Johann Neem, historian of education at Western Washington University, wrote an article in USA Today about the threat that COVID-19 poses to the future of public education. Affluent parents, he notes, are making their own arrangements. Some have created “learning pods” and hired their own teachers. Others will send their children to private schools, which have the resources to respond nimbly to the crisis. He recounts the early history of public schools and points out that they became essential as they served an ever-growing share of the community’s children.
Neem writes that the increase in the number of charter schools and vouchers, as well as Betsy DeVos’s relentless promotion of charters and vouchers, has already eroded the stature of public schools.
He warns:
We are at a moment of reckoning. The last time public schools were closed was when Southern states sought to avoid integration. The goal then was to sustain racial inequality. Even if today the aim is not racist, in a system already rife with economic and racial inequality, if families with resources invest more in themselves rather than share time and money in common institutions, the quality of public education for less privileged Americans, many of whom are racial minorities, will deteriorate.
His warnings are timely. Others warn that home schooling will increase so long as pinprick schools stay closed or rely on remote learning.
But there is another possibility: Eventually, schools will open for full-time, in-person instruction, when it is safe to do so.
How many parents will continue home schooling when their children can attend a real school with experienced teachers and a full curriculum and roster of activities? How many parents will pay $25,000 or more for each child when an equivalent education is available in the local public school for free? At present, only 6% send their children to charter schools. How likely is that to increase when new charters close almost as often as they open?
How many parents want vouchers for subpar religious schools, when only a tiny percentage chose them before the pandemic?
My advice: Don’t panic. Take care of the children, their families, and school staff. Fight for funding to make our public schools better than ever. After the pandemic, they will still be the best choice because they have the best teachers and the most children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good morning Diane and everyone,
I’ve been on a few school websites in NY. Most of them are saying that masks are required when 6 foot distance cannot be maintained. However, students and staff can decide NOT to wear masks IN CLASS or other areas if they have 6 foot distance. This is crazy. I could have a class of 10-15 kids who decide not to wear masks. Where does that leave me as a 52 year old teacher ( and my husband is 55) who is more likely to have serious symptoms if I contract this virus? I’m disgusted.
And by the way, I’m sick of Dr. Fauci. A statement like hey teachers you’re going to be “part of the experiment” of what we need to know. Really?? And pronouncements like it’s REASONABLE but NOT REQUIRED that teachers wear disposable garments or garments that can be washed after school are just ridiculous. Which one is it, Dr. Fauci? I’m sick of him constantly being politically correct.
You have a right to be angry, but the Trump administration/GOP wants you to be angry at Dr. Fauci. If Fauci is silenced, we will never hear the scientific facts. We will never know the truth. I don’t trust Birx or Giroir and Redfield is starting to look frazzled and weary. Fauci is walking a thin line trying to stay in this game for the good of the people. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he retires after there is an effective vaccine on the market.
Hello LIsaM,
Oh, I agree. I’m just saddened that Dr. Fauci has kind of sold his soul to the devil. I know he has to walk a fine line.
Mamie Excuse me: “Fauci has sold his soul to the devil”? When I was a child and didn’t understand what was going on but made a lot of noise, my mother used to tell me to shut up and listen. Just a thought . . . CBK
Fauci strikes me as maybe the only go-to spokesperson of national standing who has managed to maintain his integrity. It is reasonable for a teacher to consider disposable clothing, but not essential. It really depends on the situation in your local schools/community and a teacher’s own health needs. Covid-19 has really focused us on the risk factors of contracting the virus, many of which are still unknown or poorly understood. It is an unfortunate fact that it takes actual experience to begin to understand the parameters. In that sense, we are fortunate that most of the developed world is far ahead of us in controlling the virus and has already “experimented” with some of the variables that are still unknowns for us.
Hello Catherine,
I’m not sure what you mean. I have been listening to Dr. Fauci. I find many of his statements to be less than clear. I know he is walking a line but he also has to show some integrity and make things clear.
Mamie That’s funny. I find Dr. Fauci very clear. CBK
Fauci tells us what he knows and no more. If he doesn’t have the data to support a position, he tells us so. He may say it looks promising but needs more research. He is very clear about what he knows and what he doesn’t. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers; it would be unethical to claim he did. We have to live with the uncertainties.
speduktr Yes, and Fauci does not claim to be making policy. Rather, he’s trying to inform it well and, under the circumstances, he’s doing a damn good job of it. CBK
yes, the wavering and endless diplomacy are now hurting more than helping
ciedie Would you rather Fauci be gone from the scene?
My guess is he is the only national presence that has been able and willing to stay and keep his sense of integrity, while championing and leading the rest of the scientific community. My take on things is that the scientific/medical community need him, if some of US don’t.
Also, it’s enough for me that he is a constant thorn in Trump’s side. CBK
I don’t see him as wavering. It took me a long time to realize that medicine is a sophisticated guessing game. Certainty is a hard one commodity. He has told us, with relative certainty, what they know helps from the available research: masks, social distancing, and hand washing. He has to be diplomatic. Do you want him to lose his position? Would his lost help us to be better informed?
speduktr I assume you were speaking to Ciedie and not to me. In my view, Fauci has been the leader of those few voices . . . mostly people of medicine, who have maintained ANY sanity about this situation at the intersection between medicine and politics. CBK
Yes, we are in complete agreement. I understand the frustration expressed and wish there were easy answers, but there aren’t. Fauci isn’t being intentionally obscure. It is what it is.
speduktr Some one else (maybe you?) said here that it’s more difficult for some than for others to live without yet knowing. And those who speak in terms of working THROUGH a problem, instead of “knowing it all” is hard for some to take. But as you say, it is what it is; and the dogmatic unreal certainty of a Trump gets us worse than nowhere. CBK
I believe that Dr. Fauci chooses his words with care. “Experiment” is a loaded word that he knows will spark outrage and counter the political drive to reopen schools. It serves a purpose to say what he can’t publicly say!
Thank you, Samuel. Very helpful observation/explanation.
and the “whatever” attitude about masks will, as it always does with kids, allow for endless arguing and acting out
This is horrifying, Mamie!!!!
I read your ‘text’ almost daily… As America pursues its own ‘self-destruction’ – not with Drones, bombs, military foreign bases … but by the deliberate degradation and closing of Public Schools. Quote from Jefferson: “Public Education is the back-bone of Democracy’ … (enough said) I was sure that your devotion and perseverance with Public Education – how could we lose? My (mis-) understanding was that, by law, the government of each State was to fund Public Education by the Property Tax… What happened to that. I live in Wash. DC … and I pay my Property Tax every year. (how is it spent?) J. Ellingston (senior citizen)
On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 9:05 AM Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “Johann Neem, historian of education at Western > Washington University, wrote an article in USA Today about the threat that > COVID-19 poses to the future of public education. Affluent parents, he > notes, are making their own arrangements. Some have created “l” >
Your property taxes are funding the charter schools in your community as well. Money that used to go exclusively to the public schools now is diverted to charter schools. That is why charters and vouchers are such a danger to the common school.
“a full curriculum and roster of activities.”
That’s a good line that doesn’t describe the current nature of public education.
“Don’t panic. Take care of the children, their families, and school staff. Fight for funding to make our public schools better than ever. After the pandemic, they will still be the best choice because they have the best teachers and the most children.”
Perhaps all of us need some lessons in the history of education in the United States before public schools became available as a system.
Any hope for rebuilding public education rests on whether elected public officials think education is necessary for the full functioning of a democracy.
If we are indifferent to our power as voters and advocates working in and on behalf of public education we may well be back to square one, before anyone gave a hoot about educating “other people’s children,” not just kith and kin.
Laura I don’t know what individual public school administrations are doing; but it seems to me that, with the right leadership and funding on the ground (no laughing), public schools could adapt the pod idea for opening and maintaining safety and a good education in public schools–small classes, controlled environment, parent buy-in, testing, hiring qualified teachers, etc.
But it’s just like before the virus (for years) . . . with the research-supported need for smaller classes . . . . the powers-that-be are saying . . . yes to teachers . . . you need smaller classes, so here’s 40 second- graders, and the old model. If you can’t do your job and you get sick, it’s YOUR problem.
And BTW to jelliston, I think Fauci was showing the awfulness of the situation to intelligent people when he said that teachers were involved in an experiment. He was saying, “this is what the administration is doing to you.” (The Russians aren’t coming . . . they’re already here.) CBK
Lots of parents are NOT happy with public schooling these days and they have every right to be unhappy……Common Core curriculum, over testing, data grabbing, “teaching” to the test, SEL, unhappy teachers, busy work etc. I’m one of those parents and child #2 now attends a private HS with most kids that have left the surrounding public school systems because the parents are unhappy with the “reforms”. If public schools want to survive this pandemic, they need to “scrap the crap” and get back to the basics or parents will continue to home school (or pod up with other families) or supplement remote learning with private tutoring in pods. I believe in public education, but what the government has done over the past 20 yrs is not good for kids or teachers…and I certainly wouldn’t call it an “education”. Free the children!!
LisaM Now there’s a good bumper sticker: SCRAP the CRAP.
Fifty years of badmouthing and choking the life out public schools, the curriculum, and the teachers is finally paying off. CBK
I am a Hockey mom and a figure skating mom. What do we do as we wait for our kids to get done with practices? We talk….a lot!….and about our kids. So many parents of ES school kids are just deciding to home school since they got to see that online “learning” was just busy work dittoes delivered via the computer and the Zoom/Google Meets sessions with teachers were too hard for the young kids to navigate…..and this is in a wealthy community with lots of resources. If all that the kids are getting is drill/kill curriculum that teaches to the test, then wealthier parents will be happy to provide this without the brick and mortar school. Things have to change.
LisaM What do you and your group think is essential to keep? CBK
Hello LIsaM,
I’m curious to know what you think teachers should be doing online instead of giving “busy work dittoes.” Should they be delivering a lecture where students take notes? Should there just be discussion? If there aren’t “busy work dittoes,” how will teachers get students to actually WORK with material to learn it? Should teachers have students go to websites and do online exercises? What specifically should teachers be doing to teach online? Thank you.
Catherine King…..It’s not what to keep> It’s Do Over. Parents are tired of the ridiculous tests, the test prep all day/every day, the lack of science and social studies in lieu of ELA and Math drill/kill, the push for higher and higher test scores, the lack of recess and free play. The kids aren’t happy in school. So many of the parents in my groups that have younger kids are finding that the only thing their children really miss are the social interactions with teachers and their friends.
LisaM I think if we can draw anything good from the virus, it’s what has emerged as distinctly essential in education and, on the other side, what is truly detrimental to it. CBK
Mamie, those are precisely the questions that we need to be asking. Yes, we all know that distance learning stinks. But we also (or at least the sane among us do) know that reopening schools under these conditions is just nuts. I think we need to be asking ourselves how we make the best of a very bad situation (being forced to depend on distance learning).
Once we are through all of this, what will be the consequence for public schools? People will have a dramatic new appreciation of how important in-person instruction and public schools are.
Of course, in the meantime, the Deformers are going to try to make their case for replacing teachers with computer software. But I’m not worried about their being successful there. That junk always fails.
LisaM
Reading the responses here shows a variety of opinion. The treatment of our teachers over the last two decades has been agonizing to watch. I did not even understand it at first. Who was pushing it. It took a while to understand that behind the politicians were ultra rich people pushing it through politicians they had invested in.
The strength of a democracy depends very much on the education of citizens. And if we wish to continue having a democracy which benefits all its people then we need a strong, and well functioning education system. Trump himself shows weaknesses in our education system. He does not like science, and many of his followers do not either. Our education system needs to ensure that critical thinking is a substantial part of what each student acquires, and not only the students who go to ‘good’ schools.
Mark Tucker suggests in his book ‘Leading High Performance School Systems,’ that our education system has worked well for the elites but that is no longer sufficient for the nation. I fully agree with him.
As for Dr. Fauci, he finds himself in an unenviable position opposed to Trump whose ego wishes to hurt those who speak in contradiction to him or seem more popular than him.
The end of all this will be determined by Americans and we have to hope that they make the best decisions each day and at the polls on November 3 2020.
I remember the local privatizers touting long waiting lists of students trying to get into charters, in the tens of thousands, and then finding out the waiting lists were inflated, and that almost all of the local charters were actually under-enrolled. (Thanks to L.A. Board Member Scott Schmerelson for the information. Vote for him!) I talked to my public school site admin last week, and was told our public school enrollment continues to grow this year, pandemic or not. We have to bring in more teachers every year, including this one. Charter supporters seem to think that if given a choice between public and charter schools, many people will choose charters. It just isn’t so. The public’s relationship with charter schools is on the rocks. Face it, charters, the public just doesn’t really love you. You can’t change that. Make a clean break and find something new. There are plenty of venture capital scheme fish in the sea.
Wow! Quite a prognosis…for schools and our country.
The COVID virus is diabolical. That’s the word I’ve been using over and over since March. (My wife might roll her eyes at this point, ha,ha. We’ve spent a lot of time quarantined together.)
But, yeah, diabolical.
It’s further separated and walled off a nation that was already having huge problems with division.
Let me state the obvious: crisis situations tend to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. Sure people can and do change..they can grow when meeting big challenges.
But I find that disasters often accentuate what is already there.
Our nation had huge, structural problems prior to the pandemic.
Will this “house” stand, with some much needed repairs? Or, are we in the midst of the republic’s collapse?
I feel many Democrats (though certainly far from all) have compromised by settling in for the potential of a Biden presidency.
Can and will more Republicans and Independents (whatever that term really means) actually abandon Trumpism and the scourge it represents on November 3?
And, if Trump gets the boot, how should he be treated by the victors?
How should he be treated by the victors?
He should be tried and convicted for his many crimes. In an ideal world, both he and Miller would be standing in the dock in the Hague, having been charged by a UN Tribunal with crimes against humanity.
I was watching a taped Board of Ed meeting for my local community the other day and noticed in the packet of info that they somehow plan to administer all the stupid standardized test that are supposed to monitor “progress.” We still have a long battle ahead to convince the business metrics people to back off. The district is known for its progressive philosophy and has done its best to keep government mandates from undermining that focus while keeping the pencil pushers happy. I wonder if they spend their days monitoring and collecting data on their own children.
The district is planning to open with a hybrid approach and a pod system. The Covid 19 positivity rate was below 1% for the last 7-day period, so they are feeling pretty confident in their ability to open safely. It is a very wealthy district: if anyone can do it, they can, and over 90% of the parents are in favor of such a model. The teachers are less confident.
I really don’t get the alarmists. The numbers of students enrolled pre-covid in privschs (10%), charters (6 or 7%), homeschooling (2%), or voucher privates (1%?) seem unlikely to shift much once we’re well out from under this. What changes about their prior motivations? The idea that homeschooling will get a boost doesn’t make much economic sense– if anything, fewer people will be able to devote their time to it. There will be a drying up of tax revenue across the board that will affect all tax-supported ed (even voucherschs). Expensive privschs will lose some enrollment due to sharp economic downturn.
A couple of positives… some parents turned completely off to “personalized” learning programs after extended experience with remote learning. A further tilting of opinion against annual testing after its absence for 1-2 yrs.
Remote learning has some advantages but along with that some disadvantages. Not being able to speak one and one with the teacher is a distinct disadvantage, since asking questions during class is helpful in clarifying issues. Being able to meet other people and share, if even briefly, is fulfilling as against being by yourself for long periods of time.
It is possible that people need the actual company of other people, and pandemic can force us to limit interaction but it will always be there this need to speak and share with another human beings.
I think public schools will survive, but they will be left with children more in poverty than they were pre pandemic. School systems will need to adjust to meet these kids where they are instead of expecting the kids to reach some imaginary goal (set by inane test scores). These children will need a more humane atmosphere in which to prosper and grow academically and psychologically. And yes, parents really don’t like “personalized” learning and they are starting to see the nonsense of all the over testing.
“And yes, parents really don’t like “personalized” learning and they are starting to see the nonsense of all the over testing.”
Well, it’s about time parents began to see the testing racket for what it is. It was high powered parents in my community who drove the switch from narrative reports in our elementary schools to letter grades. Then they turned around and wanted more face to face time dedicated to conferences because letter grades didn’t tell them enough about their kids! They also have been big advocates of computer tech programs and one-to-one computer access. I still feel sick to my stomach when I remember subbing in a nearby community and watching a kindergarten class do their science lesson with a computer program on their tablets. What 5 year old needs to learn about the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly through online tutorial?
I understand the urge to jump ship. My kids were well beyond the public schools when my district was forced to drink some of the Koolaid. Just like it took a massive campaign to market the current state of affairs, it will take continued massive effort to undo the damage. Even before the accountability/data mania movement caught fire, my district was looked on with suspicion by surrounding more traditional districts because of its more progressive philosophy.
Speduktr….My district is full of high powered parents competing with each other via their children’s test scores and activities. We have every reform that comes along due to our proximity to DC and all the lobbyists. We actually made the National News yesterday for our segregation problems in one of the most diverse counties in the US. Glad I jumped ship with #2….he is a much happier and mentally healthier kid who enjoys school now (when we get there again?).
(tangentially related to topic)
Covid Justice-
This week Covid killed tea partier Bill Montgomery (Illinois) who along with evangelical Foster Freiss gave wings to Charlie Kirk’s campus organization, Turning Point USA. Montgomery singled out Kirk for personal encouragement when he heard him speak at the Benedictine University Youth Government Day. Later, Freiss funded Kirk.
(btw- Kirk claims there is a Democratic plot against Christianity.) Pro Publica in an article about Montgomery posted some interesting financial data about the beneficiaries of the Turning Point USA operation. Funding sources for Turning Point include, Uihlein, Bradley Foundation, the founder of Home Depot, Richard DeVos Foundation, the NRA, Prager University and Illinois’ Rauner.
After Montgomery’s death, media report Turning Points began a process of deleting its anti-mask and Covid conspiracy tweets/posts.
I’m old enough to remember the late 1960s and 1970s when public school education was – despite the lack of regular standardized testing — much more boring and kill and drill than I see today. Maybe some of you were in affluent privileged private schools back then or in affluent east coast suburban schools or in an alternative school, but I don’t think my experience in a midwest public school (where many students didn’t go on to college at al)l was unique. It certainly wasn’t a golden age. Maybe there was some point between my graduation from high school and being a parent paying attention to the public schools today when things were much better, but I like the pre-remote education – even with testing – more than my own pre-standardized testing public school education in the 1970s.
If anything, this pandemic really made parents appreciate having live in-person school, with all its imperfections.
Thank you for this post. These are all things to ponder and I suppose we just have to go with the flow. There are so many things right now that are making people wake up to the problems in this country, education and health care. IF this is a positive turning point then we have nothing to fear, but, if this is not the catalyst for change, well, I don’t know what to say. It is a scary time because what if it doesn’t provoke the change we need in this country?