Unhappy with remote learning and the toll it has taken on their students’ academic development, parents across the country are pulling out all the stops to pressure public schools into reopening.
Hundreds of Los Angeles parents participated in a Zoom blackout on Monday during school hours to show teachers and administrators just how serious they are about getting their children back into a classroom. A flyer for the protest said that parents would keep their children offline for as many days as it takes or until the city reaches a deal with the teachers union.
If the union’s recent demands are any indication, parents could be waiting until fall of next year.
But in other cities, coordinated efforts by parents to reopen the public school system have worked. In New York, for example, parents successfully convinced Mayor Bill de Blasio to allow elementary students back into the classrooms on a hybrid basis after he tried to shut the system down in November. Dozens of parents gathered outside City Hall to protest, and tens of thousands signed an online petition demanding de Blasio to keep the city’s schools open.
A few days later, de Blasio announced that the city’s public schools would reopen. New York’s parents succeeded in part because de Blasio, to his credit, was always partial toward keeping schools open. But it didn’t hurt that they realized what many New Yorkers have discovered over the past few years: De Blasio, like the tall, lanky man he is, blows wherever the wind wills. All he needs is a push.
But de Blasio wasn’t the only one swayed. Chicago officials also found a surprising bit of courage after frustrated parents pointed out how devastating school closures have been for minority and underserved communities. Parents on Chicago’s West Side organized a protest, called distance learning a “hate crime,” and accused city officials of contributing to disinvestment and crime in low-income neighborhoods. The phrase “hate crime” was enough for Chicago’s leaders to realize that they better reach a deal with the city’s teachers union, or they’d lose the moral high ground and an entire group of constituents to boot. Politicians, man — they’re so predictable.
I can’t help but wonder why parents didn’t organize sooner. It’s not as if distance learning suddenly stopped working; it never worked in the first place. Maybe parents were holding out hope that the public school system would do the right thing. Or maybe it took the realization that they’d be stuck at home with stir-crazy children who can’t be bothered to focus on a computer screen for another year if they didn’t do something now.
Whatever the motivation, we should all be glad the parents are rallying. Because when they do, cities have no choice but to listen.
