When the Covid-19 tide rolled in, it covered a great many flaws in our educational system including:
- A poor state of repairs (crumbling floor tiles, leaky roofs, etc.)
- A lack of air conditioning and adequate heating
- Lack of nurses, psychologists, and social workers in schools According to the National Association of School Nurses, 25 percent of schools do not employ a nurse, while 35 percent employ part-time nurses . Aug 26, 2020
- Multi-tiered funding of schools (low-income versus high income schools, staffing inner-city versus suburban, rural versus suburban)
- Access to mental health professionals and programs
- Availability of electronics (computers, Ipads, Chrome Books)
- Age of school buildings (The National Center for Educational Statistics has written:
- In 1998, the average public school building in the United States was 42 years old. The mean age ranged from 46 years in the Northeast and Central states to 37 years in the Southeast. About one-fourth (28 percent) of all public schools were built before 1950, and 45 percent of all public schools were built between 1950 and 1969 (table 1).Seventeen percent of public schools were built between 1970 and 1984, and 10 percent were built after 1985. The increase in the construction of schools between 1950 and 1969 corresponds to the years during which the Baby Boom generation was going to school. America’s oldest schools have a higher proportion of children in poverty). Of schools with less than 20 percent of children eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, 20 percent were built before 1950. In contrast, of schools with 20 to 49 percent and 50 percent or more children eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, 29 percent and 34 percent were built before 1950. The age of a school and its size are also related. While 40 percent of small schools (enrollments of less than 300) were built before 1950, 23 percent of large schools (enrollments of 1,000 or more) were built before 1950.
If you have children or grandchildren in schools, you may know about this. When the virus recedes, what will be revealed?
We have the capacity to fix this, what we lack is the will.