To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
September 13, 2020
Re: Teacher resistance defies Trump's dictate
by Pete Brown, Detroit
Workers'
Voice
Schools across the country shut down in March as COVID raged in the Northeast. The expectation at that time announced by Trump was this was a temporary measure that would last some weeks, perhaps until Easter, but after that things might return to normal. But Easter came and went, and the school shutdown extended to Memorial Day and then until the end of the spring term. During that time school districts devised different forms of online learning while also hoping that the opening of schools in the fall would mean a return to normal. But during the summer COVID raged in the Sunbelt and across the nation while actually subsiding in the Northeast. School administrators spent the summer devising various plans but not really sure how to proceed. Plans announced for in-person schooling in mid-July were revised in late July and revised again in August as the latest COVID numbers were reported. Teachers spent the summer helping develop alternative plans, schooling themselves on new programs for online schooling, and determining what stand to take.
Crunch time came in late August as school districts finally had to
decide whether to obey orders coming from the White House or not.
President Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, had
demanded that all schools reopen for in-person education. First they
demanded complete reopening and threatened to cut off federal funds
from any school that did not do so. As resistance grew, they moderated
this to the demand that school districts have at least half its
students enrolled in on-site education. But teachers in major school
distrcts such as New York and Detroit threatened to strike if forced to
return to classrooms with unsafe conditions. Teachers in other
districts often did not formally threaten to strike, but some teachers
resigned, and many others threatened to not show up for work.
Administrators finally saw the writing on the wall and agreed to begin
the school year online.
The number of new COVID cases and deaths has declined from its high in July but is not yet down to where it was in May and June before the summer surge. The Northeast – New York and New Jersey, especially – has come down dramatically from where it was in the early days of the contagion, in March. But the contagion is still spreading in the South and Midwest, and many states, such as Michigan, have seen recent uptics. There are no school systems that are trying to return to complete in-person schooling. They are opening online only; OR with in-person schooling an option for some students; OR with a hybrid system in which all students go to school part-time and have at-home online learning two or three days a week. Having half the number of students at school each day allows better social distancing. All schools are planning to spend more on sanitation and on laptops and other computer equipment for students. This is creating a financial crunch, as states at the same time are cutting spending due to the tremendous falloff in tax revenue. Federal relief funds are providing some support, but billions of dollars more is needed. Districts are scrambling for different ways to make up for budget shortfalls, cutting staff and programs, but this is all tentative; districts’ plans depend on the spread of COVID, and local administrators plan to reassess the situation every few weeks.
Among the public school districts which I found information on,
there was NOT ONE which was going to completely open with in-person
learning only. President Trump’s insistence on reopening the schools
has thus been a complete flop. Among the districts I examined, the only
major public school district offering in-person schooling and with a
majority of its students taking this option is New York City.
Ironically, New York’s governor and mayor have been among President
Trump’s harshest Democratic Party critics. But with strict social
distancing and quarantine measures, New York has been able to achieve
very low levels of COVID spread.
One big problem is, simply, money. To pay for testing, laptops for students, construction of Wifi hotspots, and sanitation measures, it’s estimated school districts in the U.S. need billions of dollars, but so far the federal government has done little about providing extra funding. Private foundations, local community groups and corporations have stepped up in some cases, providing emergency funds. Looking at it positively, this means a rapid acceleration of internet access all across the nation. And it shows a positive, civic-minded response among community groups. It also shows a callous, ignorant attitude on the part of the Trump administration and Republican leaders in the Senate who have stalled emergency relief measures.
Following is a review of major metropolitan areas:
Even though in-person education is being offered in New York and
over 600,000 students are going to participate, about one-third of the
students have opted for online learning only. Mayor Bill DeBlasio
insisted on reopening in-person, at least as an option, but the
teachers union threatened a strike unless he took measures to guarantee
teachers’ safety. Faced with a complete shutdown of schools, DeBlasio
finally relented and delayed the reopening until September 21st while
he reorganizes things to meet teachers’ demands. For example, the union
demanded one nurse for every school. The district has now promised to
hire more nurses, though it’s doubtful they will meet the demand for
one per school. Ventilation is being added to classrooms, and some
schools are completely closed temporarily while construction work is
performed. The major concession to teachers is mandatory random testing
for COVID. Each month 10-20% of the school population, including
teachers and staff, will be tested. This will be a
self-administered nasal swab with a Q-tip. Students who refuse the test
will be required to stay home, and the same for teachers and staff, who
will be placed on unpaid leave. Local Republican politicians are
protesting against this measure, calling it an invasion of privacy. But
the teachers union insisted on it as a safety measure, to prevent
outbreaks of the virus from spreading. This extensive testing at
schools has been done in Belgium but nowhere else in the world.
Each school is erecting a tent on school grounds where the testing will be performed, and staff is being hired to oversee the tests. The district will contract out the test processing, which will be done within 48 hours with the results reported to students. Each test will cost the district at least $70 to administer and process. This is a heavy financial burden for New York, since it adds up to millions of dollars every month. DeBlasio complains that the city will have to lay off tens of thousands of other city workers.
In Newark, schools will be completely online at least until Nov. 17th, the end of the first marking period.
Breakfast and lunch meals will be distributed on Tuesday and Friday at
schools. Also in Jersey City the school board voted to go completely
online at least for September. Interestingly enough, this went against
state guidelines that insisted on at least some in-person instruction;
but local boards voted to go online anyway, citing local concerns.
Local teachers’ determination to oppose in-person instruction finally
pushed the state governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, to support them and to
use his emergency powers to authorize online learning.
Chicago schools don’t seem as well prepared as New York. Chicago decided to go completely online at least for the first quarter; they may move to a hybrid system afterwards. The teachers union supports this but insists on more preparation for online learning, more time to prepare teachers and parents for online learning, and more infrastructure. The school district is slowly acquiring new laptops for everyone and building Wifi infrastructure. Apparently it won’t be ready by the beginning of school but is still being built. The city is getting help from community organizations to finance this.
An article in the Daily Herald for September 8 describes a demonstration of hundreds of people in Wheaton, a western suburb of Chicago near Napierville, demanding a return to in-person schooling. The suburbs have organized in-person schooling for elementary-school children, but middle-school and high-school kids are going online with Ipads the district distributed. School district spokesmen issued statements supporting their online efforts and promising a return to in-person schooling as soon as possible, but this demonstration indicates opposition to the online program. Demonstration organizers made some good points about the value of in-person instruction, but local teachers stand firm against it, citing concerns about health and safety, so the school board disallows it for now.
School districts in the far western suburbs around Elgin are offering a mix of online, option, and hybrid programs.
In Los Angeles, schools are reopening online only, like Chicago. But LA recently announced that some in-person education will be offered to needy students. This includes those with disabilities and ESL (English as a Second Language) students. (Chicago has been criticized for not doing more for ESL students, who comprise a large segment of the school population. Chicago is providing some special online programs for them but no in-person instruction.) In LA, ESL students comprise about 20% of the school population, while Special Ed students are about 10%. So together these two groups are tens of thousands of students. The district must now negotiate with the teachers union as to how to provide in-person instruction for these students, and the county health department must also approve any plans. LA County remains a hot spot for COVID, and the health department has already said it will not approve complete in-person education at any school. Some school districts in California such as those in Orange County and San Diego County are receiving waivers to reopen hybrid learning (partially in-person), but this is ruled out in LA County, where COVID numbers remain high.
I couldn’t find a recent discussion of LA acquiring laptops and internet access for its hundreds of thousands of students. The most recent article I found was from late June, which said that California schools needed 700,000 laptops and 300,000 Wifi hotspots. I don’t know how much progress has been made on this, but a recent article on business and economics says there is now a worldwide shortage of laptops.
Long Beach is also in Los Angeles County and is facing the same restrictions as LA. Anaheim, in Orange County, is in a different “tier” of infection – it has moved from “purple” to “red” – and so is eligible for some in-person instruction. But the Anaheim school district, closely monitoring COVID, has determined that the virus is still alive and well in different parts of the county, especially in the inner city of Anaheim, and so has decided not to try in-person instruction for now. The district has given out 17,000 Chromebooks to students and also arranged for 4,000 Wifi hotspots to be used for schooling. ESL students are given access to Rosetta Stone. Free meals are distributed every day at every school. Students can communicate with teachers and other students via Instagram.
In Houston, school began the last week of August and was completely online. This will last for three weeks. After that, those who choose can move to in-person live instruction. So Houston will have a hybrid system after mid-September. But the school district is trying to get a waiver from the state so it can continue with completely online instruction. The district is not providing laptops to everyone but to students who request one. For students and staff at school, face masks will be required at all times by everyone, and there will be mandatory hand-washing times.
South of San Antonio, along the Rio Grande, large areas of Texas do not have dependable broadband service, and the school districts are poor. The state is helping local school districts acquire laptops, Ipads and hotspots, but acquisition is slow and will not be accomplished until October at least. The state has ordered 750,000 Ipads and 300,000 Wifi hotspots, but delivery is slow. In many districts, households are given one device per family instead of one per student, and students struggle with doing schoolwork on phones. School district leaders worry that online education will increase the equity gap between richer and poorer students in different districts. In Killeen, the district is going to open in-person education soon because an order of 16,000 Ipads is slow to arrive, and many students in the district will simply not have education available to them.
The largest school districts in north Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth, are similar to Houston, opening completely online for a few weeks and then reassessing. News reports emphasize they will try to reopen as soon as possible. Meanwhile the districts have been buying thousands of laptops and Wifi hotspots. Around north Texas some 25 smaller districts are opening for in-person instruction for younger students in elementary school, with everyone wearing masks, but middle-school and high-school students will begin the year completely online.
News articles in Texas emphasize that districts are keen on obeying Trumpist directives as soon as possible, but it’s just not safe at this time.
Schools in Arlington are beginning the year completely online, and this will continue for at least six weeks. This district seems very well prepared: it’s giving out (on loan) tens of thousands of e-tablets to students, and it also gives out matching printed material for students who don’t want to do their schoolwork online. This material is also available in Spanish, for parents who are helping their children. Special help is available for ESL and Special Ed students. The district is debating what to do about hands-on technology classes, fine arts and athletics.
The DC district had a hybrid plan in mid-July but then switched to completely online at the end of July as COVID numbers shot up. DC schools have now opened completely online, with school buildings closed until at least the end of the first term, November 6th. Students who need laptops or internet access are encouraged to apply for assistance.
In Arlington the school district tried to arrange part-time in-person education as an option during the summer, but the superintendent finally decided this was impossible, so the district is beginning the school year completely online for all students, pre-K through high school. Unfortunately, the first day began with the district’s internet program completely swamped and unable to handle the high volume, and the same was true for its technology-help phone line. The district promises to do better as the week progresses.
In Alexandria the school district is opening completely online, with tablets or Chromebooks being given to all students. The district is also organizing childcare and continued meal distribution, which the district emphasizes is needed for a majority of students even though Alexandria is the richest community in northern Virginia. The district is considering what to do about in-person instruction for Special Ed and ESL students.
A wrinkle in online learning: on the first day of school in Miami, the online learning program was hacked by someone who planted a virus in it that wiped out access for all of Miami’s students. The district replaced their program with a Zoom connection, but it meant a delay, and Zoom did not work as well as the special program the district had planned to use. The problem continued for days until a 17-year-old hacker was arrested.
Miami is not alone with online problems: a ransomware attack shut down schooling in Hartford, Conn. on the first day of school; a website crash in Houston shut off internet access for 200,000 students; a server problem in Virginia Beach prevented students there from starting school.
One reason school districts are having so much trouble with the transition to online learning is the lack of planning. Last spring was a disaster for most school districts; it’s estimated that about one-third of students simply dropped out. But districts then had six months to plan for the fall. However, there was no guidance from the state and federal government, and districts were hoping that COVID would be under control by August at the latest. Such hopes continued during the summer, and school districts continued stocking up on face shields, hand sanitizer, air filters for classrooms, etc. But as high numbers for COVID continued, the districts were forced to adopt online learning only. Much time was lost that could have been used for training teachers on new software. There are over 13,000 school districts in the U.S., and each one had to figure out what to do; find and purchase new software programs; educate their teachers and administrators about them; and negotiate new rules for how teaching would be delivered and implemented. Each district had to do all this on its own without guidance, much less actual help, from the federal government.
It should be noted that teachers are still required to be at school every day for online education. They don’t work from home, and they’re required to spend some hours per week in personal consultation with students and parents. Schools are thus required to still spend time and money on sanitation measures.
Other local areas of interest:
Detroit public schools have a hybrid system. Students can choose either at-home online education or at-school in-person education. All students are provided with laptops, and those at school are provided with masks, which the students must wear the entire day (except when eating). An August 28 article in the Detroit Free Press describes the deal negotiated between the teachers union and the school district. Major items agreed to were: teachers can choose which option they want, online or in-person, just like students; teachers who opt for online education must undergo training with no extra pay; teachers can bring their own children to their school with them in lieu of childcare; classes will be limited to 20 students and will have six feet of social distance between student desks; teachers will be provided free PPE; teachers will have access to free testing at any time; schools will have temperature sensors at school entrances; parents and other non-students will not be allowed entry into schools.
Warren is beginning the fall term online only. Warren Consolidated, the largest district, purchased 12,000 laptops to give to students paid for by federal relief funds from last spring meant for sanitation measures. Van Dyke District in south Warren has received grants from foundations to purchase laptops and hotspots so everyone will have access to online learning. Some schools are also providing childcare for teachers with small children.
In Canton they have half-day in-person instruction for Special Ed students only; class size is limited to six students, everyone must wear masks at all times, and teachers also wear gloves. Special Ed students (including autistic children) need close supervision in order to learn, and many of them have behavior problems, so teachers sometimes use touch as a means to help them calm down. There’s a special need to be close to them, so special measures of germ control need to be taken.
In Ypsilanti the majority of students will be completely online, although the computer system seems to have crashed on the first day of school. The most vulnerable students will be able to attend in-person classes; this includes ESL, those who require adult supervision (their parents are both working), those with behavior problems, those who are way behind academically, those who are homeless, and those who need food. The district is organizing continued food distribution for all students.
The district is opening completely online at least at first. There is much debate about when to begin in-person instruction for Special Ed students. The teachers union says none should begin until King County positivity rate for the virus comes down under 5% for three months. The union is also demanding the hiring of more family counselors and technology counselors. Laptops are being given out to everyone, but this is not yet complete; the district expects this to be done sometime in the fall. Grading will be somewhat relaxed – no Fs or Ds, instead Incompletes will be given. The district is expanding food distribution sites for students, providing childcare at some school buildings, and trying to arrange some teacher-student meetings at Boys and Girls Clubs. The district is also trying to organize some outdoor schooling. The district is leaving a lot of things up in the air, trying to placate the teachers union and parents on health issues and not being real definite about plans.
In Tacoma, students can opt for either “remote” or “online” learning. Both options begin the school year completely online, but “remote” learners are eligible to transition to a hybrid system more easily later in the year. They also have somewhat different programs; but both are online for now. The district has money available to help students obtain laptops. Bellevue’s plan is similar to Tacoma’s.
The Buffalo school district will begin completely online, and this will be reassessed in October to decide if they can go over to a hybrid system. Planning by the district has been slow; they tried to get a waiver from the state to put off school opening completely for a few weeks, but this was not approved, so they’re opening on time, but only online. School district leaders are worried about opening the schools because COVID rates are higher for people of color, and the district’s students are 80% people of color. Erie County is providing $100 per student to each school for sanitation, PPE, and buying computer equipment for students.
Cheektowaga has adopted a hybrid plan, with students learning at-home three days a week and going to school two days a week (Monday and Tuesday for half the students, Thursday and Friday for the other half). Students may also opt for learning completely online at home. Those with free meals can pick up food curbside at their school on the days they are learning online. Childcare is provided at schools.
The New York Times interviewed a number of students about online learning across the country and had interesting results. In these interviews many students were apprehensive and frankly fearful about resuming online classes. Some complain that their parents are not as good teachers as the professionals. They miss the athletics, the music classes, the group camaraderie. Many say they do not concentrate as well sitting at home, and they find it boring. Being in a group that’s all focused on the same project, with group discussion, questions and answers, helps one focus. Being surrounded by many other students is not a distraction for most youngsters; it helps them learn. Reading these interviews made me think It’s unsettling to think of an entire generation being brought up online without the physical presence of other people, without sports events and school dances, without even the physical activity of getting on a bus or walking to school. Schools in much of the rest of the world – in China and Europe, for example – are opening completely in-person. But the severity of the pandemic in the United States is preventing this.
Reading about different school systems brings home to one the importance of local schools as a social institution, for example for basic nutrition. Some school districts in poorer areas are organizing meal distribution seven days a week. This is necessary to keep society functioning in these areas. Also dealing with homeless children, disabled and ESL students – local schools are the mainstay of society, and it’s a big setback for the United States to have in-person schooling close down temporarily. But the government’s failure to respond to COVID has made it necessary. The chauvinist cry, “We’re No. 1!” has taken on a new meaning as the U.S. has become the world’s No. 1 focus of COVID infection and death.
There’s a lesson to be learned from school reopenings: the limits of Trump’s authoritarian dictates. Trump and Devos insisted that all schools reopen completely with in-person learning. These were dictates from on high that many state governors and local politicians tried to support. But it flopped. There were just too many headwinds: the ongoing summer surge of the virus; the scientific data coming from various government and non-government sources; the news media coverage; the independence of local school boards; the opposition of teachers and parents; and the doubtful legality of cutting off funds. Many lawsuits were threatened while teachers unions threatened strikes.
Trump had been successful in bullying some state governors, especially in southern states, in early reopening of bars, restaurants, gyms, massage parlors, etc. But the results were disastrous and plain for everyone to see during the summer. Local school boards, teachers and parents paid attention and refused to put the lives of children and teachers at risk. Thus, Trump’s dictate flopped and became an example of authoritarian overreach. A segment of the population (20%?) is willing to support Trump no matter how stupid his dictates, but the majority simply refused. <>
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