The schools open-versus-closed debate has raged since the earliest days of the pandemic. Early on, there were indications that the system, which was often regarded as antiquated prior the pandemic, was ill-suited to respond to the challenge of delivering personalized education to all 56.6 million children.
As Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times puts it, “School Closures Have Failed America’s Children.” Kristof notes that as schools lowered flags to half-staff last month to commemorate 500,000 COVID-19 deaths, millions of students had not been back to their school for nearly a year.
Now, a year later, it’s time to move beyond the open-versus-closed debate centered on a false dichotomy that focuses on systems and not students.
Randi Weingarten, the leader of the American Federation for Teachers and one of the most powerful labor leaders in the country, would have parents and teachers believe that schools cannot reopen until unionized schools are better funded. Her sentiment is driven not by science but by power.
Never mind that private schools are open to in-person instruction, learning pods and microschools across America have allowed for in-person learning for millions of students, and grocery store clerks have been on the job since the beginning of the pandemic. Weingarten has used scare tactics to trump science in the pursuit of billions in additional funds. And until her demands are met, she’ll keep her members at home, and public schools will keep failing to live up to their singular promise: delivering an education to every child.
That’s why we must move beyond this debate hijacked by politics and carried on with complete disregard for students and families. We must focus on creating an education system built around the individual child. By doing so, we can come out of this pandemic with a new rallying cry for parents, students, and teachers: Keep what you like.
It’s time for parents to ignore political fights and reorient our education system around the individual needs of each student — to create a system that enables students to access what they need, to ensure every student receives a personalized education, and to allow families and students to keep what they like.
Does your child excel in learning math remotely, through Minecraft, in a pod, or without the stress of a classroom environment? Keep what you like.
Does your child enjoy learning at their own pace but miss his or her school with its spirit and rituals? Keep what you like.
As a parent, do you enjoy working with your child? Or perhaps you prefer having another teacher or adult lead his or her education? Keep what you like.
If you’re a teacher who enjoyed having more flexibility, wants to lead your own microschool, or wants to make additional cash via providers such as Outschool or Schoolhouse.world? Keep what you like.
Prior to the pandemic, 62% of people in the United States were dissatisfied with the quality of public schools. Why settle for going back? Why settle for less?
Millions of parents do not want to continue to be an at-home “teacher” and full-time employee, and millions of children miss their friends and school traditions. There’s no reason the future of education should be reduced to a false choice between open and closed.
For students, parents, and teachers to keep what they like, we need three things:
- Student-centric funding to enable families to use education funds to offset or cover expenses, whether that’s at a public school, public-home hybrid, learning pod, microschool, or a host of other solutions.
- Increased access to individualized education models such as Outschool, Schoolhouse.world, Cadence Learning, SchoolHouse, or other options.
- Public policy that enables students to receive credit for practical learning that takes place outside of school but provides the same lessons in a real-life setting.
The future of education does not have to be a re-creation of the past. It can be a transformative experience built around the individual potential and individual needs of every child because the future of education is individualized. That doesn’t mean children learning alone, but students receiving learning experiences designed to meet their specific needs.
The past year was tough on children and families. By ridding ourselves of political debates and focusing on children, we can ensure that families can keep what they like and that every student receives the education that meets his or her needs.
Matt Frendewey leads communications at yes. every kid. and previously served as a senior adviser to the secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.
