Back To School 2020: Will Parents Take Over Schooling?

Forbes | August 20, 2020
By Jeanne Allen, Founder and CEO of CER

WINCHESTER – JULY 30: Young elementary school students and their parents attempt to get the attention of passing motorists on Church Street in Winchester, MA on July 30, 2020. A group of Winchester parents hold an event on the town common, voicing their concerns about younger students being able to learn remotely and advocating for the full return of them to classrooms. (Photo by Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) BOSTON GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES

They say a parent is a child’s first teacher, but that reality doesn’t seem to be guiding either policy or practice in these harrowing, back-to-school days, circa COVID-19.

Most parents will not be sending their children to a physical school this year, according to the latest data, but that’s not because they have any sufficient choice in the matter. To make matters worse, most parents whose options are confined to remote learning report they will also have no one at home to monitor and support their kids learning.

To add insult to injury, some districts are actually asking parents in that unenviable position to pay for child care.

Take Fairfax County, VA, where facilities are opening to provide child care and online support. Despite getting approximately $16,000 per student in the district, parents are being asked to pay for the privilege of utilizing public services.

It gets more bizarre. In Arizona, the teachers union staged a sick-out in two districts, refusing to go back to school physically or virtually.

“Due to these insufficient staffing levels, schools will not be able to re-open on Monday as planned. This means that all classes, including virtual learning, will be canceled. At this time, we do not know the duration of these staff absences, and cannot yet confirm when in-person instruction may resume,” Superintendent Greg Wyman said in a news release. “Please know that we are acutely aware of how polarizing this issue is, and how challenging these ongoing developments are for our entire community.”

Admitting per a leaked video that they are not allowed to strike or technically conduct a sick-out, a high paid union consultant just urged all members in those districts to stay home.

In California, where all schools will be remote-only until further notice with no district by district options for parents,  the state’s superintendent of public instruction said they’d permit only the opening of schools for students with special needs. “Small groups of those students will be allowed to convene in person regardless of their county’s status on the state watchlist, which mandates that schools remain closed,” the state’s Linda Darling-Hammond announced last Friday. “Many, many districts are prepared to offer small group settings even while schools are closed, in the way that child care settings are allowed to operate, with all of the rules… to be able to bring back in person those students whose needs are difficult to meet online and are much better met in person.”

It’s an admirable move, but how amateurs can support the needs of students with exceptionalities is curious. Darling-Hammond has spent a career arguing that only individuals with recognized forms of certification are qualified to be around students, regardless of their expertise.

As many have written and opined, the notion that teachers may not feel safe is perfectly legitimate, as is the very real concern for a child’s safety that parents have. But rather than throw away precious dollars on doing nothing, systems should be consulting parents about what they want and for their ideas, working to ensure that some way, somehow, they have the resources they need to keep education moving in their home or neighborhood.

The other issue California’s move raises is if it’s okay to have small group settings for students who most need it, why wouldn’t we make all buildings available for people who want to pull together small groups?

Parent experts argue that the only way to solve this issue is to give parents the power to develop or buy the education of their choosing. They want access to micro-grants to be used to provide technology and tutoring. As Families Empowered Founder and CEO Colleen Dippel reports, “parents sometimes lack the experience or technical skills to teach, but overall, parents have deep concerns about knowing what their kids have missed in the last 6 months. What they really want is options.”

Janelle Wood, Black Mothers Forum VOYAGE PHOENIX

The founder of Black Mothers Forum, in South Phoenix, AZ, Janelle Wood has seen first hand what is happening to special needs students during covid. “They have been completely neglected and overlooked because their parents don’t have access to the resources. But the parents should be given these resources so that children do not lose anymore. Parents want to bring those dollars into their homes and manage those dollars to give their kids what they need.” 

Wood, who is leading the charge locally to organize microschools argues that parents  “are the experts for our children. Education has pushed our voices out, but we’re paying for this. We are the power. We’re the taxpayers and we should be directing where the funds go. We felt powerless. But in the middle of this COVID situation, we have realized that we cannot go back to the way it was. We as parents need to take over this.” 

Her sentiment is reflected in many recent analyses and polling. According to distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation Michael Horn, “Low-income and minority parents are far more likely to prefer that their children do not return to school buildings until the pandemic has passed than their counterparts. For example, according to one survey, 64% of black parents want remote learning versus 32% of white parents. A majority of families making less than $50,000 want remote learning, whereas 27% of families making more than $150,000 feel the same way.”

That behavior is explained by National Parents Union founder and labor organizer Keri Rodrigues. “Parents are empowered with a lot of information on what they know about their kids and what they’re getting from the system or not. This is an eye-opening process for people. Parents are furious because they are seeing more now than ever before, how little our kids are getting.” 

Political leaders and districts, along with teachers unions are continuing to try to limit how schools operate, make demands, and threaten strikes all in the interest of equity.  But despite proclaiming otherwise, parents have not been part of these deliberations. 

As Ms. Rodrigues argues, “I don’t know how you would have a conversation about reopening and what we’re comfortable with without us. Instead of teachers acting like they are experts in infectious diseases, they should have been focusing on delivering equitable education – there was all this time to plan. It’s no wonder parents are losing trust.”

“Our parents will be far better at deciding what’s best for their kids and that money that they’ve spent as taxpayers ought to follow their kids at whatever school they want,” argues Families Empowered’s Dippel. Her group serves over 100,000 families, mostly Black and Latino, throughout Texas. “We’re seeing that that’s what parents want and we have a lot of confidence that they are going to do the right thing.”

The three all agree – returning students to schools that historically have not performed for them, says Dippel, is not the alternative. For them, “it is an economic imperative that we come out of this with a system that works better.”

The solution for parents stuck in one of these untenable conditions, say the experts, is clear; send the money home, through microgrants, to support the education families need to deliver on their own to their kids. 

“Instead of funding the context you want, you need to fund the context you have,” Rodrigues’ group is telling Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker. “You need to step up to the plate and get money to the folks in the neighborhood who are working collectively who are working to pull resources together because that is where the impact is happening.”

Some governors have begun to do just that. In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMasters awarded $32 million from CARES Act funding in the form of microgrants, approximately $6,500 to about 5,000 students. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu awarded $1.5 million in scholarships for less advantaged parents to make choices. And Arizona Gov Doug Ducey distributed funds for innovations so that schools could develop programs to meet parents needs.

Unfortunately all of them, and more, are being challenged by groups representing the status quo, without consideration for what parents want.

Women won the right to vote 100 years ago this month, through their voice, protests and other relentless tactics. The Centennial Anniversary of Women’s suffrage is a great time to remember that women have driven a sea change in our society for every major challenge we’ve had. Perhaps it’s time they chain themselves once again to the fences outside the political gates where their witness will be cause for action.

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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.