Posted on 12/09/2021 7:48:57 PM PST by blam
America helped to pioneer the idea of public education. But a growing number of teachers and parents are wondering if the pandemic has finally broken America’s system of public education, as a growing number of school districts close schools for days or weeks, sometimes without the option of going remote.
The NYT published a deep dive on the issues afflicting public schools across the US, issues that also impact the workforce since parents who can’t bring kids to school are often stuck scrambling for child care.
One example of how schools are rolling back services as the struggle with budget shortfalls continues: Schools in Detroit, a city that has supposedly made a strong rebound after filing for bankruptcy protection back in 2013, will close its schools on Friday for the rest of the school year. There will be no online classes.
Parents were outraged by the news, but a few days later, Detroit schools announced that schools would be closed for the entire week of Thanksgiving. Typically, kids are in school Monday and Tuesday, with a half-day on Wednesday.
Of course, Detroit’s schools aren’t the only ones making these cutbacks. At least six other school districts in Michigan extended Thanksgiving break, and three districts in Washington State, including Seattle Public Schools, unexpectedly closed on Nov. 12, the day after Veterans Day. In Florida, Brevard Public Schools used leftover “hurricane days” to close schools for the entire week of Thanksgiving.
In Utah, the Canyons School District announced that all of its schools would go remote one Friday a month from November through March, equivalent to more than a week of school.
Parents aren’t only worried about logistical problems like child care and supervising remote learning: they’re starting to worry that the drastic cutbacks to educational services during the pandemic will leave their children permanently behind. Keep in mind, in China, students are spending more time in school, not less.
For many school districts, the switch back to remote learning for at least part of the school week is a last-ditch effort to stop teachers from resigning (or retiring) en masse.
And it’s not just the mask requirements that are getting to teachers. The last year has seen a surge in school violence, sometime gang-related, as students lash out. Teachers are exhausted from COVID, and from other issues like the battle over teaching CRT in classrooms.
What’s worse is that school closures this year have often come with little notice. When administrators at Reynolds Middle School in Fairview Ore. cancelled classses between Nov. 18 and Dec. 7 – giving students an unplanned two weeks off due to what the school described as a “school fights and other outbursts from students”.
The announcement gave parents just two days notice. Many were infuriated. “Are you kidding me?” said Missy Kisselman, the mother of Sophia, an eighth grader there. “I mean, are you kidding me?”
Reactions like these will likely become even more commonplace as teachers unions push for even more days off. In Portland, Ore., the teachers’ union is proposing early-release days for some of its schools after students return from winter break. The president of the schools’ teachers’ union said they’re doing so because of the “alarming” number of teachers asking for guidance about retiring or quitting.
Elizabeth Thiel, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, says her union is receiving an “alarming” number of inquiries from teachers asking for help resigning. If the union can figure out a plan now, she says, that may help avoid mass resignations, which would force schools to go entirely remote.
“It is far better for our students and families to be able to plan on an inconvenience like that, than it would be for the whole system to stop functioning,” Ms. Thiel said.
Remote learning is simply too much for most parents, especially single parents. If it becomes permanent, then pretty soon it won’t just be teachers abandoning public schools – parents might move students to private schools or charter schools.
Go to private schools then. Maybe that’ll force public schools to change. But probably not.
All according to plan
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Public teachers are some of the most entitled people in America.
Voters should push for school choice. Your tax money should go to schools you choose, not government schools controlled by unions.
Technology is not a complete solution, but a great deal of education can be delivered through technology, at least for certain kids. Very cost effective. The unions will never support anything which is cost effective.
Michigan is one of the most legally free states for Homeschooling.
Parents should seek their options for Homeschool or Online school pods or some other workaround.
Struggling a bit to see the downside of this, given what the public education system is turning out these days.
The poor will suffer from this. If churches and righteous individuals will step up it could really make a difference.
What a shame.
mark
Long term, this is awesome news. In the short term, not so good news as its the poorer kids who will get the shaft.
A total collapse of the Public Education System could only be a good thing. It serves as a propaganda mmil and a malevolent day care system.
Its just another bloated public bureaucracy, with a twisted ideology and some of the laziest people you can imagine.
I remember in this state when they demanded that teachers be put near the front of the line to get vaccines, just after health care workers and first responders and then immediately demanded that all learning be distance learning.
Then they have been having at least in this state wildcat school closures because of a lack of substitute teachers, and paid teachers taking time off due to the stress of actual class room teaching. This makes it hard on parents and the businesses the work for to stay open and not create staffing problems.
We are also starting to get some of the feedback on how badly children learned last year and how many wasted an entire academic year. The dilemma is do they try to provide extra tutoring, hold them back a year if they don't do well in standardized tests, or try to fake things and avoid standardized test and just all the kids to not learn what they need.
“America’s Public Education System Is Collapsing”
No, sorry, the ‘Public Education System’ will NEVER collapse, because conservatives are TOO STUPID (or too greedy) to keep their kids out.
It’s not going anywhere.
No, it would be better to end this enormously expensive, counter-productive destruction of our youth.
Teaching is a terrible job these days and most want out.
When I was in High school we had one vice principal; whose only apparent job was to swap swats for detention.
When my children were entering high school; I visited my old high school to decide if they should attend there or go to private school.
There were three principals; sixteen vice principals; a psychologist; and a host of other non-teachers on staff.
They went to private school.
I had an irate parent take a student out of my class because I was making digital logic too hard. That kid was supposedly a top honors student, but failing my class. One third of the students were making an A.
Schools are petrified that parents will sue, so they water-down the academics to make grading easier. Most of this comes from county and state offices, not the teachers.
It seems to me that schools merely reflect the overall attitudes of the majority of our population: make it easy and free for me.
If you want your child to have a good education, do not "hang out with the pack". Homeschool them or take them to a school of proven quality.
I taught in high school for three years following retirement from an engineering career. I enjoyed teaching and got great help from the teachers and admin. It was an eye-opening experience. The creeping crud I saw coming made it easy to stop.
Here in WV, public school teachers’ union is pushing for a “mental health break”
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