It’s time to have an open conversation about families’ need for a safe place for children to stay during the day while parents work and the role of public education in reopening the Hawaiian economy.
The reopening of schools on August 4th is a misguided rush to failure. The number of pandemics has not improved since security concerns closed schools in March, and our schools have not been given enough time and resources to prepare. We are putting our community’s children and educators at great risk by asking them to return to classrooms with convection and make masks optional.
Hawaii, as the first country in the country to reopen schools, shouldn’t be a priority. This will not be a badge of honor; it will be a disaster. Our priority must be to open a sustainable and fair school system for every child in the country.
As a community, we would benefit from a wider discussion, involving more stakeholders, to help resolve this nationwide problem. Can other agencies – such as government agencies, corporations, or non-profit organizations – help provide our students with a safe place with internet access? Can companies close the gaps in personal protective equipment (PPE), internet access, laptops, etc.?
We need a state-level political conversation that puts the security of our community first.
The Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) had the summer to carefully plan the reopening to provide direct support to schools, but many critical questions about equity and access remain unanswered. Recently, top-down leadership gave school principals a list of only three options for reopening, with no 100% virtual option, with only two weeks to plan, and no extra money to make it happen, despite the cost of additional infrastructure and detergents and PPE.
If we truly believe that the role of our public schools is education, then there are better ways to educate students with online options that don’t compromise the safety of children and staff. It is almost impossible to keep a safe 6 foot distance in a room full of first graders, and teachers will surely spend a lot of time monitoring kids to tell them apart.
In addition, state health officials are not discussing children spending a day at school without being allowed to interact normally with their peers.
Even with the reopening, schools are not meeting the critical need to supervise children on a daily basis, as most schools will combine face-to-face and distance learning when teaching resumes. Parents still need child care three to four days a week. While some students are armed with distance learning, others lack the most basic materials. These disenfranchised children will be hardest hit.
There are many successful models of education that do not require students in a classroom. School principals and teachers should have the freedom to design school programs that best suit their school. The DOE should strengthen and support them, not let them down.
School principals work tirelessly with minimal guidance and few resources, and staff work hard to keep children and educators safe while providing a meaningful learning experience. Teachers fear contributing to an outbreak during school hours and expect possible vacation time as an easy fix to government budget cuts.
We don’t have to rush to failure! We have to ask the legislature and the State Department of Education (BOE) to wait with the reopening of schools and classroom teaching. help from Submit a written certificate online before the next BOE meeting on Thursday (reference agenda item VI-D; testimonies are due by Wednesday noon).
