We know these six things. Adults make the decisions regarding the education of children. Schools are pivotal to the economic vitality of a community. Children are the last in our population to be eligible for COVID vaccination. The virus of March 2020 is not the virus of August 2021. During the pandemic, the issue of whose voices determine educational policy has become more important for some than the education of children. The education of all children matters. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, these six topics have dominated discussion of public education.
The opening of the 2021-22 school year is a matter of determining which of these will be #1. As in most scenarios, there is an analogy we can apply. This is one I have used in prior blogs. We are in the dilemma of three adult men in the movie City Slickers. We face uncertainty in our future. Curly, the old and grizzled cowhand, asks us a simple question. “What is your #1? When you know that, everything else will become clear.”
With less than a month before the start of the fall semester, what is our #1 for this school year? Each of these six knowns is vying to be the lead story, #1, for the 21-22 school year. Of the six things we know, what we make our #1 will drive the others.
What do we really know?
Yes, adults make the decisions regarding how children will be raised and educated. First and foremost, adults as parents decide how children will be raised. It starts with a parent and that parent’s child, and it generalizes to the neighborhood and community. “This is how children are raised here.” Adults, as politicians, business and community leaders, and school leaders, weigh in on public policy, local employment, and schooling. Adults make the decisions – this a primary law of the child’s world.
Yes, schools are pivotal to the vitality of a community. In March 2020 closed school campuses had an immediate and adverse impact upon parent availability for daily work. Some parents still have not returned to the job market. Closed campuses curtailed the community’s access to the entertainment value of school athletics, theater, and activities. Closed or open campuses make a difference. Something as basic as the retail sales are reviving this summer as children require new school clothes, shoes, backpacks, and supplies. Open schools are a sign of a community open for new business.
Yes, senior adults then all adults and finally older children over the age of 12 were and are eligible for vaccination. Early data showed the elderly were the most vulnerable to severe COVID illness and death and their early vaccination reversed that data line. Vaccines were provided to working adults to assist their return to employment. Finally, young adults and teens became vaccine eligible. But, not children under the age of 12. Now, it is this age group, the vaccine ineligible, who are the focus of attention for decisions about September. Masks or no masks. In-person or remote. Options and conditions for how children can attend school. The health of the last to be vaccine eligible is our issue today.
Yes, the virus mutated, and today’s Delta variant is different than the initial virus that spread across our communities. And, yes, the science of understanding virus is a changing story meaning that we are moving from a pandemic virus to an endemic virus that may be circulating for years to come. Medical science needs to stay current if not anticipate these variants. There may well be more variants and more vaccines in our future.
Yes, we are in a battle of voices. The growing question is whose voices will determine the decisions to be made. In 2020, the voices were divided by in-person versus remote education. Those voices splintered into adults who chose to open enroll to a non-local school and those who disenrolled from public school and enrolled as home schoolers. In 2021, the voices are divided by masking versus no-masking. Per usual, most parents have opinions on this issue but only a small number of parents vocalize their opinions as demands. Letters, texts, and petitions are sent to local school boards. The issue is narrowed down to who will decide whether children will be masked in school – parents or school officials. Everyone has data and studies and reports to cite in favor of their opinion. However, at the end of this day, the adults making this decision will be the adults elected to the local school board and the adults hired as school administrators.
Yes, the education of all children matters. The pandemic has caused multiple parsing of children into constituent groups of specific concern. Children needing special education and assistive education quickly rose to our attention. Children in homes without adequate Internet connectivity required other means for transporting instruction between home and school. Children without adults at home to supervise and support remote education became at risk of falling behind or dropping out.
Most data indicates that vaccination protects against infection and makes subsequent “break through” infection less severe. And, vaccination provides protection against most variants, so far. Yet, the argument about vaccination or no vaccinations persists. The real choice may simply be whether to be vaccinated and all other decisions will spring from that.
Communities will be healthier physically and emotionally when children are eligible for vaccination. Communities are healthier when school campuses are open to in-person schooling.
Adults will continue to make the crucial decisions regarding school. School boards and administrators, not parents or community voices, will make decisions regarding masks or no masks in school. If the school board decision is “masks are optional”, parents will make the daily masking decision for their children. And, parents will continue to choose where their children will be educated. Public school enrollment will continue to decrease as dissatisfied parents demand options that align with their opinions.
What to do?
Everyone gets to decide their #1. School leaders, parents, community – all decide. Depending upon your #1, things clarify differently.
For school leaders, our #1 continues to be “the education of all children matters” and all decisions flow from this #1. #2 is that public schooling is authorized by state statutes and those statutes vest elected school boards and employed administrators with school-based decision making. #3 is parents will make decisions regarding where to educate their children – public school, open enrollment out, private education, or home schooling. And, parents will make decisions regarding masking when school leaders determine that masking is optional and not conditional. #4 addresses local conditions. An open school campus is best for local communities. And, a mutating virus plus a vaccinated population will continue to determine the status of an open campus. Lastly, #6 is that the public always will have and will voice their opinions. Voices, however, do not overpower statutory duty, parent responsibility, or the realities of public health.
For some parents, parent choice is #1. They have the right to choose where their child will be educated. School leader decisions regarding masking and other protocols may influence a parent decision. This #1 makes the education of their family’s child the highest priority.
For other parents, their opinion is #1. They want an open campus, their child to attend the local school, AND they want the local school to create protocols and rules that align with their opinions. The alignment of school and their personal opinions matters greatly to these parents. Where to educate their child always hangs in the balance of how well school aligns with opinion.
For our community, the business of business is business and business is #1. Our community prioritizes an open campus, happy parents, and the education of children.
Why is this thus?
The #1 of school leaders is premised on this – children get one whack at each grade level and each subject/course. One year of diminished learning creates negativity in a child’s education. One year of wobbling decisions about what is #1 lessens a school’s productivity, parent commitment to a school, and child engagement. While we generalize education across the K-12 grades, the knowledge, skills, experiences inherent in each annual curriculum matters. Case in point – Remember fractions. The manipulation of fractions is easy for some, hard for others, and complete mystery for a few. What happens if, due to a lack of instructional commitment, all children in a grade are not provided with good or complete instruction in fractions? What if fractions are a mystery to all? The result will be devastating to subsequent mathematics, as well as chemistry, physics, and all shop courses. We are required to create educational proficiency in all subjects for all children. This is our #1.
Additionally, school boards are committed to equity, quality, and protection of the most vulnerable students. Rules and protocols become easier when generalized to the majority. Easy does not necessarily protect those most vulnerable to school failure or to viral infection. How we “treat the least of these” has a familiar and essential ring for school leaders.
Regardless of the pandemic, children need to be educated. Primary grade children are in the “prime time” for their learning to read. Mathematics changes from arithmetic to algebra-based math in upper elementary and middle school. College and career preparation is ongoing in high school
The Big Duh!
School boards and administrators that acknowledge their responsibility to this #1 know what comes next – policy and rule statements that clarify school behaviors for staff, students, and parents. Parents, knowing the decisions and decision-making process of their local school board, can make informed decisions regarding where to educate their children. With clear statements, communities can plan on when campuses will be open and the conditions for closing a campus, if necessary.
“Understand your #1 and everything else becomes clear.”