[burger]

A better solution is to plan to do everything online and spend the money it takes to get laptops etc. in the hands of kids. Also, just like we have given up on having full employment during the pandemic, we probably have to give up on having an education system as good as we did before.  It's not realistic to expect to do education well now. 

For the record, I think the pre-covid education system was grossly unfair to poor people and minorities, and I am in favor of spending far more than we do now on education.  But right now education should be way down the list of priorities.  Not one person should die to give kids a marginally better education for what will hopefully be just a year.

My kids attend a public school with demographics reflective of SCC as a whole — about 1/3 Hispanic, 40%+ receiving subsidized or free lunch, and I can tell you “free laptops” will not work. My district was well aware of the inequality issues and invited students to pick up Chromebooks from the district and gave instructions for families to get subsidized or free Internet connections at home. And here’s what happened — the kids already doing well used their gigabit fiber connections and multimedia laptops from home and showed up almost every day and turned in all their homework and the kids who were struggling just disappeared from the system. They didn’t show up. Teachers tried contacting families, the district sent out reminders, but still, a sizable chunk of kids didn’t get worse instruction, they got no instruction. Many of them are also not getting fed as regularly. No one I know of is getting diagnosed with learning impediments, no english language learners are getting help, no previously-diagnosed students are receiving school-based therapies, as far as I know.

I frequently take walks near the schools. I saw many families misreading instructions on when and where to pick up the Chrome books. I saw the long lines of families waiting in line to get food, I saw the food bank workers snapping at families to come earlier after the food ran out, then I saw the truck pull out, and then I saw a continuous stream of cars arriving looking for the food truck. I can’t even tell you the worst things I’ve seen due to privacy concerns, but I can tell you, it is terible and heartbreaking, children are being harmed in lifelong ways, the increases in inequality are incalculable, and generally it is far worse than most people imagine.

What's your evidence that children are being harmed in "lifelong" ways?  I keep hearing this--are there studies to back this up?

And if this harm to children is real, does mitigating it make it okay to sacrifice the lives of some teachers?   I guarantee that a full reopening of schools will kill teachers.  Exactly how many teachers' deaths or lifelong health impairments are you comfortable with?  Because for me that number is zero.

Schools can do a better job of getting kids to do online education.  So far, we haven't even tried. I don't think that any of the covid relief bills so far have included money for schools.  Turn the money cannon on and let the schools hire people to help get kids set up online and get internet connections (this can be done over cell networks--you don't need to wire every apartment and home for high speed internet).  So far we have tried nothing, and you are saying that it's hopeless.  Let's actually try to do online education before we give up.

[burger]

A better solution is to plan to do everything online and spend the money it takes to get laptops etc. in the hands of kids. Also, just like we have given up on having full employment during the pandemic, we probably have to give up on having an education system as good as we did before.  It's not realistic to expect to do education well now. 

For the record, I think the pre-covid education system was grossly unfair to poor people and minorities, and I am in favor of spending far more than we do now on education.  But right now education should be way down the list of priorities.  Not one person should die to give kids a marginally better education for what will hopefully be just a year.

My kids attend a public school with demographics reflective of SCC as a whole — about 1/3 Hispanic, 40%+ receiving subsidized or free lunch, and I can tell you “free laptops” will not work. My district was well aware of the inequality issues and invited students to pick up Chromebooks from the district and gave instructions for families to get subsidized or free Internet connections at home. And here’s what happened — the kids already doing well used their gigabit fiber connections and multimedia laptops from home and showed up almost every day and turned in all their homework and the kids who were struggling just disappeared from the system. They didn’t show up. Teachers tried contacting families, the district sent out reminders, but still, a sizable chunk of kids didn’t get worse instruction, they got no instruction. Many of them are also not getting fed as regularly. No one I know of is getting diagnosed with learning impediments, no english language learners are getting help, no previously-diagnosed students are receiving school-based therapies, as far as I know.

I frequently take walks near the schools. I saw many families misreading instructions on when and where to pick up the Chrome books. I saw the long lines of families waiting in line to get food, I saw the food bank workers snapping at families to come earlier after the food ran out, then I saw the truck pull out, and then I saw a continuous stream of cars arriving looking for the food truck. I can’t even tell you the worst things I’ve seen due to privacy concerns, but I can tell you, it is terible and heartbreaking, children are being harmed in lifelong ways, the increases in inequality are incalculable, and generally it is far worse than most people imagine.

What's your evidence that children are being harmed in "lifelong" ways?  I keep hearing this--are there studies to back this up?

And if this harm to children is real, does mitigating it make it okay to sacrifice the lives of some teachers?   I guarantee that a full reopening of schools will kill teachers.  Exactly how many teachers' deaths or lifelong health impairments are you comfortable with?  Because for me that number is zero.

Schools can do a better job of getting kids to do online education.  So far, we haven't even tried. I don't think that any of the covid relief bills so far have included money for schools.  Turn the money cannon on and let the schools hire people to help get kids set up online and get internet connections (this can be done over cell networks--you don't need to wire every apartment and home for high speed internet).  So far we have tried nothing, and you are saying that it's hopeless.  Let's actually try to do online education before we give up.