ENFORCE STATE RULES FOR ONLINE TEACHING

Online or in-person? How to handle public education during the coronavirus pandemic is one of the most vexing issues facing the United States. Teachers, administrators and staff need a safe workplace. But classroom instruction is better than online instruction for children and crucial for most parents earning a living, boosting the economy.

That is why President Donald Trump, Education Secretary Betsy Devos and others are pressuring states to allow reopening, noting that other nations have done so successfully. “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS,” Trump tweeted July 8, with absolutely zero acknowledgment of this problem’s complexity.

Case in point: The reopening of schools in Israel two months ago went well before taking a disastrous turn in June. Nearly 400 schools have been closed this month after more than 2,000 students, teachers and staff members contracted the coronavirus.

It’s also worth noting that nearly all the nations that reopened schools did so at time when their numbers of new coronavirus cases had dropped steadily for weeks. That’s the opposite of what is happening in the U.S. According to the COVID Tracking Project, the average daily number of new cases has been over 60,000 the past week — triple what was seen in early June. A surge in California cases is fueling this anxiety-inducing national trend.

Between the Trump administration’s bizarre decision not to mount a vigorous federal response to a national health emergency and the decisions of several governors — including California’s Gavin Newsom — to reopen their states too quickly, America’s handling of the pandemic isn’t going well.

That’s why no one should fault San Diego Unified, Los Angeles Unified or other school districts across the state for their recent decisions to abandon plans to offer some classroom education when the next semester begins in August — and why no one should question Newsom’s Friday announcement that schools in 30 other counties as well would not be able to offer in-person teaching unless their coronavirus statistics improve.

But these decisions make it vital that a schoolsrelated state law recently approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor both be heeded and strictly enforced. In response to horror stories from parents about how little their kids got done this spring, the law set up minimum standards for distance learning. Here are the most important:

Every student must have a computer and internet access.

Every teacher must interact with her or his students every day in some way.

Every school must take daily attendance. While the first requirement was a logistical nightmare for districts this spring, many more months of distance learning threatens to worsen inequities that are already too big. In Los Angeles, more than 50,000 Black and Latino middle and high school students did not regularly participate in a vital virtual classroom platform after campuses closed in March. Statewide, distance learning posed problems for poor, young and special-needs students.

Ensuring that students participate, that teachers work with them and that parents can chart progress — or setbacks — is essential to ensuring distance learning doesn’t doom today’s public school students from falling way behind in school and life.