2020 Medley #12 — Post-pandemic Education
POST-PANDEMIC EDUCATION
Have you read anything lately about “when schools reopen after the pandemic is over?” There are ideas galore…some good, some ridiculous. It’s good to plan ahead, of course, but we don’t really know what the situation will be in three months.
One thing is sure, with the pandemic there came an economic downturn — a recession, which actually began in February. The House of Representatives has passed a spending bill that’s stalled in the Senate. States are running out of money…and schools are, as usual, at the top of the list of cuts.
Here in Indiana, schools have yet to recover from the recession of 2008. More cuts to education, at a time when increased funding for education is absolutely necessary, will be disastrous. Last week I suggested that one way to reduce costs for public schools is to cancel testing…another way would be to return charter and voucher money back to the public schools. Those, however, are not likely to happen, the latter especially.
So the post-pandemic calls for more bus service, smaller classes, teachers teaching online and in person, and a host of other ideas which will cost more money. How does that happen?
Pasi Sahlberg, author, with William Doyle, of Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive, has some ideas of what NOT to do when schools reopen. At the top of the list is refusing to accept that CONTINUE READING: 2020 Medley #12 — Post-pandemic Education | Live Long and Prosper
