Detroit Progressives Pushing School Closures Don’t Care About Black Students – Opinion

I doubt that anyone has not noticed that those who are loudest about their concern for the well-being of African Americans tend to cause them the greatest harm. It has been proven time and again by progressives. It has been more severe than expected in this case.

The Detroit Free PressLily Altavena, an author of a recent piece on school closings and their disproportionately harmful effects on black students published it. She writes in the article:

The students learning from home — or not at all — this week in major Michigan school districts are more likely to be Black.

According to Detroit Free Press, the major Michigan schools that have decided to close in-person classes for this year are serving higher numbers of students of colour, especially Black students.

She also noted that schools are still open in most white districts. She said:

Other major areas, such as Utica Community Schools where 83% are from 25,000 students, and Plymouth Canton Community Schools where 66% are from 16,000 students, were reopened on Monday for instruction in person.

The article notes that “unlike in the beginning of the pandemic when the state dictated widespread shutdowns, individual districts for more than a year now have been left to decide when to close,” and this has led to “disruptive starts and stops to in-person school,” while others have remained open more consistently.

Altavena says that the increasing number of coronavirus-related cases, and consequent staff shortages has contributed to school closures. “School leaders including Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said they have little choice but to shutter as infection rates increase, particularly in Detroit where the infection rate of people who have been tested is 36%. Vaccination rates in the city also lag compared with other big cities,” she writes.

Although some schools are open to the idea of inconsistency opening and closing schools, other parents have criticized the practice, citing its negative effect on children. According to one mother, the practice has a negative impact on children. Detroit Free PressThe frequent interruptions caused by virtual school have been a major problem. Virtual school doesn’t offer much in terms of learning.

“I don’t even know what he doesn’t know at this point, because he’s been virtual since the end of seventh grade,” she said. “More than he’s been in school.”

Black students are more at risk in Detroit and Lansing. Altavena says:

Detroit (with nearly 50,000 students) and Lansing (with 10,000 students), are both large districts in which students of color comprise the majority of the student body. About 17,000 students attend Ann Arbor Public Schools — about half of the students in that district are students of color while the other half are white.

Vitti claimed that the many closures were caused by people failing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In essence, he was saying if black parents are tired of frequent disruptions in their children’s education, they need to take the jab.

NBC News reported that the same thing is occurring all across the United States. Numerous school closings cause academically challenged minority students to drop behind. According to the report:

NWEA (formerly Northwest Evaluation Association) has released the latest report. It analyzed nearly 4.4 Million U.S. student grades 3-8 this fall. The results showed that many students scored below average in math and was 5-10 percentiles behind those who had taken the test the previous year.

While a majority of students did better than expected in reading — scoring at levels similar to typical nonpandemic years — this wasn’t true for Black and Hispanic students and those who attend high-poverty schools. These groups saw slight decreases which indicates that there were some educational disparities in the past. This could have led to children being further behind white, more educated peers.

The report also noted how another testing organization found that “Black, Hispanic and Native American students, as well as rural students and those who attend schools that serve high-poverty populations, lost more ground than students with more advantages.”

McKinsey & Co. conducted a national analysis of this matter and found that students were four months behind in reading and five months behind in math at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. It also showed that 35 percent of parents were “very or extremely concerned” for their child’s mental health.

School closures aren’t only affecting students academically – they are also having a detrimental impact on students’ mental health. A study published by the JAMA Network, a medical journal, concluded that “a small association between school closures and worse child mental health outcomes was observed, with older children and children from families with lower income experiencing more mental health problems associated with school closures.”

The study also noted that students “from families with lower income and those belonging to minority racial/ethnic groups were most likely to experience school closures.”

This article was also concluding:

These findings suggest that students who live far from their families may have more difficulty with mental health because they are older, Black, or Hispanic than children from higher income families. In order to ensure that every student has access to mental health and education resources, it is a top priority in public health.

This situation is made worse by the fact that scientists have not found any scientific proof that schools are high-spreaders for the COVID-19virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that “[c]Children and adolescents infected by SARS/CoV-2, as well as adults, are less likely to develop symptoms or experience milder, non-specific symptoms. headache, sore throat)” and that “[c]hildren are less likely to develop severe illness or die from COVID-19.”

New York City found that there was a very low rate of infectivity among staff and students when it reopened its schools. They tested 15,111 students and staff and found only 18 infected people. This included 13 students and five staff.

The following year: AtlanticA heavily data-driven article proving that schools don’t spread too much was published, to some consternation from those on the right. “We are starting to get an evidence-based picture of how school reopenings and remote learning are going (those photos of hallways don’t count), and the evidence is pointing in one direction. Schools do not, in fact, appear to be major spreaders of COVID-19,” the author wrote.

It is clear that progressives do not care how the pandemic affects black students. It is clear that these frequent interruptions in the students’ education are not necessary, given that children are far less likely to be impacted by the pandemic – especially if the schools are taking appropriate precautions while children are learning.

The fact that folks like Vitti are willing to hold people’s childrens’ education hostage to coerce them to get vaccinated shows how political this issue has become. Moreover, the reality that predominantly white schools are not being shuttered demonstrates that perhaps progressives don’t care as much about racism as they claim – they are preventing black and brown children from receiving the education they deserve because they want to keep selling vaccines.

None of it is shocking. Like most policies and programs, progressives continue to demonstrate that their main goal is to use black Americans for more power. What is the problem?