Don’t let the pandemic create a ‘Lost Generation’

COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Kern County are surging. The state has imposed strict new rules to curb the spread. And many of Kern’s roughly 50 school districts are once again ending in-person classroom instruction and shifting to “distance learning.”

It’s disappointing that after more than nine months of this pandemic that we are no better off — and likely headed to much worse.

For many reasons — including pandemic denial and pandemic fatigue, which has caused many people to drop their vigilance and stop following basic CDC guidelines, such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing — we in Kern County, California and across the nation are in a world of hurt.

And as cases are expected to soon overwhelm hospitals’ ability to care for COVID-19 victims, Gov. Gavin Newsom sounded the alarm this month. He ordered the shutdown of many nonessential businesses and instructed Californians to stay home until at least the beginning of the new year.

However, school districts were given the option of deciding to offer in-person to some grades or exclusively distance learning classes. Depending on contagion in individual communities and within individual school sites, and depending on the ability to staff schools, as more teachers are exposed to the coronavirus and quarantined, many school districts have struggled to keep their doors open to students.

But just recently, we have seen the large Bakersfield City School District and Kern High School District, among many other Kern County school districts, reverse course and return to the distance learning imposed at the onset of the pandemic in March.

These cautious and necessary decisions come at a cost. An increasing number of studies, including one recently released by McKinsey & Co., a New York-based international management consulting firm, have found millions of children are falling behind academically as a result of distance learning. The greatest declines are in students of color and those in high-poverty communities.

It’s not that educators are failing our students. Quite the contrary. Our teachers are working harder and longer hours as they struggle to adapt an already challenging job to a technology-challenged learning environment.

Just some of the challenges that educators face are inadequate internet systems to support online learning; students’ home environments that are distracting and often not conducive to learning; and lack of student motivation and a high absentee rate.

Necessity is called the mother of invention. And teachers have been very inventive in reaching out to their students during these trying times.

They are spending their non-teaching time calling students who are struggling, or who have simply disappeared. They are recording Zoom classes, or creating YouTube videos for students unable to attend scheduled online classes. Teachers, schools and parents have formed support groups to tutor struggling students.

But still, studies reveal that many school districts are noting a sharp increase in failing grades in critical subjects, such as English and math. Common Application, a portal that students can use to apply to more than 800 member colleges and universities across the U.S. and overseas, reports a steep decline in applications this fall. Federal college student aid applications have declined 16 percent. The largest declines were in Hispanic and low-income students.

Many educators and researchers are calling today’s pandemic-plagued students a “Lost Generation.” We cannot allow that to happen.

Trying their best to reach and teach Kern’s students, the entire burden cannot be placed on educators.

We all must realize the cost of failing students to their futures and the nation’s.

The problems will not magically disappear with the arrival of a vaccine. Much must be done to rescue our “Lost Generation” of students.

We all must recognize the challenge that looms. It will require a commitment in effort and resources, including money to fund such programs as high-intensity tutoring, summer academic academies and outreach.

We simply cannot afford to leave our children behind.