Many questions remain as experts weigh options for getting children back into the classroom.
Parents who have watched their children struggle with online learning since schools across the country were closed in March are painfully aware that virtual classes are no substitute for face-to-face instruction. Even so, many of these parents worry that schools might hastily reopen without taking the necessary precautions to shield children — and everyone in the school community — from infection.
If this crisis of confidence continues to fester, millions of families could well decide to keep their children home when schools begin opening around the nation this fall. This would further harm the prospects of schoolchildren who have already lost ground because of the pandemic and who are at risk of falling irretrievably behind. By the start of the next school year, the average student could have already lost a third of his or her expected progress in reading and half in math, according to a recent working paper from the nonprofit NWEA and scholars at Brown and the University of Virginia. The learning losses are greatest among black and Hispanic students. The decision to keep some children home next year would also undermine support for public education generally and damage the possibility of economic recovery by keeping caretaking parents at home and out of the work force.
Parental anxiety is strikingly evident in recent polls, including one released last month by USA Today/Ipsos. Elected officials should find it sobering that six in 10 parents say they are likely to continue home learning instead of sending their kids back to school this fall. One in five teachers say they are unlikely to return to their classrooms. And when parents and teachers are considered together, about four in 10 oppose returning to school at all until a coronavirus vaccine is available — in other words, possibly years from now.
One Texas father and teacher among those surveyed spoke for many others: “The expectation of parents and society is we’re sending our children to be educated in a safe environment, and how we’re going to provide that safe environment is completely unknown.”
Teachers’ unions are rightly worried for the safety of their members.
