I’ve expressed my desire for my state/town to return to in-school instruction and allow other areas of the country to handle based on their situation.
However, this isn’t just a matter of determining how kids will continue to learn. If kids are not in school, that means that they are alone in the house all day. So, 6 year olds are supposed to hang around by themselves while taking some instruction and learning on their own.
The alternative is something that neither corporate party is willing to fight for, so it’s hardly worth discussing. If you want kids to stay home, you need to pay for parents to stay home. You need to provide a way for people to afford rent/mortgage, utilities, food, etc while they stay home to care for their kids and become part of their education. This doesn’t mean so-called “stimulus” scraps. This would mean, regular, large monthly payments that would be paid for by the rich.
We can’t continue to declare that it’s an apocalypse while legislating as though it’s not.
Additionally, I am of the opinion that if we were serious about C19 and limiting its damage, we would have been able to figure out how fund schools in a way that would make safe return a possibility. As it is right now, schools seem to be struggling to simply hold on to their existing staff. And while distancing has become an important component of safety, we’re still looking at educating our children in cramped buildings with limited opportunity for increasing spacing, etc.
Again, if we were serious about prioritizing education or saving lives, we wouldn’t think of schools as physical buildings that are funded with the leftovers. There are plenty of stupid empty buildings all of the country (from office space to convention centers to gyms) that could be setup to expand classroom size and be able to bring students back for meaningful in-person education.
It could be considered a lack of creativity if there was any evidence. There is plenty of creativity when it comes to finding ways to fuck people over. The lack of real solutions re: education and covid is simply a lack of interest. Rich people are going to be fine. The wealthy around here are fine. They all have private tutors and are creating educational mini groups, which will involve gathering small groups of kids together daily and hiring private teachers. The rest of us are screwed.