Right way to reopen our schools
There is a powerful argument to be made for reopening schools, the most essential of the services closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic, in spite of their potential to spread the contagion. You won’t, of course, get it from President Trump, who has threatened to defund districts that don’t reopen and is bullying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into weakening school safety guidelines. These are just his latest crude appeals to anyone still foolish enough to pretend the virus doesn’t exist.
For the rest of us, there’s the American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently made a more considered, convincing and nuanced case for opening schools this fall for the sake of children’s education, health and wellbeing. “The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school,” the group’s statement said.
Children in the Bay Area and beyond depend on schools not just for education and socialization but also for meals, exercise, and health and social services. Some face abuse at home that is more likely to remain hidden as long as they are isolated. In that light, as the academy noted, school closures threaten to become a major public health problem in their own right.
Moreover, much of our economy depends on the supervision schools provide. Many parents simply can’t do their jobs as long as their children aren’t in school. Others are forced to work at home, care for their children and attempt to maintain a semblance of sanity all at once.
Given the schools’ importance and the shortcomings of online alternatives, we should strive to open them before we rush back into bars, gyms, churches and other similarly risky venues.
That said, schools are efficient propagators of respiratory and other illnesses. Fortunately, the coronavirus rarely causes serious disease in children. But while there is some evidence that children are less likely to catch and transmit the pathogen, it is not conclusive. Opening schools therefore carries serious risks of accelerating the pandemic among children, teachers and staff, parents and guardians, and the broader community.
Schools should be ready to close or delay opening in communities where infections are surging. And districts must mitigate the risks as much as possible with distancing, masks, staggered schedules, smaller class sizes, outdoor learning, added sanitation, and testing and tracing.
That is the hard part. The Chronicle reported last week that San Francisco schools are unlikely to reopen on schedule next month because of funding and logistical challenges. Los Angeles County’s top health official cast doubt on the prospect of a fall start there. And Gov. Gavin Newsom said he wouldn’t be pushed toward reopening schools by the president’s “latest tweets.”
What’s clear from this blurry picture is that schools will need more funding and guidance from federal and state officials, not inconsistent messages and fiscal ultimatums, to restore one of our most essential services.