An old story made new again: Why students of color are primed to be left behind in the coronavirus crisis
James — who teaches, researches and writes about race and the law — explains the dynamics of education policy that has long made this a reality in American education and explains how things could be different in a post-coronavirus world if Americans care enough to try.
James is part of the OpEd Project’s Public Voices Fellowship, a national initiative to increase the public impact of our nation’s top underrepresented thinkers.
You can follow James on Twitter: @ProfOsamudiaJ
By Osamudia James
District by district, state by state, school leaders across the country are canceling the remainder of the academic year in response to covid-19. This, in combination with disparities in the access to and quality of online instruction among students has yielded nascent calls to hold the most disadvantaged students back for the 20-21 academic year, while their more privileged peers move forward. Not too far behind that are suggestions that parents exit the public school system all together, taking even their tax dollars with them.
Like so many other policy decisions under scrutiny for racial disparities, these early responses to uneven remote learning are primed to leave more nonwhite than white children behind, aggravating educational inequalities already embedded in our system. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. CONTINUE READING: Why students of color are primed to be left behind in the coronavirus crisis - The Washington Post
