Over 100 students in Mississippi have been quarantined after one week after in-person school resumed, with several testing positive for COVID-19. And just two days after teachers and staff returned to K-12 campuses in Jefferson Parish, several school employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
The bottom line is that is not yet safe for our children to return to classrooms, the opening of school should be postponed EVERYWHERE.
So, why are we still talking about starting in-person school now? Why are we in such a rush to bring teachers, staff and children together on campuses, in classrooms for hours?
Oh, yeah . . . the education of America’s youngest minds is vitally important. We might almost buy that argument, except we know better.
Plus, we can’t help but wonder where was all this concern about America’s public school students when they were being sold likes heads of cattle to charter school operations that see them as little more than dollar signs as the rake in billions. Where was all of the concern about young people and their education when veteran teachers were tossed to the side and replaced by microwave recruits who pop in and out of classrooms every few years to get their student loans forgiven.
If our children and their education is so important, why are teachers woefully underpaid? Why is their academic success measured in by a high-stakes, make or break test, which puts billions of public dollars in the pockets of the CEOs of testing companies, by the way–money that would be better spent providing resources for teachers and students.
There are plenty of ways to demonstrate the importance of education for our children. Sending them out in the middle of a pandemic is the least of them.
