Public schools in Flint, Michigan, announced last week they would shut down in-person learning until further notice, citing rising coronavirus cases in the area. It is impossible to overstate just how damaging this decision will be to the city’s students and families.
Since the pandemic began two years ago, students in Flint Community Schools have spent less than six months in the classroom. The vast majority of these students come from low-income families (the average household income in Flint is $28,000 per year) who have had to make enormous financial sacrifices to accommodate the remote learning schedules.
“I have to be able to make a living so that I can pay for a roof over our heads so I can pay for food. And if I can’t have someone who can sit with the kids during their school hours, then I have to, so I am not going to work,” Lakia Cannon, Flint resident and mother of two, told CNN.
However, the students have suffered the most. Study after study proves remote learning has been a failure resulting in catastrophic and irreparable academic and social losses. Poor and otherwise marginalized children, such as those in Flint, are the ones who have been most affected by these learning setbacks, research shows.
One study published last summer found students nationwide fell more than a year behind in reading and mathematics. Vulnerable students fared even worse. For example, black third graders performed 15 percentile points lower on math exams in spring 2021 than they had in spring 2019. Latino students had their scores drop by 17 points, the study found. Overall, the average performance of low-income third graders moved from the 39th to the 22nd percentile nationally.
Studies on how remote learning has affected students’ mental health are even more alarming. Nearly 25% of parents whose children received virtual instruction reported worsened mental or emotional health in their children. Children nationwide are experiencing the highest rates of anxiety and depression of any demographic right now, according to a report from Mental Health America. Suicide attempts among young adolescents, particularly girls aged 12 to 17, increased by more than 50% at one point last year.
Flint’s public schools are guaranteeing a large number of their students suffer from all of these consequences and more by locking them out of the classroom indefinitely. Yet, Flint Community Schools Superintendent Kevelin Jones has remained defiant, arguing the switch to indefinite remote learning is for the students’ own good.
“We didn’t want to have our scholars out for two weeks and then, all of a sudden in the middle of a surge, we send them back to school,” Jones said. “And so we made the decision to have them out until this surge begins to decline.”
There is absolutely no justification for this cruelty. The district isn’t strapped for cash: Flint Community Schools received more than $114 million, or $27,416 per student, from the American Rescue Plan Act “to reopen its K-12 schools safely,” which means it can easily employ additional educators and substitute teachers if it needs to. And the safety of the students does not need to be a concern, either. Dozens of experts have testified that children, unvaccinated or vaccinated, are much safer from the virus than vaccinated adults just because of their age.
Any educator who still thinks of remote learning as a viable option should be considered a threat to the well-being of students and parents. Flint needs to bring its students back to the classroom immediately. This madness must end, and so must Jones’s career.
Kaylee McGhee White is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner and a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum.
