COVID-19 Exposes America's Broken Social Safety Net
As the saying goes, when the average American coughs, a person of color catches the flu. While COVID-19 is far more serious than the flu, its intensity — as measured by loss of life, lost wages, and learning gaps — has been devastating to people of color. Across the nation, we are now forced to reckon with just how inequitable and inadequate our social safety net actually is. Now, more than ever, we are seeing the critical role our public institutions play in anchoring our society in a storm. And we cannot help but see the deep inequities that people of color face in weathering that storm.
All of the issues that have been swept under the rug for decades are now laid bare for us to see: No paid sick leave. Broken healthcare systems. Lack of affordable housing. Families who were living paycheck to paycheck that are now unemployed. Inequitable funding for our public schools, worsened by closures and students without access to food or the internet.The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the wide opportunity gaps for low-income families and communities of color. The truth is — the wealthy will be taken care of. They will work from home and be able to maintain their social distance, and their 401ks and stock portfolios will bounce back. Meanwhile, low-income students and their families will pay the price — yet again.
Two years ago, the Schott Foundation released the Loving Cities Index to sound the alarm. We understood that persistent inequities were undermining our communities’ ability to care for the most vulnerable — long before COVID-19 thrust them into the spotlight. With the Loving Cities Index, we sought to provide a new framework to help cities assess their ability to provide essential supports for students and their families. A “Loving City” prioritizes legislation and funding of supports that CONTINUE READING: COVID-19 Exposes America's Broken Social Safety Net | Schott Foundation for Public Education
