A Canadian View on the US: Education Options for September 2020

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By Jo-Ann “Jo D NL” Duke

Hi, it’s your friendly Canadian observer back again with some thoughts about the pressure that President Trump, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and certain Republican politicians are putting on the parents of school aged children in the US to send their children back to classes in their schoolrooms for the new school year.

As we all know, the next school year is to begin within a few weeks; and the president and members of his administration and several staunch supporters have been very vehement in their opinion that it is vital that children be physically present in the schools.

To them, from their own words, the idea of continuing virtual lessons for the students is not wanted or even needed; they are saying that the schools need to be open fully, not even having a combination of some days in the school and the rest of the weekdays having the children attend virtual lessons.

The idea of virtual lessons for the students, however, it seems like it is an affront to the present administration; even though the fact is the virtual lessons are a process that has been used by both students and teachers.

It was done so that all of the students before the end of the last school year could continue to keep up with their studies, assisted by both the teachers and their parents.

I cannot remember during that time that there was an outcry from the administration insisting that schools stay open, with students in full attendance until the end of the academic year.

I am confused though, since these are the same students that had been affected by the closure of the country and including their schools that had occurred just a few months ago.

The fact is that they have been using this style of education since the schools closed for the last portion of the previous school year, continuing to learn. I know that the point has been made that children have dropped out of school, or have not completed their online lessons.

Though honestly, can the president and his supporters state that all of these students would have finished and/or stayed in school, even if the schools had not closed.

I refuse to believe that there is not a percentage of students in every grade who would not have done so no matter what had or had not happened regarding the schools closing.

The truth is that every year, there are going to be students who quit school before graduation, or do not do the work that is necessary to pass onto the next grade whether there was a worldwide pandemic.

I am including the following information below that was taken from the White House Press Briefing by the Vice President and members of the Corona Task Force on July 8, 2020, from the White House’s own webpage.

The complete verbatim press briefing can be found here with the link listed below: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-briefing-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-july-8-2020/

The press briefing was opened by the Mr. Pence who stated that he wanted the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to speak about her efforts with the Department of Education, from Dr. Refield of the CDC, and some words to wrap up the briefing from the Secretary of HHS, and that they would take some questions.

At this point, Secretary DeVos took the podium and thanked the vice president for hosting the task force, and thanked him on behalf of himself and the president for their leadership for doing right by the students in the country.

She continued on to say that the day previously, that they had an insightful and inspiring talk at the White House with some local leaders as well as some great teachers and parents.

At this time, she stated that as the Second Lady had noted, that for the past few months, not surprisingly that parents had been wearing multiple hats; and indicated that they were the country’s unsung heroes, and that teachers are as well, considering that they were teaching their students while acting as parents themselves.

She also stated that Mrs. Pence had also indicated “that as we reopen businesses, such as restaurants, theaters in our country, we simply can’t leave out our schools, and that is so correct. Students can and must continue to learn full-time.”

I do not disagree that children need to continue to learn full-time; however, my concern is for the health and safety of the students and their families including family members who may be at greater risk of catching the Coronavirus and developing a more severe illness, if they are sent back to school without the proper precautions being taken.

The CDC recommendations were presented, however, it doesn’t seem like the president or his administration seem to be taking what their public health experts are recommending for the schools to be implemented so that both students, their teachers and their families are safe if and when the schools physically reopen.

Secretary DeVos continued on talking about examples of how there were some excellent examples of how well both students and teachers had used the virtual classes to continue the students’ education; and how they would be continuing it in the fall. She had mentioned both Harlem and Miami-Dade.

She spoke about how some educators in Texas that had done an excellent job of working with their students. She said that ”The International Leadership Academy in Texas started from the mindset that not learning wasn’t an option for any student”.

However, she abruptly switched to talking about some other areas of the state that she and the state school leaders were disappointed with because they had not figured out how to continue to get their students to keep learning.

In her words, too many of them had just given up. She stated that “The Center for Reinventing Public Education said that only 10 percent across the board provided any kind of real curriculum and instruction program.”

She went on to say that she had spoken to all of the state school chiefs at least once or if not more, and that she had been informed by them that while many of their districts in the various states had done well the past several months.

Secretary DeVos said,not surprisingly, that she was informed that a number of them had said that the state school leaders were very disappointed in, inferring that those districts were doing next to nothing for the students through virtual learning.

SOE DeVos also commented that the administration is seeing as they talk about reopening the nation’s schools, there are seeing some possible false paradigms for the fall; she goes on to mention Fairfax County, which could be considered as one of the most well-funded — she says, “I would call it an elite public school system in America” — that the school district had offered families a so-called “choice” for this fall: either zero days in school for their students or two days.

She continues on to say “And their springtime attempt at distance learning was a disaster. I have to — I give this as an example because things like this cannot happen again in the fall. It would fail America’s students, and it would fail taxpayers who pay high taxes for their education.”
In one regard, I would agree that to quote SOE DeVos, Ultimately, it’s not a matter of “if” schools should reopen, it’s simply a matter of “how.” However, after this statement, I cannot agree with the rest of her comments from this point forward.

Now this is my opinion, and what I interpreted as how she sees how the schools should be opened and ran for the next school year, and to be truthful, how it will be until there is a vaccine that will make it safe for everyone to return to their pre-Covid lives, if that will even be possible, because we will be after adapting to a new way of life.

From what she has stated, it can be taken as her opinion, she believes that they must fully open at the beginning of the new school year, and that all classes in all schools must take place in the actual classroom and not online, or as she puts it, “they must be fully operational”.
Though she does state that “how that happens is best left to education and community leaders”.

I am sorry, but the question that keeps repeating to me, is if the federal government, i.e., the Trump administration is demanding that all schools must be opened or their funding may be pulled, as the president has been heard to say himself?

Then shouldn’t the administration from the president ondown, be hands on with each state’s school leaders to implement a plan that will ensure every student being sent back to school will be done to guarantee the best chance of each child not contracting the virus, and possibly being the person who transmits it to their family members?

Some people seem to believe that children don’t get the virus, or if they do, then they don’t get a serious enough version of the virus, to worry what will happen when they go back to school.

And in my opinion, that is a big part of the decision, if their parents do decide to take the chance on their children’s lives that possibly they may not become infected from either an asymptomatic adult or child who they come in contact with during the long time they spend each day in class.

Correct me if I am wrong, is that not an average of seven hours each day just for classes, and that is not including any extracurricular activities; because surely if the schools are intended to be fully operational, these would have to be considered.

Wouldn’t that include everything that is considered part of the school experience such as the sports and various arts programs, and the many other activities that students take part in, etc?

Are the administration saying that they have to go to school, but only for educational classes? Are they saying that it will not actually be fully operational, because doesn’t that disagree with the concept of the schools being completely back to regular?

Also, I find that using the idea of fearmongering about the children not being safe at home really uncomfortable, by using the idea of different forms of child abuse only being able to be reported at school.

Yes, while a good number of cases may be caught this way, I am not trying to say that teachers don’t look for the signs, and help their students by reporting their concerns to the proper authorities.

However, though, if schools cannot be opened safely by September per se; can not the administration put in place a plan that would see the departments that are responsible for children’s welfare being able to check on children that they believe to be at risk, either physically or mentally.

In a lot of cases, the teachers if they had already had concerns the previous year, they would already be after alerting the proper people. If the students can’t come to the counsellor, then send the counsellors to the students.

This can be done either in person with proper precautions, or virtually, because if they cannot contact the student, then the authorities can be brought in, which would be done if they had the same concerns, and the student didn’t show up to school.

I am not disagreeing that unfortunately there are not students being abused in some form or those who have mental health concerns that need to be addressed; and this will need to be done in whatever way is possible to do so safely.

Another concern raised by the American Pediatric Association is that of nutrition for some students’ needs, well, surely the administration with their power, can issue checks to the school districts which run the nutrition program.

Once this happens, they can see that the money is distributed to the students in need through programs that can be run locally in the areas that the affected students live in, can they not? It seems like it would be a quick and efficient answer to that concern, while still keeping everyone safe and hopefully virus free.

Now onto the next comment they have made regarding students with mental health concerns. My question to those who are in charge of all of this, however, is adding in the added stress from the concern of contracting and possibly transmitting the virus?

Is this really going to help students who are already dealing with mental health concerns, could this not be the thing that would push them over the edge altogether?

I am adding some information here from the Vice President who stated that “We heard from Dr. McCance-Katz that some 7 million children in America deal with mental health issues, and the services and the counseling they receive, they receive at their schools.”

Yes, this is true, but if they are not able to go back to school in a physical classroom, if they are already receiving treatment from their school counsellors, I cannot see that their parents are going to refuse to let their child get their counselling through alternate means, if it will help their children with these issues.

My next worry is this; think about it, it says that the virus hits those who are compromised harder, so if a child is being abused, what would happen to them if the physical stress of the virus is added to their systems? Will their bodies be able to fight it off?

Also, can you guarantee that the teachers are back at the school, perhaps feeling unsafe; that they who may themselves be stressed out at the thought of possibly being infected or infecting someone; possibly one of their coworkers or their students, will they be able to see the signs they normally would, in a regular school year? Please consider this point.

I am not saying that all schools have to stay closed, if the administration can guarantee that they will be safe for the students to attend, I would be the biggest cheerleader for the students getting their lives back to normal.

People may ask why I am so insistent on this subject myself; as I am not even a parent, but I can truly say that I love my nephews and niece, they are all grown now; but I cannot bare the thought of even one parent having to watch their child fight for each and every breath they take, and that is if they are lucky enough that their child does not succumb to the virus.

I don’t believe that any parent should have to do this. This will never be an acceptable risk; the idea of their lives being changed forever, either through them getting ill.

That actually happening to them; or them having to live with the possibility of passing the illness onto more vulnerable members of their family and communities; especially the older students, who are well aware of the risks they will be facing.

It only takes one asymptomatic person to cause this to happen in a school, it could quite easily cause a cluster in or around the school; and obviously if you are not showing symptoms, then you and others you are around don’t know that you are infected.

In this instance, it becomes so the chance of the virus being transmitted is much higher, because if adults have a hard time dealing with wearing masks, practicing proper hygiene, and physical (social) distancing, then why are you expecting that school students will be able to do so more easily than many adults around the country.

Secretary DeVos quoted that “The American Academy of Pediatrics noted: Keeping schools closed “places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality.” The Pediatrics guidance concluded that everyone “should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” “Fully open” and “fully operational” means that students need a full school year or more, and it’s expected it will look different depending on where you are.”

Secretary DeVos made some good points, however, my main point of contention is however, that not one parent is arguing about the schools being open. The actual argument is about what form the education will take, as the school year begins.

Will the students be able to learn through virtual and online classes, or perhaps through a combination of the former and some actual class time would be a possible solution.

This could be done if the schools can split classes so that they can follow the CDC recommendations for students returning to actual in-school classes, having half the students attending during the morning classes, and reversing the afternoon classes with the remainder of the students.

After Secretary DeVos finished speaking, the Vice President had Dr. Redfield from the CDC speak about not wanting to keep the children and teachers from being able to get back to school; please find below, the recommendations the CDC had made regarding what they considered would be proper and safe for the teachers and students being able to the classrooms can be found at the following link: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html.

After Dr. Redfield finished speaking, the Vice President once again began to speak and he said, “And so we want to put the health and wellbeing of our kids first. And given the fact that children, as Dr. Redfield said again, do not appear to be susceptible to serious outcomes from the coronavirus, we want to put their — the totality of their health and their wellbeing forward. And that all tells us, it tells the President, it tells this task force, that means we need to get our kids back to school.”

Now people will say that children don’t get the virus the same as adults; as stated by the Vice President above; and that is true to a point. Please however, see what Dr. Birx stated during this same press briefing. She stated, “We know the mortality rate in under 25 from the CDC data is less than 0.1 percent. And so that has been holding.

But until we know how many have been infected, we have no evidence that there is significant mortality in children without coexisting diseases. And that’s what we’re looking for right now, is to really make sure we’ve unturn- — overturned every rock and understand that in deep detail.”

I have included the exact statistics for each age group under the age of 25; they can be found at the link listed below, I have broken them down by male and female, on the graph in the link where blue represents male and black represents female in millions, they are as follows:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241488/population-of-the-us-by-sex-and-age/

Male Female
Under 5 10.13 9.68
5 to 9 10.32 9.88
10 to 14 10.66 10.22
15 to 19 10.77 10.32
20 to 24 11.2 10.67

So even if we don’t count the Under 5 and the 20 to 24 age groups, the following numbers include the number of students who could develop and possibly die from the virus.

This means that .001% of 62,170,000 children (based on numbers as of July 1, 2018 so the numbers are either slightly higher or lower, not available yet) who could possibly die from Covid-19 could be up to 62,170 American children.

I have also done up the calculations of including the Under 5 and the 20 to 24 age groups, because many children under 5 attend preschool, and many students are attending college in the 20 to 24 age group, either their undergraduate or higher degrees, or they may be out working, and living their lives as we had all done in the past.

Based on the same calculations as stated above: that means that .001% of 103,850,000 children including young adults (based on numbers as of July 1, 2018 so the numbers are either slightly higher or lower, not available yet) included in all of these age ranges, that gives you the number of 103,850 American children and young adults who could possibly die from Covid-19.

My last thoughts on this subject is a question for all the parents of school and college aged kids, is this an acceptable risk for you and your children, and other family members willing to take on the chance that they won’t get sick?

Are you willing to send them back to school, college or work with this possible risk facing them; is it something you feel safe doing? Obviously, this is a decision that every family must make for themselves.

I hate the thought of all the parents who are affected by this choice at this moment in time, having to face and figure out their answer on how they will deal with their children’s education going forward.

I truly do wish each and every one of you the best in having to work through this decision process in the next few weeks.

Well, once again I am signing off from Canada, sincerely wishing all of my American friends the best, both old and new, and much love.

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