Today, lame-duck Howard County Board of Education member Christina “DeVos” Small posted the following thoughts about the BOE’s struggle to decide on the best plan for public schooling in the fall, given the myriad of challenges involved.
She’s not wrong that virtual learning models will negatively affect dual-income and single-parent families as well as students with disabilities. However, she seems to be ignoring the plight of teachers caught in the middle – ones who have children at home, ones with medical conditions that make in-person teaching less safe, ones who simply aren’t comfortable teaching in person during a pandemic. Any in-person teaching option will require a teacher to put him/herself at risk and create a child care issue for that teacher’s kids. Ms. “DeVos” Small wants parents to have choices based on “facts and data,” but not teachers?
Here’s where she really lost me: when she said “We cannot allow fear to guide us.” I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that rhetoric before. Oh yes – it was Education Secretary Betsy DeVos herself who claimed that education leaders pushing back on reopening schools for in-person learning were “fear-mongering.”
The reason schools closed in the first place is because of a dangerous virus. That virus is still here, and there is no cure or vaccine. Why would Betsy DeVos or Christina “DeVos” Small think that doesn’t warrant concern for safety? My guess is below.
