One reason that my fairly wealthy college town school system chose virtual learning for the district for the whole semester is that parent surveys showed a higher proportion of Black & Latino/a families planned to opt for distance learning*...1/ https://twitter.com/Theresa_Chapple/status/1320063043125104642

The district didn’t want to dilute resources and create a two-track system where in-person learning for mostly non-BIPOC kids was prioritized while distance was done poorly. Plus, this summer, most teachers did not feel good about in-person. 2/

As I said, our district is wealthy - every kid got a new device. The district has set up multiple learning centers, partnering with local churches and the Y, where eligible kids can be supervised to do their distance-leaning. It hasn’t been a disaster. For many, it’s great 3/

(The most worrying stories I hear are teenagers. A HS senior who’s working 30 hrs/wk to help out family & not doing school; a freshmen doing remote classes at home alone while his mom works; w/o face-to-face extra support or carrot of extracurriculars, he’s also dis-engaged) 4/

As an epidemiologist, I think our particular district could open elementary schools & probably middle & high schools without spreading #SARSCoV2. But I also know that COVID isn’t the only consideration, & I’m deeply compassionate about the awful dilemmas facing our leaders... 5/

I don’t want teachers to go to work scared.
I don’t want even more segregation of our district (we have a racial gap in outcomes our district’s been working to address).
I don’t want parents whip-sawed through ever-changing schedules. There’s more to this than transmission. 6/

I’m one of those high-income parents who thinks schools in my town should work to open. But I also get *very* pissed off when I hear pro-opening middle class White folks invoke the needs & hardships of Black, Brown, low-income when pressing their case... 7/

If you are not in a coalition led by Black, Brown, or low-income folks, don’t invoke them.
If you haven’t been speaking up for priorities these families have identified before 2020, don’t start now. 8/

All this to say, in USA right now, there are no unequivocally good options available, only less-bad ones.

Also, no matter where you live, send your local school superintendent & administrators a gift or nice note. Teachers too. I’m pretty sure they could use the kindness. 9/

*I don’t love everything about the Jacobin article linked in Tweet 1. I think it’s inflammatory & oversimplified in some characterizations. But it makes really important points about voices that have not been centered in this discussion. 10/

The larger thread in which the retweet (see tweet 1) is embedded is by the inimitable @Theresa_Chapple and is excellent. Go read it now. 11/

And I did hear that my district considering opening up some in-person classes soon for students with special needs. This is another group where I think we need to listen to kids, parents, and teachers and weight the stated needs of these families. 12/