A New Future For The US Education System
As a result of the COVID-19 drastically altering ways of our life, there is much uncertainty and confusion about what the future looks like. When will things be back to normal? How long will a vaccine take? Will schools be reopening in the fall? What about all the people that have lost their jobs?
These are the questions all currently left unanswered. Public officials are working with the information they are getting themselves and trying to find solutions that minimize the amount of harm as much as possible.
In an ideal situation, we would quarantine for the next year until a vaccine was developed and distributed. Hopefully, that would reduce cases as much as possible. Unfortunately, there are many other factors that come into play. Large percentages of the general public continuing to violate safety measures are spreading the virus. Another full year of businesses and the economy essentially being shut down would only plunge the US into a greater depression. Even the education system has been under scrutiny for the last few months; young kids relying on in-person teaching are missing out on basic concepts that they’ll need for future years; high school students amidst the college process have lost many of the outside opportunities they were relying on to help build their applications; college students entering their first couple of years are stuck paying normal university fees for a new educational experience that is simply not the same.
Overall, this pandemic has affected individuals of all different age groups and all different circumstances. It is important to consider what the new future could look like while still being aware that it will be subject to continuous change.
Varying Responses To The Reopening of Schools
Schools reopening have been a topic of major controversy amongst the general public. Many believe that it is important for students to be attending schools in person in order to minimize a growing education gap, while others believe that schools are too dangerous of a place to immediately reopen.
States are taking varying actions in response to their respective COVID rates. In California, where infection rates are continuing to rise each day, the state has declared a remote-only approach to education in the fall. The districts put out a statement explaining their perspective, saying the “countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither. The skyrocketing infection rates of the past few weeks make it clear that the pandemic is not under control.” Meanwhile, the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, has proposed a more hybrid approach to learning, stating that the city plans for a combination of in-person learning (one to three days a week) with the rest virtual. In the Midwest, states like Texas and Florida are experiencing record-breaking coronavirus cases each day while their orders remain for schools to open full time in the fall (The Cut).
The reopening of colleges is a separate matter. Considering the case by case approach being taken, more than three-quarters of colleges and universities have stated their intent to reopen schools in the fall (New York Times). This decision, however, is being greatly opposed by university professors that are the most at risk in this situation, given their age.
According to Michael Kotlikoff- Cornell’s provost- a recent survey by the university’s faculty found approximately one-third to be “not interested in teaching classes in person,” one-third to be “willing and anxious to teach in person,” and about one-third to be “open to doing it if conditions were deemed to be safe.” Many professors feel paranoid as well as angry that so many colleges are making in-person teaching the default option, requiring them to come in without a choice. At Georgia Tech, for instance, instructors were told that unless they were older than 65 or carried one of seven specific health conditions, they would not be qualified to teach remotely. In instances like these, professors may not have another option but to return to campus in the fall or risk losing their jobs.
Potential Factors To Keep In Mind
Clearly, a large majority of individuals are opposed to the quick reopening of schools in the fall for fear of getting sick. The easiest (and safest) approach may seem to simply keep all schools remote; the less interaction between individuals, the less chance for coronavirus to spread.
There are, however, a number of factors to consider that don’t make that decision so clearcut.
The first is the disparities in remote learning that are preventing all children from having equal access to online education. A vast majority of nationally representative surveys conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on teachers and school district leaders found the lack of basic technology among low-income families to be preventing them from proper online education. These gaps, whether attributed to the widespread lack of high-speed internet access in homes or the inadequate number of digital devices available for low-income students to use, are only worsening the education gap already existent among these communities.
“It’s the same story we’ve long known in K-12 schools,” said Janelle Scott, a UC Berkeley professor for education and African-American studies said. “Districts with more resources are likely going to be able to avail themselves of higher-quality instruction, and higher-income families are going to be much better positioned to support [remote] learning than less-resourced families who don’t have the privilege of staying at home.” Therefore, the longer that schools stay remote for during this time, the greater the disparity will widen amongst families that aren’t getting adequate remote education.
Regarding disparities in low-income families, another important factor to consider is the 22 million kids that rely on school for their meals (Vice News). While there are many great systems in place that allow children to continue accessing free meals- such as the grab and go meals available in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and other public school systems- the number of meals being distributed remotely is far less than the number that was distributed during in-person school.
According to The City, NYC’s free meal program peaked at 199,483 meals distributed on March 19. Following that, the numbers continued to drop, hitting 159,635 meals last Friday, dropping to 81,050 meals on rainy Monday, and then back up to 115,865 on Wednesday. In contrast, the number of meals distributed daily during regular school is 600,000. These statistics don’t in fact suggest that the number of necessary meals families need are decreasing. What they do suggest, is that families may not be taking advantage of them in an attempt to keep their children safe and maintain social distancing measures (Vox). As a result, the longer school stays remote, the fewer access kids will have to the meals that they were once getting from schools.
Looking Towards The Future
With all this in mind, the decisions that we make over the next couple of months are going to have a considerable impact on all different types of people. It’s difficult to say what the right move for reopening schools is considering all the varying perspectives, and what the COVID-19 is going to look like in the months to come.
Currently, most Americans are working towards “flattening the curve,” a term used to signal the slowing of the virus so that the health care system isn’t so overwhelmed in a short span of time. This means the continued closing of schools and universities, the restriction of public gatherings, a longer quarantine for those infected, and stricter social distancing guidelines. In this method, the curve would be stretched over a longer period of time and the rapid spikes overwhelming hospitals would be prevented.
According to a study conducted by epidemiologists at the Imperial College Covid-19 Response Team, these types of severe restrictions for Americans would have to be maintained for at least 12 to 18 months at best until a working vaccine has been made available to the public. A quarantine for that length of time, considering all the major factors at stake, doesn’t seem too feasible. In addition to that, many officials are warning that this curve is likely not going to be just one big one, but instead a series of mini curves following this initial one (Washington Post). Just like the 1918 flu pandemic, the virus may hit again in the coming months and spread another round of infection. There is unfortunately no easy escape, and a brief decrease in coronavirus rates does not signal the end to the pandemic.
With all this said, there are no definitive answers that anyone can give for how we should go about moving through these next couple of months. Some schools may be opening up while other doors remain closed, but the varying perspectives on the future of education coupled and uncertainty towards the future make consensus even more difficult.
As I’m writing this, the situation in New York continues to change on the daily, just like it is in California, in Florida, in Chicago, and everywhere else. Right now, the goal should be putting politics and individual preferences aside in order to work towards combating this virus. We all have to be open-minded and accepting of the uncertainty that comes with the future. Community leaders, teachers, and parents should be leading by example on how best to educate each other about the current happenings and respond to the situation in the most beneficial manner. As of the present day, the future is plagued with uncertainty, and it could be months or even years for the future to normalize once again.
We can’t make the coronavirus disappear, but we all can do whatever is in our power to support our respective communities, take part in raising awareness, and continue following the safety precautions that will help alleviate the situation.
