46
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
⬤ THE EDUCATION ISSUE
9.13.20
leadership and guidance. Instead, school has
been politicized. That’s a big part of what’s
wrong here.
Hannah-Jones: We clearly could use this
moment to rethink a lot of the ways that
we’ve been off ering education in this coun-
try. What if we said, ‘‘We’re not going to do
high-stakes testing anymore’’? I wish instead
of just trying to stanch the bleeding, we were
thinking bigger.
Cordova: And yet in the middle of this, I had
to do $65 million in cuts to my budget. The
intensity of need has just skyrocketed, and I
have to cut, and this is after a couple of years
of reductions already. How in the world do
we square that?
Hannah-Jones: There is no right to educa-
tion in the U.S. Constitution. But states have
their own constitutions, and many of them
mandate an equal education for our students.
And they are not doing that. Simply saying
we’re going to leave it up to every school
district to come up with its own policy on
how they’re going to ensure quality education
for their students is a total forfeiture of the
state mandate.
I think we should focus much more on the
state level than even the local and the federal
level, forcing states to provide what is neces-
sary, in terms of guidance and equipment for
all kids to have the same quality of education.
Bazelon: Susana, do you worry that public
education will come out of the pandemic
weakened? One of my fears is that parents
are going to get angry and frustrated, and that
will create a push for more vouchers and more
private school.
Cordova: I defi nitely see parents leaving for
home-schooling and parents with means
looking at private schools (although many
private schools are not necessarily taking a
bunch of new kids). I was driving into work
on Monday, our fi rst day of school, and in my
neighborhood, I saw what looked like two or
three families getting together for the tradi-
tional fi rst-day-of-school picture. They were
on the porch with three kids. And my guess
was that these are people who have decided
that they’re going to do their learning cohort
together at home. In the long term, how does
that aff ect their beliefs about where they get
their greatest supports — is it from each
other, or their own family, or is it still from
the school?
Bazelon: Should we fl ip the classroom more
often, meaning more instruction through
taped lectures — tap the star lecturers for this
— and then give teachers more time to answer
questions and help kids one on one or in small
groups, with writing or problem-solving in
math? This doesn’t really work for younger
children, I realize. But for high school and per-
haps middle school, should teachers assume
a diff erent role for remote ed?King: Some of that is happening. Great Minds
is a curriculum provider that off ers Wit & Wis-
dom and Eureka Math. Starting this spring, they
put lessons online taught by teachers on their
team as a resource for schools and families.
The idea is that teachers can use these video
lessons to introduce topics and then use their
time to work with their kids on the math tasks
or writing assignments. So yes, that’s possible.
And some wealthy private schools were already
doing some of that, so they had an easier time
making this transition.Waukesha Stem Academy, Waukesha, Wis.
Students at the middle school have been
assigned time slots to visit their lockers to
allow for social distancing.