ERN Statement: ‘Some Teaching, One Day a Week’ Utterly Fails to Meet Students’ Need for In-School Instruction
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 10, 2021)—Education Reform Now (ERN) National President Shavar Jeffries released the below statement in response to comments from The White House that the Biden administration will define school opening as “some teaching in classrooms, at least once a week.”
“We are deeply disappointed that the Biden administration has lowered the bar for school reopenings to expect the absolute minimum from our schools even after schools meet CDC guidelines. At a time when we should be working to safely return all students and educators to in-person instruction, the latest definition of ‘open’—requiring only ‘some teaching in classrooms’ once a week—betrays the cascading inequities that low-income students continue to experience each day they are out of school.
The research is clear that pandemic-induced school closures have caused students in poverty, students of color, English Learners, and students with disabilities to experience learning losses, as well as mental and psychological harms, that threaten their futures and the future of this country. The research is also clear that schools present a low risk of infection, as long as the appropriate safety protocols are implemented fairly. We need most of our children back in school most of the week as soon as possible, and the some-teaching-one-day-per-week policy moves us farther from, not closer to, this goal.”
You can read ERN’s previous statement on reopening here.
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