Berkeley Schools Leave Every Child Behind (updated)

My family has been forced into a social experiment. One of our daughters is in second grade at a private religious school. Her twin sister, who has special needs, attends a public school. Can you guess which one went online immediately? It’s not mainly a problem of resources. The private school went online in two days with Zoom. I’m teaching all my law-school classes online. New York, the country’s biggest school system, is going online. Why not Berkeley? District officials feel that some students may not have computers to access online services, so they’d rather let everyone drown than save as many as possible and fulfill their educational mission. Starting next week Berkeley plans to post limited lesson plans online and offer students two 90-minute office-hour sessions a week. The federal government can help. It should push districts to go fully online. Teachers union contracts should be modified to permit true online learning. Charter schools, many of which have already gone online, should be expanded. And parents should demand that their schools live up to state constitutions that guarantee an appropriate public education.

[Solomon is a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley]

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