The coronavirus, it seems, is disproportionately harming poorer people in the United States. That’s no surprise, since poorer people will have inferior healthcare and find it hard to socially distance.
Those are the threats from the virus itself. There’s also a threat from our efforts to fight the virus.
Most importantly, working-class folks are less likely to have jobs that can be done remotely. So, the income loss will be much heavier at lower incomes.
Education is another arena where the lockdowns will disproportionately hit the poor and working class. Better funded public schools and private schools will be better at implementing distance learning than more struggling schools will be. Also, working-class families will have a harder time keeping up with the duties of semi-homeschooling — for many reasons.
Poorer parents are more likely to be single parents, making it harder to stay on top of their children’s assignments. Poorer parents are more likely to have English as a second language. Poorer parents are more likely to be less educated themselves and less likely to have adequate computers and other devices for all of their children.
It’s unsurprising, then that poorer parents are much more likely than middle-class or wealthier parents to worry their kids will fall behind. That’s the finding of a new Pew Research Center survey.
A full 41% of lower-income parents “are very concerned about their children falling behind in school” because of school closures. It’s about half that rate for wealthier respondents.
So, as we debate whether to reopen schools this spring or right away in the fall, we should consider that the inconvenience of closed schools are greater for some rather than for others.
