Children throughout the mid-Atlantic enjoyed their first snow day of the year Monday, and most are set to head back for much-needed in-person schooling today. Unfortunately, students in many counties throughout the country will not be as lucky, as school administrators have caved to teacher union pressure, forcing a return to virtual learning, again.
Just over two weeks ago, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was given a glowing profile in the New York Times, one that tried to recast her as a “fighter” for keeping schools open, not an enforcer for teacher union demands to shut down in-person learning. This Sunday, however, Weingarten was on Twitter justifying teacher demands to “temporarily” return to remote instruction while omicron surges.
Students in major school districts in Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Wisconsin will all begin at least one week of online learning this week, a situation that we all know from previous waves of COVID can easily be extended.
The damage from long-term bouts of online learning is well known by now. In addition to the loss of academic competencies, many students also suffer from deteriorating mental and emotional health conditions. But new research also shows that even short-term online learning leads to academic setbacks, lower test scores, and lower attendance. And it is the most vulnerable students that suffer the most from the lack of in-person instruction.
Not all decision-makers are giving in to teachers union demands. In New York City, United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew told new Mayor Eric Adams that New York City schools should “go remote for at least a couple of days, because we need to really figure out where we’re at in staffing capacity.”
“Teachers are informing us, um, that they cannot come in. Their child tested positive. They tested positive. We’ve seen COVID over the holidays that we never saw before,” Mulgrew said.
Adams was having none of it. “The stats are clear. The safest place for children is inside a school. The numbers of transmissions are low,” Adams told a local television station. “COVID is a formidable opponent, and it continues to evolve, and we must pivot and evolve with it, but you can’t do it viewing yourself from within the crisis. We have to see ourselves past the crisis.”
Notice the different focus between the union president elected by union members and the mayor elected by parents. The man representing the teachers only talks about what he thinks is best for teachers. The mayor representing everybody focuses on what is best for the children.
Most teachers do fantastic work when they are in the classroom, and their continued professional satisfaction is absolutely essential to a functioning education system. But our school system wasn’t created to employ teachers and make them happy. We build and fund schools to educate children, and their education should always be our top priority.
For far too long, Democrats have gotten away with equating the needs and wants of teachers unions with the best policies that support children who need an education. COVID has brought the divergence of interests between these two groups into sharp contrast. Voters would be well to remember this distinction as COVID becomes (we hope) a distant memory.
