What they wish we did not know

While speculation of miracle cures continue to pepper COVID-19 news coverage, the facts surrounding the global pandemic in this, its fifth month, are very clear. They are clear because they are so few.

• COVID-19 is highly contagious, and no one is immune to infection.
• Symptoms can range from mild to fatal.
• Face masks and social distancing are our best tools to protect ourselves and each other.
• The pandemic is growing in intensity, particularly in areas where restrictions to limit social gatherings to slow rates of infection have eased.

When the White House made their will known, that schools were to be open for business, parents and teachers were faced with an ominous countdown to September, unable to reconcile why the President seemed dead set on sending kids back into classrooms while adults were being advised to stay at home.

So determined is the White House, they’ve pinned emergency school funding to the physical reopening of schools across the country.

All parents and teachers are very aware of the harm visited upon students as they shelter-at-home, unable to play with their friends, and connect with their teachers in classroom settings. They understood what losing the last academic year meant—just as we all know that there’s a risk kids will lose out again this year.

But parents know keeping their children safe trumps all other concerns so their rigorous opposition to districts re-opening, typically in a hybrid of virtual and in-person model, was wide and resounding.

PCCY testified to the Philly Board along with educators, parents, and students in a marathon meeting that lasted 8 hours last week. Ultimately, the District couldn’t ignore what they knew to be true, that the health of all students was the bottom line we all shared. Besides, if the president’s own son is staying home in September, so should our kids.

It is hard to imagine the pressures Philadelphia’s superintendent William Hite was under, or the number of directions in which he was being pulled. During his tenure at the District, he’s made tremendous strides for our students and the quality of their education, but they’ve never needed his leadership more than this past week—and he delivered, shifting from the proposed hybrid approach to a fully virtual one, vowing structured days and connectivity for all students.

Districts are listening to their communities, and now so must Washington.

Economic recovery or rebound? It’s a concern for all of us, but if they were serious, we’d already be moving on saving child care, and struggling families who have lost their income would have had that $600 benefit renewed. The only thing that is rebounding is the pandemic.

This Administration and the federal government know better—at this point, it doesn’t matter why they pretend they don’t, it only matters that they act on what’s in the best interest of children, families, teachers, and the nation.

Districts should be commended, not penalized, for putting safety first, not only of their students but of their communities at large, to prevent schools from becoming hubs of illness.

What we need is to invest in resources and training to improve online instruction until it is safe for children to return to class, just as we need the U.S. Senate to return to work and pass the Child Care is Essential Act to protect our vital child care providers. That’s how the federal government must help and that’s the message we’re asking you to send to the U.S. Senate.

Tell Senators Pat Toomey and Bob Casey that our children need their voices and leadership now more than ever.

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