Reopening Schools Requires Opening Up a Much Larger Conversation
Nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, many of America’s classrooms remain dark and student learning is relegated to screens. Biden made it clear long before he was sworn in that one of his administration’s greatest priorities would be to safely reopen schools; a priority that was put in action hours into his presidency on January 21, 2021.
The push to open schools is understandable due to the wealth of evidence demonstrating the detrimental impacts of remote learning; however, the debate has become increasingly narrow and neglects the greater context in which it’s taking place. We as a nation must address the state of our schools prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in addition to listening to parent voices in the Black and Latinx communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic itself.
While remote learning has negatively impacted most student learning and wellbeing, it has disproportionately hit marginalized students hardest. The fight to reopen schools is an issue of equity more than anything else, but the depth of that inequity is often missed in this debate. Part of Biden’s National Strategy includes a directive to the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the specific effect of school closures on students of color, low-income families, multi-language learners, and other students who have been most impacted by remote learning. However, not all stakeholders are unified in their opinions about reopening schools.
The voices of parents within the conversation have been relatively silenced, particularly those of parents from the very communities on behalf of whom the administration wants to open schools. Recently, the city of Chicago neared the brink of a teacher strike as the mayor and teachers’ union faced off over the issue of opening schools. Notably absent in each side’s argument were the parent responses to a survey regarding the same debate in which the majority of parents did not feel comfortable sending their children back to the classrooms. In the predominantly Black and Latinx school district, only 31% of Latinx families, 33% of Asian families, and 33.9% of Black families responded they would feel comfortable sending their children back into classrooms. On the other hand, 67.5% of white families favored sending their children back to school.
Governments both on the national and local levels have spoken to the importance of reopening schools to stop the widening gap of racial and ethnic academic experience; however, in order for this issue to be effectively addressed, the disproportionate burden of the pandemic itself on these same communities must be dealt with simultaneously within this conversation.
One of the greatest critiques of Biden’s move toward reopening schools is that he has not moved quickly enough considering the growing body of evidence that schools are not major transmitters of the virus. However, this criticism demonstrates a sense of confusion regarding the safety measures necessary to effectively reopen schools. In order for schools to reopen safely, many need resources they don’t have and haven’t had for years. Proper air ventilation and asymptomatic testing are two of the key safety measures necessary, but many schools in the United States have not had updated ventilation systems in years. In a review conducted by Johns Hopkins University of the Providence Public Schools, it was reported that the conditions of many of the school facilities “reduced seasoned members of the review team to tears.” As an alum of Classical High School in Providence, I can attest that skirting buckets catching leaking brown water on rainy days and falling ceiling tiles was just an average walk to history class.
While the effort to keep classrooms open has not been perfect in the eyes of any major stakeholder, schools have not experienced any widespread outbreaks. The ability to keep schools open is partly due to the commitment of funds towards resources such as asymptomatic testing and the necessary equipment for proper air ventilation in classrooms. As part of Biden’s plan to reopen schools, he has included a call to Congress for $130 billion dedicated to supporting schools in addition to reimbursing states for Covid-related school modifications through the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund. Hopefully, these measures will allow other school districts to acquire the necessary equipment to safely open their schools.
There is no debating the drastic and detrimental effects of the pandemic on students and the necessity of returning students to their physical school communities. Biden’s commitment to this goal demonstrates hope in its realization. However, the national discourse surrounding this debate should be broadened. We need to take a more critical look at the layered inequities compounded by the pandemic in addition to the state of our education system prior to it.
