Do teachers have a point?

Do Teachers Unions Have a Point?

 

Teachers unions have come out strongly against schools opening up again for in-school learning, even part time in some sort of hybrid approach.   A recent newspaper article quoted the superintendent for Catholic education in the Baltimore region as saying that Catholic schools would open full time because it was in the best interest of the students.

The teachers’ unions are saying that schools are not safe for teachers.   These concerns need to be considered in light of the fact that the teachers in the unions teach in public schools not private ones, whether parochial or private non-sectarian.   However, it is interesting to note that the unions are mainly addressing concerns about teacher safety not about best interests of kids.

Articles about health care professionals who have continually gone into the hospitals and other medical facilities have repeatedly said they do so because that is what they signed up to do- take care of the sick.  And they understand that in doing so they are putting themselves at risk.

Teachers have signed up to provide an education for children.   Granted they did not sign up to put themselves at a health risk but they did sign up to teach.   Everyone knows that online learning is an oxymoron.   Many kids don’t have the facilities to get online and most people agree there was very little learning that was occurring.  The American Pediatric Association has said that kids are more damaged by not being in-school than the risk to their health in school, providing health care measures are taken. 

The question becomes just how great is the health risk to teachers who would return part-time to a school building?   As of this writing, Maryland has had 3493 people die of the Covid 19 virus.   Of that number 57% were the elderly who were in nursing homes.  It is probably fair to assume that an individual in a nursing home had some pre-existing medical condition that caused them to need a nursing home even before the virus.  That means 1493 people have died in Maryland from the virus who were not already in compromised health in a nursing home.   

These numbers beg the question of how great is the risk to classroom teachers?  Being sick with the virus ranges from bad to really  bad.   No one wants that for teachers, for kids or for any one.  

Teaching online takes a lot less time than being in a classroom.  A chunk of the learning is canned and requires little to no preparation.   Do teachers really have a legitimate health risk if they go into a school building part-time?  How many of those same teachers have traveled or vacationed in another higher risk state this summer?  Do teachers’ unions have a point?   Or are their members less committed to their commitment to teach than are health care workers to their commitment to keep us well.  It’s a good question.