Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

AP writer Kantele Franko reports that public schools in Kansas are facing staffing challenges because staff members are sidelined due to the contracting of and exposure to COVID. This reality is one of the reasons I ultimately changed my thinking about beginning with even a partial re-opening. While it would make sense epidemiologically to open all schools serving children up to age 12 it could pose a nightmare if a particular district did not have sufficient qualified staff to educate children in socially distanced classrooms. That, in turn, could lead to even more inequities than we are encountering now. I was also afraid that what HAS happened— an expanded breakout due to colder weather– COULD happen which would lead to yet another reversal from the parents’ perspective.

Unfortunately, rather than committing to the provision of the best possible remote learning programs, many of the districts and States facing staffing challenges are instead asking that the quarantine rules be changed. I’m not an epidemiologist… but it strikes me that COVID thus far has not changed its pattern of transmission to make life easier for school administrators, teachers, or parents. It may be wishful thinking to believe that shortening the quarantine period is a solution.