The Teachers Union Ate My Homework

The coronavirus has shut down schools across America, and desperate parents are scrambling to ensure their children’s education doesn’t suffer. The US Department of Education could help with some guidance about how schools can move forward on remote teaching. If the feds don’t take the lead, the teachers unions will—to the detriment of students. Not every student has a laptop and Wi-Fi to study online during the shutdowns. In some districts, this inevitably has an adverse effect on poor students or children who don’t speak English as their first language. Schools fear that if they produce online lessons that not all students can access, they could lose federal funding or face litigation under the Civil Rights Act or the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. The teachers unions loathe assessments in the best of times, and now they’re claiming that the only fair recourse is to stop tracking the progress of all students until schools reopen. For students “who have no online access to teacher tutoring with visual aids, mandatory grading is essentially a guarantee that they will be left behind,” says Chicago Teachers Union spokeswoman Chris Geovanis. School administrators are accepting this argument. 

Some school boards and nonprofits are already working hard to provide laptops and Wi-Fi access to the neediest students. State and federal lawmakers could set aside funding for extra help for the kids who struggle most during the shutdowns. It’s not a perfect fix, but it’s better than bluntly concluding that fairness requires canceling everyone’s education.