First - whatever people& #39;s position is, I see a lot of framing as if this is only a question of one thing and it& #39;s not.

It& #39;s an education question, an equity question, a child development question, a labor question, a workforce participation question & a gender equality question.
During the 3 months @salemkeizer schools were closed I talked to a lot of teachers & parents putting in Herculean efforts to help kids learn. A couple parents reported online school worked better for them, but by and large, most ppl reported things were hard & not working.
Schools are educational institutions, but they also serve a massive practical function - free childcare for most of the workday.

There is no practical way for many parents/families to keep working if they have young kids at home & are expected to help w/school.
This district survey notes a whole host of inequities from at-home learning - from Islander and Latino parents having language barriers with online learning platforms to kids at poorer schools generally reporting a less positive experience.
Some of these issues can be better addressed with a carefully-developed online curriculum rather than a hastily-put together plan as we had in the spring.

But I have yet to see anything suggesting remedies that could even reasonably begin to correct for these inequities.
One number that stuck out from my district - only 11% of Salem-Keizer teachers felt they could adequately help kids who are the most challenged to do well in school through distance learning.
There are also a bunch of school employees who are high risk for Covid. And they& #39;re especially likely to be bus drivers, aides, and other jobs that can& #39;t be done remotely.

Teachers unions are in the midst of very intense bargaining over Oregon reopening plans right now.
So, I don& #39;t have a solution because every possible option here sucks for someone.

But - acting like this is only an issue of the (smaller absolute) risk for kids ignores kids with preexisting/high risk conditions & employees in high risk groups.
Acting like cancelling all in person school is a no-brainer ignores that even w/best possible planning, you& #39;re likely condemning a generation of kids to worse achievement gaps & forcing a lot of parents (disproportionately women) to choose between their kid& #39;s education & work.
And by the way - teachers have their own kids too. 50% in Salem-Keizer reported they were caring for their own kids at home while also trying to teach. 30% said they spent more than 3 hours/day on their own kids& #39; distance learning - while also teaching classes.
Some of these trade-offs could be mitigated and I& #39;m sure some of you have grand plans for restructuring society.

But there is a fundamental tension between the needs of working class parents with essential jobs & the desire to minimize all possible Covid risk.
And none of this is meant to devalue the work of teachers, educators and parents who worked incredibly hard to make a very difficult time work as well as they could. This spring was chaos for everyone & I saw how much many teachers were sad. and worried for their students
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