Civil rights attorney Wendy Lecker writes a regular column in the Stamford (CT) Advocate.
In this post, she points out that the pandemic has demonstrated how important public schools are in their communities.
As states closed public school systems, the nation at large saw the wide range of necessary services schools provide to students in addition to instruction. Public schools, serving 50 million students, also provide meals, health and social support essential to child welfare and development. School districts are now attempting to deliver instruction from a distance, but also to maintain the vital personal connection teachers and other staff provide, especially to their most vulnerable students. Teachers read bedtime stories online, tutor students from outside the students’ front doors and drive by students’ homes to check in. Counselors make themselves available through any electronic means possible.
That schools play a central role in the lives of children, families and communities should not be a revelation. In a country with a porous safety net, schools are often the only public community institution where children’s needs are served. Children must mitigate hunger, trauma and other life challenges in order to learn and thrive.
Question: Will legislatures remember and protect their public schools when the pandemic is over and give them the funding they need?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No, they won’t.
Worse, they will blame teachers for the epic failure that is online instruction.
The Blame Game
Everyone’s to blame
Except the ones who are
The finger pointing game
Will really get you far
The BLAME GAME .. could it be because the people who are in office have “hidden” agendas … like their PERKS for promoting “bad” stuff?
Because of my position as a professor in a graduate program, nearly all of my students are active teachers. I have been amazed when I hear the outstanding work they are doing for their students during this time. While some have wondered if teachers would be using this time to take a break, the exact opposite is true — most are putting in 14-16 hour days keeping students on track and creating engaging lessons in which students participate through various online platforms. With that said, all of them are eager to get back in the classroom, live and in person with their students, as soon as it is safe to do so. Our teachers really are rocking it!
imagine a national change from politicians running public ed. policy to actual teachers in charge
I just have one still in school and he is a very “social” person. He is just sad at this point- I think he really misses seeing people every day.
I’m a public school supporter and even I didn’t realize what a big part of his life school is- he misses track and marching band. There’s just a big hole there that reading or playing video games isn’t going to fill.
Our poor young people in this country. They cannot seem to catch a break. They just survived a giant financial crash and now they’re going to get another. We’ve really done a terrible job as stewards of the country. We have left them a giant mess to clean up and very few tools with which to do it.
before this terrible crisis there was much written about kids being less and less social….can we hope that being forced to stay home will unleash an essential gratefulness for being outside and “hanging out”?
“Will legislatures remember and protect their public schools when the pandemic is over and give them the funding they need?”
States and localities are going to see the worst budget crisis of my lifetime. So, no.
Also, the pressure on public employee pensions, which dissipated in recent years due to the the seemingly interminable bull market — that’s coming back with a vengeance.
I’ve been hopeful all along about the virus, and I get more hopeful every day when I see new data. But the economic consequences are world-changing (and worsening each day), and I’m afraid that too many people haven’t recognized that yet.
We public school supporters are going to have to be very vigilant.
The last time the country collapsed (2009) ed reformers took power in 25 states and gutted public education budgets. 2010 was kind of the high point for ed reform and it was a disaster for public school students. A whole cohort of kids paid the bill for Wall Street excesses. All of the far Right governors who slashed public budgets did it under the auspices of “ed reform”.
That will happen again if we let it. Not again. It’s not fair to do that to young people again. Someone else can pay for this disaster. Public school students footed the bill for the last one.
Schools are mini-communities. They play a vital role in the lives of students and their families. People support each other in communities at a time of crisis. I am deeply saddened by the news that my teaching assistant with whom I worked for twenty years passed away from COVID-19 in New York. I know her three children well, and I knew her mother too. Despite the fact that I moved out of the area, I will always continue to see myself as a member of that school community.
When a school fences up its perimeter and keeps the gates locked during after-school hours and on the weekends, such a school loses ten points right away, and it did not have many to begin with. Asking the principal and the district several times did not change anything. The grassy soccer field, where amateur teams used to play on the weekends, stays bare. The basketball court is empty and quiet. This is no community, this is a piece of land and infrastructure that is supposed to be public, but cannot be used by the public.
You won’t learn anything about public schools if you read exclusively inside the ed reform echo chamber:
“Fordham Institute
3 Indianapolis charter school networks are all in on virtual learning, and can serve as models for schools around the country closed by COVID-19. Steven Wilson, senior fellow at @CRPE_UW
According to the echo chamber, the only schools who are doing any work at all are their preferred schools- charters and private. It’s all scolding and criticism of public schools and promoting/marketing charter and private schools- business as usual. They didn’t miss a beat.
Professional Public School Critic is now an actual job. It’s practically a sector.
They are careful not to use trigger words. The schools that will lead the way will be “new and innovative schools”:
“The teachers will not unlearn what they learned during the pandemic. Because they care about their students, most will try to bring effective new techniques into the classroom and teaching experience. A few will begin to think that they can have a bigger impact in nontraditional settings.
It won’t be long before some teachers go out on their own to start new and innovative schools.”
“The new teacher-led schools will come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The physical location won’t matter as much as the cooperation of teachers and parents to provide a quality experience for each student.”
“As a practical matter, most of the new schools will eventually fail. That’s the fate of all new ventures. But those that succeed will define a 21st-century model of education that is far more vibrant and relevant than anything we can imagine today.”
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2020/4/7/21210170/covid-19-education-home-school-pandemic
“In a country with a porous safety net, schools are often the only public community institution where children’s needs are served. Children must mitigate hunger, trauma and other life challenges in order to learn and thrive.” — weasel language. Why not say that the country does not give a flying chili bean about lower classes, that school is de-facto a “free” (not free, because you pay taxes after all) childcare, food source, psychology services and sometimes an educational facility? On the other hand, if wealthier families do not need these services, can they can a variation that only focusses on education, pretty please? Maybe make it ten years instead of twelve and beef it up with better curricula for those who do not need to “mitigate hunger and trauma”? Is school for normal people or for traumatized outcasts? If there are so many outcasts that they became a new normal, maybe bigger changes in the society needed to rebalance the situation (did someone say “revolution”?) instead of burdening schools with raising someone else’s kids and being proud of it?
Do you work part time as an OAN “reporter”?
Had to google “OAN”. Do they suggest rewriting the social contract, provide jobs and housing and healthcare for everyone who needs it so that people did not have to rely on schools for these services?
I just thought the rhetorical questions you posed were loony tunes, hence the OAN reference. Reality and experience seem to be alien concepts for you both. Th-th-th-that’s all, folks.
It is not difficult to see who is busy publicizing and brokering ideas for federal action on pre-K-12 education and who is not. The active players are all in for school choice and they have a “perfect” opportunity to dismantle and starve brick and mortar public schools. Federal policies will jumpstart what happens in states, districts, and communities.
The transition from NCLB to ESSA took longer than expected. Most states put their new DeVos-approved plans for accountability and school improvement in place during 2019-2020, later than expected.
Those plans have been pruned by the pandemic. Since April 3, 2020, every state is eligible for a range of ESSA waivers including tests and how state education agencies “permit LEAs (local education agencies) to use Title IV, Part A funds to best meet its needs without regard to customary requirements for
–content-areas,
–spending limits on technology infrastructure, or
–completing a needs assessment.”
In addition, “the definition of professional development” is modified to allow LEAs s to provide effective teacher training for distance learning. https://oese.ed.gov/files/2020/04/invite-covid-fiscal-waiver-19-20.pdf
Although these flexibilities are in place now, no one has a clear idea about how the pandemic will shape the 2020-2021 school year, or what proposals presidential candidates will put into play for reshaping ESSA and the scheduled reauthorization of ESSA after the 2020-21 school year.
I think that the accumulated national debt will lead to massive budget cuts for federal and state funding and full-out marketing of choice programs.
The choice advocates have a clear policy package in the works, and big bucks now from the billionaires to market it. Bellwether Partners is playing a role in this work, and so is the 74Million, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, California Community Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Charles Strauch, Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, Gen Next Foundation, Karsh Family Foundation, Park Avenue Charitable Trust, The City Fund, Walton Family Foundation, and William E. Simon Foundation.
The pandemic and special federal legislation to shore up the social safety net, including grants to schools, has accelerated the activity of groups intent on expanding federal support for choice in education.
Here is an example: “FEDS MUST HELP ALL TYPES OF SCHOOLS REOPEN: The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act will support millions of workers and industries hard-hit by COVID-19. About $13 billion from the bill will make it to K-12 schools across the country for uses such as classroom cleaning and teacher training.” … “State governments, at the urging of Washington and epidemiologists, have closed all schools, public and private. This is an unusual (and necessary) instance of equal treatment for schooling sectors that normally operate under different rules. But all schools, and all sectors of out pluralistic system of public education, will need support when they are allowed to reopen; a coherent policy that supports non-public schools and homeschoolers — along with charters and traditional districts that already receive public funds — will not be a luxury. It will be an essential element of how the country’s children recover from the COVID-19 disruption.” https://mailchi.mp/the74million/t74-virtual-charters-targeted-in-school-closures-equity-access-the-federal-stimulus-video-keeping-college-bound-students-on-track-virtually?e=5cdda43764
This marketing campaign for “our pluralistic system of public education” is gibberish for choice in education, including private and religious education. This agenda has been reinforced with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ March 27, 2020, proposal that Congress provide “Continue to Learn Microgrants” to disadvantaged students whose schools have “simply shut down.” Federal funds would be allocated for “educational services provided by a private or public school” with the priority for students in special education and eligible for food stamps. Funds could be used “to buy computers and software, internet access, and instructional materials like textbooks and tutoring. For children with disabilities, the grants could be used for educational services and therapy.”
This proposal is a variation on her push for “Education Freedom Scholarships” authorizing federal tax credits to people who donate to school scholarship programs for private school tuition and other education expenses. https://www.the74million.org/devos-proposes-microgrants-amid-coronavirus-school-closures-continuing-push-for-school-choice/
Then there is news on this blog and elsewhere that charter schools are eligible for “Small Business Loans,” if, they affirm they are a “non-government entity.” That affirmation is a non-trivial and legal redefinition of charter schools with implications for how these are marketed, authorized, and supported (or not) by billionaire foundations and Congress, whether Republican or Democrat. Charters that have been profiteering from public dollars will probably move into double dipping (once for students, another as a small business) with little fear of legal action.
https://www.publiccharters.org/cares-act-low-or-no-cost-lending-programs-charter-schools
Over multiple years, experts in “follow the money” have identified major ‘idea brokers” and the federal policies that have emerged from their work. Some legacy brokers from the Obama Administration are still at it—promoting digital learning, charter schools, pay for success contracts, alternative certifications, and more. If the pandemic accelerates I think that the de-professionalization of education will accelerate along with the unschooling of instructional delivery. In that case, many brick and mortar buildings once known as public schools are likely to repurposed or rot, except in wealthy suburban communities.