Sunday, June 7, 2020

NANCY BAILEY: Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?

Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?


How are schools going to look in the fall? Local school district educators and parents are meeting to draft plans. Weighing heavily on the minds of many is this question, will public schools survive? Will teachers still have a role to play in the education of students?
Technology has failed and schools are reopening on shaky ground. Will America throw up its hands and end public schooling for good? Will we be left with private and parochial schools, most which run on their own rules with little accountability to the public? Will substandard online programs and charters we know don’t work become the name of the game?
Parents are frantic there will be no childcare. Teachers worry they will lose their jobs.
There’s reason to fear. The nation’s leaders  have permitted the firing of hundreds of thousands of teachers and staff who work in brick-and-mortar schools, yet they find money to bail out the cruise industry, a business that pays virtually no federal taxes. There’s concern for the post office (which I share), but public schools seem an afterthought.
There’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, who abruptly announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will design a blueprint for New York’s schools.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos seeks to end public schooling. The Covid-19 crisis has CONTINUE READING: Technology Fails Students. Will It Matter? What’s Next? Private, Parochial, Charters, and Online Programs?