Covid-19 Is An Opportunity To Disrupt Education

Despite overwhelming evidence that opening schools for in-person education is both safe and beneficial for children, teachers unions across the U.S. continue to try to hold families hostage in pursuit of political gains. As the unions overplay their hands, there is a great opportunity for market disruption of the dysfunctional union-controlled status quo.   

The evidence of both safety and benefits of in-person education comes from authorities including the American Association of Pediatrics and the National Academy of Sciences. In my July 20 post titled “Teachers Unions Will Sacrifice Their Students for Their Politics,” I referenced studies by AAP and NAS whose data show that children are rarely susceptible to Covid-19 and that they are not “super spreaders” of the virus. On top of that, the AAP and NAS strongly recommend in-person learning for K-12 students. AAP states that there are “known harms” to families and communities that result from keeping children at home, including:

“... Social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. This, in turn, places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality.”

In the face of such evidence, and contrary to any pretense of doing what is best for the students, the Los Angeles Teachers Union has led the charge against reopening schools in the fall. The UTLA has been quickly joined by unions in several other large school districts including San Diego, San Francisco, Nashville, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, and Arlington, VA. Just this Wednesday, New York City principals and teachers unions added their voices to the fight against reopening, stating they were “gravely concerned” about Mayor de Blasio’s plan to open schools on Sept. 10. This despite the fact that New York’s Covid-19 infection rate among those being tested hit an all-time low last week at .78%, far below the 5% baseline previously set for opening schools.

On top of that, this spring, the US engaged in a massive remote learning experiment and by summer, the results coming in left a lot to be desired. Surveys of parents and teachers reported low engagement and motivation from students.  Surveys also showed “massive equity issues, with engagement varying across racial and economic lines.” Teachers at high-poverty schools reported an average of 51% participation in daily distance learning, while teachers at affluent schools reported 84% daily participation. “It’s beyond frustrating” said New York City parent Keyshawn Woodbury, whose son waited weeks to receive an iPad that he needed to participate in virtual classes.

Another New York City parent, Amy Schindler, commented “I just feel like [my child’s] education is seriously compromised if it is not in person.” Luckily, there is a plus side: it seems that the teachers unions have underestimated the innovation of parents. It should come as no surprise that parents will go to great lengths to educate their children, and that they are very capable of creative solutions when the public option fails.

In my previous article, I cited the following tweet: “Now is the time for teachers to eat… quit your job, charge $250 a week to homeschool 10 kids… do such a great job that we never send these kids back to school.” Well, it turns out, parents are doing exactly that. They’ve come up with a solution called “Pandemic Pods”: hiring private tutors for in-person learning for small groups of students. In the space of only a few months, multiple beautifully-crafted websites have sprung up to help connect families with tutors and teachers, organized by location, age group, and learning needs. See examples here and here. The free-market is an amazing thing: it fills needs quickly and efficiently to the benefit of all. 

Last month, I predicted that market answers to the problems facing parents would likely be “disparaged as another example of privilege in action.” Sadly, I was right about that too. Various media outlets promptly began railing against the Pods as a new marker of inequality and injustice. From the Washington Post: Private ‘School Pods’ are Coming. They’ll Worsen Inequality. From NPR: ‘Pandemic Pods’ Raise Concerns About Equity. From Barrons: Pandemic Pods Will Make the Inequality in American Schools Even Worse. For NPR, Anya Kamenetz says, “here we are in the midst of a national conversation about racial equity and a group of families who have relative privilege are busily constructing solutions for their own kids that leave everyone else behind.” [My emphasis]. Nowhere in NPR’s report is it mentioned that if poor and minority children are getting left behind by school closures, it is the fault of the schools and teachers unions. Somehow they manage to place the blame solely on parents who are just trying to do what’s best for their own children.

And that is despite the fact that even the New York Times has admitted “In the Covid-19 economy you can have a kid or a job, you can’t have both.” Everyone can acknowledge that juggling a full-time job and full-time childcare is a recipe for failure on both counts. Apparently, parents were supposed to accept that as an unavoidable fact of life. 

Meanwhile, a low-income mother in Philadelphia, Dieynaba Diaw, can feel the injustice. She believes pods are a nice idea but adds: “that wouldn’t be an option for me. I couldn’t afford it.” Dieynaba, that’s where you’re wrong! In 2016-2017, the the Philadelphia district schools spent a “colossal” $24,597 per student. Assuming Dieynaba has a child in the public school system, her child has already been deemed entitled to $24,597 of education. Suffice to say, the public funds exist. They already exist for people exactly like Dieynaba Diaw, who now feels left behind. Instead of giving her that money to determine the best use for it, governments and unions are withholding both the funds and the schooling. They are leaving the very people they claim to want to help the most — low-income families — out in the cold. 

The fact that low-income families feel left out of the market is purely a failure of local governments to free themselves from union stakeholders and reallocate funds they already have for people they have already deemed to be “in-need.” During this pandemic, public schools have failed to innovate quickly and adjust to changing circumstances; they have offered no alternatives or options to problematic distance learning; they have let their communities down, most significantly minority and low-income families. Let’s place the blame for this mess exactly where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of unions and the governments that do their bidding.

With no satisfactory public schooling available, there’s nothing left to lose: What if governments gave the money to the parents instead? What if those parents demanded it? Now is the time.