Forbes | May 12, 2020
By Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of CER
Amid the shutdown, public school students now limited to their homes have become entirely dependent on the decisions of their districts to enable education to be delivered “where” they currently sit. Many districts did indeed begin full-service education for students. Not surprisingly, most were already innovators or are in states that have stimulated competitive behaviors. But in the majority of cases, education is still not being delivered at all – remotely, digitally, or any which way.
The failure of the Philadelphia school district to provide any education – delaying for almost two months the rollout of remote education will result in severe learning loss and possibly irreversible detachment issues for students for whom a connection to their school community is their lifeline.
Even one of the nation’s wealthiest districts – Fairfax County, VA, working with a leading ed tech provider – could not figure out the safe and secure delivery of a modest remote learning program to its nearly 200,000 students and had to suspend remote learning for several weeks, leaving students without any education for more than a month.
Finally, we see districts agreeing to renegotiate union contracts to limit teachers’ interaction with students! Los Angeles now limits how much time teachers can be working to just four hours a day. San Francisco and others have followed suit.
In Boston, the teachers’ union negotiated a four-week work day, and teachers cannot be required to do anything on video, which flies in the face of the data backing in-person teacher engagement as a critical element of much-need social and emotional learning.
There is no question that teachers are wholly unprepared to teach from home, with all the additional stressors that are making life complex and difficult for many. The real solution for the teachers unions would be to play the role of professional teacher association, and work to help schools replicate the models that are working, not simply to continue to control time and dependent variables.
Districts do have an extraordinary task with these complex contract negotiations, and thousands of pupils and employees under their charge, who barely see each other on a “normal” day, let alone amidst a crisis.
With these levels of dysfunction and neglect, especially now, we cannot continue to vest them with authority to educate our kids. We must act urgently and differently to ensure every child in America has access to the education they need because, as the data analysts argue, the education curve created by COVID-19 will be irreversible if we don’t act quickly.
We have two choices. We can wait until each district and school in America figures this out – which doesn’t seem likely – or we can give every parent the opportunity to avail themselves of education remotely, regardless of their current school assignment.
This virus has shown that education needn’t be “place-based,” or dependent on a specific classroom, with a set number of students in order to be learning. Helping a student master a grade-appropriate level of competency in a subject is more important than whether they’re in a classroom for a certain period of time.
We must make the student our only unit of learning and give every student a virtual backpack that contains all they need to be educated. That backpack must include a device, a hotspot, basic supplies, a meal, and a ticket that gains them access anywhere to any school that has room – public, private, or charter. The funds that the student has “earned” for his or her district would be paid to the receiving school. The only requirement, as long as students are remote and until issues of accountability can be determined, is that the students’ attendance, activities, and results (grades or otherwise) be reported through the school to the state and isolated for that period of time.
The federal government has for this moment in time already waived spending discrimination based on zip code. No longer must states distribute federal funds according to traditional, fixed categories and formulas. This is a moment for states to waive location-based assignment entirely.
While many states cannot waive constitutional provisions that give authority to school districts or allegedly safeguard how public education dollars are spent, they can remove all statutory limitations on school boundaries. If Miami, Florida, is doing a great job now, then students from Collier County should be able to enroll in Miami schools and the district and state should direct the funds Collier spends on that child to Miami. Similarly, if a student from Miami wants to attend a charter school that is doing remote programs in a way that fits a family’s interest, the limitations on that charter school’s enrollment size should be removed immediately.
The Trump Administration has already moved to incentivize states to use some of their Stimulus funds on reaching students not being served. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also teamed up with the head of the FCC Amit Pai to recommend states use their funds to provide devices and b
andwidth wherever it is still lacking.
There is no more time for excuses when billions are now available to solve equity and access issues, and when there is no shortage of education organizations ready, able, and willing to teach students no matter where they are. For now, and even after the COVID-19 crisis, states must be prepared for the future – a future which ensures students can be reached and teachers can teach, now matter where they are. That is the future of school, and it has just become the new normal.
_________
Follow Jeanne on Twitter or LinkedIn or some of her other work here.
READ: The Future of Schools CER’s report sets a new course for policymakers, advocates and families and educators to follow as we work to reshape education during (and after) COVID-19.
Founded in 1993, the Center for Education Reform aims to expand educational opportunities that lead to improved economic outcomes for all Americans — particularly our youth — ensuring that conditions are ripe for innovation, freedom and flexibility throughout U.S. education.