Reopening Schools

I’m gratified to see Alex Berezow making some of the same points that I have made in a recent piece of his at the American Council on Science and Health:

There are three different population groups whose safety we must worry about: School kids, faculty and staff, and children’s families back home. They each face a different set of risks, some of which are in direct conflict with each other. Let’s consider the students, first.

The threat that the coronavirus poses to children and young adults is not zero, but it’s extremely small.

continuing:

From the students’ perspective, the benefits of a school closure are minimal. The negative consequences, however, are considerable. Young children need to play with others, and older children need to learn. They all need to socialize. Preventing this will delay their development and education. For these reasons, The Economist endorses opening schools first as lockdowns ease because “[t]he costs of keeping them closed are too high.”

The calculation changes when we consider the risks to teachers, staff, and students’ families, who obviously are in older age demographics.

and concluding:

Regardless of how one looks at the data, they all point in the same direction: COVID-19 poses a very minor threat to students. The threat of reopening schools, therefore, is the health of teachers, faculty, and childrens’ families. Measures should be aimed at protecting those populations.

I think that there should be individualized assessments of children’s needs. Some kids may even be benefiting from the suspension of in-person education. For others it may make no difference. Both of those groups should be allowed to continue with online education. But for still others the lack of structure and in-person education may result in permanent deficits and I would hazard a guess that the kids most at risk are those with the greatest needs. A way should be found for those students to receive the education they need.

The Chicago Teachers’ Union is, characteristically, taking a less nuanced stance, as the Sun-Times reports:

As schools face the immense challenge of protecting their students, teachers and staff members during the coronavirus pandemic, the Chicago Teachers Union is urging the district to start school in the fall with remote learning.

“We stand for a safe and equitable reopening of the schools, but today COVID-19 cases are soaring instead of dissipating,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey was quoted as saying in the news release Wednesday. “There is simply no way to guarantee safety for in-school learning during an out-of-control pandemic — and that means we must revert to remote learning until the spread of this virus is contained.”

Who will be harmed the most under their plan? Mostly black and Hispanic kids and kids with special needs.