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Every morning he gets up, takes the dogs out, gets dressed and embarks for school, in person. The private school music department head teaches 300+ students every day. So far, since September, there have been fewer than 10 reported cases among students in the whole school of just over 600. He’s not sick, nor has he been. 

My husband is one of thousands of educators following their same patterns who since prior to March have continued to provide education and care to millions of students around the country. 

In September, the Charter Growth Fund reported that IDEA Public Schools “offered in-person learning five days a week in two regions after extensive engagement with staff and families in those regions.” Across the Permian Basin, nearly 75% of families wanted in-person learning. Now, all IDEA schools across Texas and Louisiana are offering an in-person learning option.

Purdue Polytechnic in Indianapolis opened in person and “had about 10 staff and 25 students quarantine with symptoms, but no confirmed cases. ‘We have said that we will have positive cases at some point in time, and we will follow the plan and not panic and close down,’ said its Director Scott Bess.” Its “Safe Reopening Plan” allows week to week evaluations of what’s best for students. But never did they dream of staying home until all risk was out of the way.

Miami-Dade is the fourth largest school district in the country and fully reopened. “Here in Miami-Dade, we see a greater adherence to protocols in schools — because it is a controlled, safe environment — than we see those same protocols being followed in their community in general, whether we’re talking about the bars and restaurants at the beach or social gatherings,” said Miami-Dade schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

The Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional School District in New Jersey has been open fully since October, starting with a “hybrid schedule in early September, and running fully in-person five days a week since Oct. 19. The district “is still ticking,” even with a few positive cases reported on a monthly basis, according to Superintendent Dario Sforza.” “Schools are safe places and we’ve proven that,” Sforza told New Jersey 101.5. “With each case, we don’t act compulsively.” In St. Louis, where the 7-day average for new COVID cases hovers above 1,500 a day,  opened charter schools are drawing students from closed inner city public schools that have long been failing.  Hyde Park’s Clay Elementary School will shut down this summer after dropping below 100 student enrollment. One-half mile away, just 89 students attend The Arch Community charter school. At least two new charter schools plan to open in fall of 2022 to serve the same 63107 ZIP code, with a third planning to launch there two years later. 

Following months of most schools remaining open through a severe second wave of coronavirus outbreaks in Europe, the data is largely suggesting that classrooms have typically not been the culprit as centers of virus transmission. 

So why must parents fight for schools to reopen when there is ample evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that it’s safe?

The majority of private schools, both abroad and in the States, have been open for in-person learning, along with hundreds of charter schools across the country, independent of  district administration  to manage or support them in any way. Yet, these schools are continuing to educate kids successfully, and keeping the student body—and the faculty— safe.

But most public systems remain closed. Why? What separates them from the privates, the charters, the innovative schools and organizations who are bucking the odds? Well for starters, individual private schools and charters are making decisions locally, independently, without the bureaucracy or interests of unions and education groups to interfere.

Second, they are making decisions based on their actual students, who often but not always live within miles of the school, rather than making decisions based on whole districts that take up hundreds of acres and sprawl across entire cities.

Those districts are responsible for driving student academic, social and mental health into a potential unwinnable spiral – not because they caused Covid, but because they refuse to deal with the virus, preferring a guarantee of no infection to showing up on the job. That’s the headline of a recent Associated Press story, which confirmed the worse – that even now, after the billions in federal and state money have flowed and increased to schools to create safety precautions, districts are warning they still not be open this fall, and some are saying not until the virus is “eradicated!”

The fact that teachers all over the country are showing up to work safely doesn’t seem to enter into any decision making. “My children have been in school all year here in Omaha,” wrote one parent. “If a single teacher died or even had a severely negative covid hospitalization due to in-person teaching it would not only be a local news story but would be national headlines. There have been none. That is a fact.”

Imagine the nurse or doctor or essential grocery worker who simply chooses not to go to work, despite safety precautions that their employers have taken, for fear that they will still get sick. Some do, most don’t. Those that do get fired. And that’s precisely how we should expect schools to operate.

First, each school should be opened to its zoned community, with already approved, and executed precautions and safety procedures in place, with parents and teachers, not unions and superintendents deciding whether it’s safe, on an individual basis, not closing the entire school district. If teachers are unable or unwilling to be on site, the school itself – not the district- should have the flexibility to hire other personnel or buy instructional services from the myriad of digital learning providers who have filled the gap during the pandemic, from Edmentum, to StrideLearning to microschool provider Prenda.

Second, any parent still deeply concerned about their children’s educational and physical health or without access to viable in-person schooling should be given $3,000 from the state’s budget to spend on the education they prefer in any venue of their choosing. Doing so not only pays for a full-time microschool, or curriculum, or nearly half of any private school, but it’s likely that many community institutions would find ways to give those students access to buildings with guides, tutors or instructors.  

States that claim not to have the resources should make immediate plans to utilize the $130 billion that is coming next from Washington. The current proposal would  allow districts to “set aside at least 20 percent of their allocation of funding to address learning loss during the pandemic.” If the federal government, and its special interest concerns move to forbid it, states should do it anyway and challenge consequences in court.

During this time of unparalleled international crisis, education must be treated as an issue of national security. We must no longer permit students to continue to lose ground in learning, especially when the tools, resources and practices to fight the battle for successful education are already in proven deployment throughout the nation.