Year 11 – Week 25: The Crisis in Our Schools

What is going on in American schools is what has always been going on.  

We have schools that are open with in-person teaching that is going pretty well. Some schools are open in-person that's are not doing well, and some schools continue only to be remote.  

Some school administrators and school officials are great. They make teachers feel safe and supported, while educational leaders are doing a great disservice to teachers and making them feel unsafe and exploited.  

There are teacher union chapters supporting cooperative partners and helping make teachers safe while serving the students' needs. There are teacher union locals that are being unreasonable obstructionists. Then there are school boards. Like other local officials, some school board members are in their positions to serve the students and the community, and others are more in for the power.  

None of this should be a surprise. The differences in schools offering in-person learning and only remote learning are as stark as the educational difference between school pre-pandemic. Teachers' experience in America varies so widely from a teacher who has to work multiple jobs to pay rent for an apartment in the city they work to teachers who live comfortably on their salary. Teachers' unions in America have done far better than bad. The structure of union leadership from the national down to the local pretty much ensures variation in the quality of organizing and leadership. The school boards are showing their effectiveness, and it's becoming revealing the nature of the members who claim to serve in this position.  

For so many people, decisions around school didn't seem to have dire, life-altering consequences before the pandemic. "So, there are bad administrators. Okay, that sucks. I'm going to go back to work," has become "there are bad administrators, children are doing remote learning, and my employees' productivity has dropped because they have to support their children's learning." 

Less involved parents could ignore a bad school board making racist choices about curriculum, but they can't ignore the fact that an ineffective school board keeps their child from in-person learning. Teachers, previously fine to let others do the heavy lifting of union leadership, are realizing that maybe if they showed up to meetings and voted more carefully in previous years, they would be in a better situation.  

The inequity in schools in America has always had dire, life-altering consequences far before the pandemic. This will continue if we forget the issues that have led to this unprecedented educational crisis in America.  

While many people in education have done courageous, remarkable, and incredible work for students in America during this pandemic, we as a society, a county, and citizens have failed the children of America.

This crisis is our past and our present, but it doesn't have to be our future. If we remember as forward, hold people accountable for their disservice, and elevate those who never gave up fighting for children, we can build back better.