Dear friends,
Intersectionality is a very important concept in justice work because society’s problems are complex, our identities are complex, and there are both overlapping and conflicting demands for change. I’ve been postponing a discussion of school reopening because the issue is located at the intersection of public health, education equity, child welfare, and labor issues. This is no ordinary intersection. This is a traffic circle, and they are treacherous.
My own complex identity as a retired public school teacher, a proud and active union member, a parent of someone who attended both public and private schools (as well as a year of homeschooling), a teacher-educator, and a citizen has positioned me for some lane-jockeying in the traffic circle.
In the summer, I wrote regularly about the need to find a safe way to reopen schools. The reality of the delayed reopening, the emergency closures, and the confusion and sense of betrayal (on all sides) have been daunting. New York City is poised to reopen its middle schools later this month.
Lots of us were waiting to see the CDC recommendations for reopening the schools, which were released last week:
Schools providing in-person instruction should prioritize two mitigation strategies:
Universal and correct use of masks should be required, at all levels of community transmission. Require consistent and correct use of face masks, by all students, teachers, and staff to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission through respiratory droplets.
Physical distancing (at least 6 feet) should be maximized to the greatest extent possible. To ensure physical distancing, schools should establish policies and implement structural interventions to promote physical distance of at least 6 feet between people. Cohorting or podding is recommended to minimize exposure across the school environment.
The CDC guidelines allow the option for in-person instruction (hybrid or full-time) “at any level of community transmission,” with the expectation that schools will be strict about the following mitigation strategies: masks, physical distancing, handwashing and “respiratory etiquette” (coughing and sneezing into a elbows and such), cleaning, and contact tracing.
The criticism of the guidelines was swift. Because the guidelines note that high rates of community spread (which exist throughout much of the country) justify hybrid programs and even continued remote learning in places where mitigation strategies cannot be rigorously enforced, the critics have found fault with the plan.
If all schools adhered to the CDC guidelines, many that are fully open now would close for in-person learning or need to ratchet back to a hybrid system.
Advocates for reopening schools were dismayed.
The guidelines add “new and unnecessary demands that will ultimately keep millions of kids out of school,” public health experts Joseph G. Allen and Helen Jenkins said in The Washington Post. They said they had once favored tying school reopening to metrics for community spread. “We changed our position on this in light of overwhelming scientific evidence that transmission within schools can be kept low regardless of community spread, so long as good mitigation measures are in place.”
The CDC is writing public health guidelines for schooling during a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million people in the US alone, which is the sound reasoning behind an emphasis on mitigation strategies. It is not preventing schools from remaining open. It is not encouraging school closings, but an investment in testing and contact tracing and a commitment to behaviors (mask-wearing, distancing, and cleaning) that strike me as appropriate.
Interestingly, the CDC has not stipulated the vaccination of all staff, which is understandably upsetting to those on the front lines. Here in New York, teachers were among the first people eligible for vaccines, so I’m not going to grapple with this issue in any depth. I think all frontline workers should be prioritized for vaccines, regardless of what state they live in or whether they are teachers or transit personnel or food workers.
The CDC guidelines do include the following passage on equity (bold type is mine):
The absence of in-person educational options may disadvantage children from low-resourced communities, which may include large representation of racial and ethnic minority groups, English learners, and students with disabilities. Plans for safe delivery of in-person instruction in K-12 schools must consider efforts to promote fair access to healthy educational environments for students and staff. Thus, essential elements of school reopening plans should take into account the communities and groups that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 infections and severe outcomes. Schools play a critical role in promoting equity in education and health for groups disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
I’m not sure what people expected from the CDC. With regularity, schools and teachers are lambasted for outcomes that are predictable results of racism and poverty. These are not excuses for the schools not to try; but the burden of addressing these problems cannot be dumped on the schools or, in this case, the CDC.
We need to take active steps to provide communities with resources (housing, healthcare, access to fresh food and green spaces, safe drinking water, etc.) so that public health and education programs reach people who have a meaningful opportunity to benefit from them. It is not new to observe that the pandemic has only exposed the deep inequities that existed all along, but it is important not to forget it.
I haven’t made it all the way round the traffic circle, and you can see that this is already too long. No wonder I’ve been putting this off.
I’ll leave you with something to do, in preparation for the reopening of schools.
Tomorrow, the City Council is holding hearings on proposed legislation to reform school policing. One of the bills — Intro 2211 — would transfer more than 5000 officers into the DOE. This is not a meaningful reform, but a means of committing resources to policing schools instead of investing in the supportive services students need.
Teachers Unite, a group that organizes educators to stand against racism and oppression, is encouraging students, educators, and parents to call on legislators to block Intro 2211 and reject any further investments in school policing and to instead invest .
Sign up to testify by 11 AM today at the City Council Hearing on Thursday. Use this guide to Testify at the Education Committee’s Hearing on Police Reform.
with love,
L