Good news: New York City started vaccinating teachers against COVID-19 on Monday. That leaves the teachers’ union no excuse to continue to oppose personal learning: classrooms at all levels must reopen so that our children can receive the education they deserve – but have lost nearly a year.
United Federation of Teachers chief Michael Mulgrew announced on Sunday that his members have been given vaccination priority, along with the elderly and transit and public security officials, after Governor Andrew Cuomo finally gave in to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plea and more in was eligible. And Blas said teachers who work in classrooms get the first time. (Although some of the 20,000 – more than one in four – who received medical exemptions to work remotely have also signed up.)
Middle and high school students haven’t seen the inside of a classroom since the city closed its schools on Nov. 19. But even that was only part-time. Preschool and primary school students resumed a ‘hybrid’ learning process last month, while children with special needs returned to class full time. Kudos to de Blasio for doing so much; children in need of special care are particularly poorly served by remote classes.
But all children must go back full time. “Without personal instruction, schools run the risk of children falling behind academically and exacerbating educational inequalities,” warned a report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine last year. Nathaniel Beers, co-author of the American Academy of Pediatrics report, explained that all children suffer from distance learning, even teenagers: “Adolescence is a time in life when you need to discover your own sense of self and develop your identity. , “he said.” It’s hard to do that when you’re at your parents’ house all the time. “
These experts stressed that children had a low risk of contracting or transmitting the coronavirus, but the UFT doesn’t care about the science – or the students. It threatened first with a lawsuit and then with a strike, only to return to work when the mayor offered new concessions, including a guarantee of no dismissal. And it has continuously pushed for schools to close again and to prevent more reopenings, with more radical factions demanding that all schools be closed until the entire city is essentially virus-free.
But as De Blasio noted last week, “The safest place to be in New York City is, of course, our public schools.” While the city’s positivity rate is climbing toward 9 percent, the schools are well below 1 percent.
With teachers in the front line for vaccinations, there’s no reason they can’t go back to work instead of teaching remotely from, as some have done, vacation spots and even the back seat of a car. The children of New York have lost nearly a year of education; it has been a long time since they have been learning in a classroom again.