APS reentry plan is more bad news
Studies find in-person schooling is not a significant factor in community spread
Recently, Albuquerque Public Schools published a school reentry plan that aligns with the N.M. Department of Health’s three-tier rating system.
At first glance, the news was a welcome and encouraging message of hope. A second glance, however, revealed just the opposite: Bernalillo County will be required to maintain “green” status — fewer than eight cases per 100,000 citizens — for students to return to school.
Mayor Tim Keller recently predicted that Bernalillo County would be in the “red” for the foreseeable future — at least for the next several months. Contrary to the hopeful verbiage of the APS announcement, under this school reentry plan, schools will likely stay closed for the rest of the 202021 school year and for a better part of the 2021-22 school year, even with a significant percentage of the population vaccinated against COVID-19.
Why are we keeping schools closed when international studies have revealed that in-person schooling is not a significant contributor to community spread? Why are we continuing to force parents, many of whom are without the economic means to hire tutors for their children, to seek child care while they work? How do we reconcile all of this when there’s a high correlation between school closures and mental health problems in youth?
It’s disturbing to think about the long-term economic, social and educational ramifications this restrictive policy is going to reap on our city and state. It’s also shocking to hear how much school closures are impacting our health care system, where essential hospital employees are being forced to take off work to stay home with their children to provide child care.
And all the while the message from APS has been: “We’re keeping children safe.” Safe from a virus with a death rate in children that’s almost negligible; indeed many states haven’t reported a single childhood death due to COVID-19.
Who is benefiting from this stringent re-entry criteria? I’m convinced it’s not children.