Lessons from the pandemic’s education pod parents - The Washington Post

Lessons from the pandemic’s education pod parents - The Washington Post

Lessons from the pandemic’s education pod parents

It was only a few weeks ago that we began hearing about “pandemic pods” or “microschools” — which essentially are groups of students whose parents have paid for professional instruction because of the chaos the covid-19 crisis has wrought on America’s schools. And now they are all over the education news.

Some say these pods are a decent solution to a real-time problem, while others say the pods will only fuel the inequity already baked into our educational system because only people with money can participate.

For parents who can afford it, a solution for fall: Bring the teachers to them

This post, written by Kevin Welner, an attorney and professor specializing in educational policy and law, explains why both sides have it partly right, and what we can learn from what he calls the new “pod parents.”

Welner is the director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of several books on school law, including the 2019 law school casebook “Education and the Law.” He is also author of “NeoVouchers: The Emergence of Tuition Tax Credits for Private Schooling.”

The huge problem with education ‘pandemic pods’ suddenly popping up

By Kevin Welner

Hollywood told us in 1956 that the “pod people” are determined to subdue the entire planet, replacing each person with an alien surrogate devoid of feelings and personality. Those human traits keep individuals from pursuing their best interests, the Pod People explain in “Invasion of the Body CONTINUE READING: Lessons from the pandemic’s education pod parents - The Washington Post