The Importance of Public Schooling and What Has To Change When Schools Reopen
You may remember the outrageous paean to school choice delivered by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council back in the summer of 2017: “Choice in education is good politics because it’s good policy. It’s good policy because it comes from good parents who want better for their children. Families are on the front lines of this fight; let’s stand with them.” “Just the other week, the American Federation of Teachers tweeted at me…’Betsy DeVos says (the) public should invest in individual students. NO. We should invest in a system of great public schools for all kids.’ I couldn’t believe it when I read it, but you have to admire their candor. They have made clear that they care more about a system—one that was created in the 1800s—than about individual students.” “This isn’t about school systems… Schools are at the service of students. Not the other way around.”
The widespread school closures we are experiencing in the midst of the pandemic are exposing the flaws in DeVos’s thinking. Our system of education is ensuring that—despite the problem of students’ wildly unequal access to technology—teachers and school administrators are at least able to stay connected with millions of students. The executive director of the Network for Public Education, Carol Burris reports on surveys the organization conducted with educators and parents to learn how they are experiencing remote learning during the school closures. She reports the response of, “Jeff Palladino… the principal of Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School, located (in the Bronx) in the most impoverished congressional district in the United States. Sixty percent of Fannie Lou Hamer students are Latino, and 39 percent are black. Their parents are either workers declared essential or suffering from the worry of being laid off… ‘The first thing we do is check in with our at-risk kids—kids with emotional issues, health issues, kids who were at-risk before Covid-19… We call and make sure they are okay.’ His school (in the Bronx) has lost four parents to the disease to date… School counselors follow up with students who are struggling, speaking with parents as well as kids.”
At least the fact that public schools are one of our nation’s primary social institutions creates CONTINUE READING: The Importance of Public Schooling and What Has To Change When Schools Reopen | janresseger