equal education for all children, even in the Time of COVID. Or, to restate this, it is absurd that a nation of such resources is willing to squander the educated future of a generation of children.