Getting kids back in school must be America’s first priority

America is in the grips of a national education emergency, and we’re wondering why the alarms bells are not ringing louder.

Millions of public schoolchildren remain stuck at home for school, where they stare at electronic screens instead of attending classes in classrooms, where they would be far more actively engaged with their teachers and classmates.

Some children are no doubt working diligently on their lessons, with parents and teachers coaxing them along as they make the best of a bad situation wrought by COVID-19. But common sense says that many other children surely are learning a whole lot less, if they’re learning at all.

As a country, we cannot allow remote learning, a third-rate alternative to the real thing, to become the “new normal.” Or we will have failed an entire generation.

But right now, as best we can tell, the United States is doing just that, seemingly more upset about closed bars than closed classrooms. We sense upside-down priorities, as recently lamented by Joseph Allen, a professor at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“The second we closed schools in March, it should have been an urgent and national priority to figure out a plan for how to get them back,” Allen told the Harvard Gazette. “Instead, we opened things like bars, restaurants, and casinos, and now we have millions of kids who are not in school. We have kids who are totally unaccounted for.”

The long-term consequences to children’s education and social development are potentially devastating, as Allen and other experts warn. The dangers are especially great for lower-income children of color, whose families have the fewest resources to make remote learning really work.

“What’s our job in this country?” Allen asked. “It’s to educate and care for the next generation.”

An educational Marshall Plan

Politicians talk endlessly about economic recovery. And, accordingly, much of the public debate about a possible new federal stimulus package has focused on the importance of rescuing struggling businesses and shoring up the battered finances of state and local governments.

We’re all for that.

But every big city public school district in the country also is begging for help, and the next stimulus package — should Washington ever get its act together — must begin there.

We envision a kind of Marshall Plan for education, with every elementary and high school, in even the most impoverished communities, provided with the resources and expert guidance to reopen safely as quickly as possible.

We’re thinking about a portable air cleaner in every classroom, as called for by Allen, to improve ventilation and tamp down the spread of virus particles. We’re thinking about mandatory masks, extra cleaning of buildings and smaller classes to allow for social distancing.

Nothing we can do will eliminate all risk. But much more can be done to minimize the risk and make school re-openings more feasible.

It’s a matter of doing whatever it takes.

A cautious thumbs-up

On Friday, Chicago Public Schools announced a plan to slowly return to in-person learning. Preschoolers and children with special needs would return to school next month. Elementary and high schools students could return to school beginning in January.

We support that effort, even as we understand the reservations of others.

Yes, we know that Chicago and Illinois are experiencing a troubling resurgence of COVID-19. We understand why many parents are wary. And we see that the Chicago Teachers Union has already signaled its opposition, blasting the CPS plan as “reckless.”

But we are more persuaded by Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady’s review of the work that went into the plan — which CPS is prepared to put back on hold should the spread of the virus worsen.

Arwady and her team began by examining COVID-19 cases in Chicago involving children under age 18, including those attending day care programs, park programs, and private and parochial schools. What they concluded, which is supported by research done in other states and foreign countries, is that school re-openings — carried out with responsible caution — do not as a rule lead to widespread outbreaks of COVID-19.

“When proper precautions are taken,” Arwady said, “transmission in these settings is rare.”

“Just as I believe that health care is essential and a human right, access to education is essential and a human right,” she added. “I am a pediatrician. If I thought this was dangerous, I would not be supporting it.”

“Devastating consequences”

Some CPS parents will choose to have their children continue with remote learning. But many other parents — and students— appear to think that it’s not working well enough for them.

We received a letter on Friday from a junior at Taft High School who just thought we should know:

“My virtual school is a joke,” she wrote. “It is mid-October and just this week two of my classes were changed. Two others have rotating subs. I still don’t have any textbooks. Tests are a joke. Nobody cares. It is truly a waste. I would take any other option offered.”

Our kids deserve a better education — safe, and as soon as possible.

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