The Economist - USA (2022-01-15)

24 United States The Economist January 15th 2022

tion had many serious consequences. 

Remote  classes  led  to  a  huge  learning

loss. According to nwea, an education­re­

search  firm,  pupil  achievement  declined

by 3­7 percentile points in reading and 9­11

points  in  maths  by  the  end  of  the  2020­21

school  year.  McKinsey,  a  consulting  firm,

estimates pupils lost four to five months of

learning that year. The Journal of the Amer-

ican Medical Associationreports that pupils

engaging in remote learning also had more

mental­health  difficulties  than  children

attending school in person.

The  evidence  on  the  health  risks  in

schools is mixed. A study published in Oc­

tober  in  Proceedings of the National Acad-

emy of Sciences found that American coun­

ties that opened schools saw an increase in

the growth rate of cases of five percentage

points  on  average.  Another  study,  pub­

lished  in  April  by  the  American  Academy

of Paediatrics, found that opening schools

in North Carolina led to little virus spread.

The  authors  credit  the  schools’  public­

health  measures,  including  daily  screen­

ing  and  mask­wearing  for  pupils  and

adults, for minimising the impact.

In­person  learning  is  better  for  many

pupils, and vaccines have lowered the risk.

But  vaccination  rates  lag  in  America,  par­

ticularly  among  the  young:  73%  of  adults

are fully vaccinated compared with 53% of

12­  to  17­year­olds.  Only  25%  of  five­  to  11­

year­olds  have  received  at  least  one  dose

since they became eligible in November.

School  leaders  could  encourage  vacci­

nation  by  giving  families  information  on

how  to  get  it  or  by  hosting  clinics.  They

could  consider  mandates  similar  to  the

current  vaccination  requirements  for

childhood  diseases  in  all  50  states.  Fre­

quent testing could also support a safer en­

vironment,  but  America  has  struggled  to

provide  enough  kits.  The  Biden  adminis­

tration  promised  to  make  200m  at­home

tests  available  a  month  by  the  end  of  De­

cember, but it has failed to do so (on Janu­

ary 12th it pledged to more than double the

number  of  tests  available  to  schools,  with

an extra 10m a month). Families are strug­

gling to find testing in their communities,

says  Tracie  Sanlin,  ceoof  Chicago  Colle­

giate,  a  charter  school  in  Chicago.  She

plans to provide free testing on campus.

Research on the general public shows a

clear  link  between  masking  and  dimin­

ished covid spread. Yet four states, includ­

ing  Florida  and  Texas,  have  implemented

mask  bans  for  schools.  In  Florida  eight

school districts defied the rule, resulting in

a  loss  of  state  funding.  Legal  challenges

have been unsuccessful in Florida but oth­

ers  have  prevailed.  Mr  Hinojosa’s  school

district  is  one  of  several  in  Texas  that  re­

sisted  the  state’s  executive  order  against

mask mandates. A federal judge ordered a

halt to the enforcement of the ban, allow­

ing the districts to insist on masks.

Anotherconcernisasubstitute­staff­

ing shortfall driven by overall teacher

shortages. MsSanlinhopedtoopenher

schoollastweek,butshedecidedtoswitch

toremotelearningwhen40%ofherstaff

testedpositiveoverthewinterbreak.“IfI

only have 60% ofmy staff, thatmeans

gradelevelsarecollapsed,”sheexplains.

“Wewouldhavebeenbaby­sitters.Where­

asbychoosingtogoremote,wecanteach

ourkidsandactuallycangetsomeschool­

workdone.”Asa charteracademy,MsSan­

lin’sschoolwasnothamperedbythenego­

tiationsbetweentheteachers’unionand

theschooldistrict.It returnedtoin­person

learningonJanuary10th.

The union in Chicago claimed that

mitigationmeasures,suchastesting,had

notbeenproperlyimplemented.Itsteach­

ersrefusedtoreturnuntiltheirconcerns

wereaddressed.Thecity’smayorrejected

thisclaim.Pupilsandtheirfamilieswere

caughtinthemiddle.Chicago’ssquabbleis

merely the most public and attention­

grabbing. Few imagined that America’s

schools wouldstillbestrugglingto stay

opennearlytwoyearsafterthefirstwaveof

closuresinMarch2020.n

Buildingsburning

Two tragedies,

one explanation

T

hesmellofsmokehungintheairfor

days  after  the  fire  on  January  5th  that

killed  12  members  of  an  extended  family.

Philadelphia’s  mayor  called  it  “one  of  the

most tragic days in our city’s history”. The

burnt row house belonged to the city’s pub­

lic­housing  authority.  Four  days  later  in

the  Bronx,  a  borough  of  New  York  City,  17

people were killed and dozens injured in a

fire that whizzed through a 19­storey apart­

ment  building,  home  to  scores  of  low­in­

come  families  who  rely  on  vouchers  for

federal rent subsidies. Though the circum­

stances  differ—a  Christmas  tree  was  acci­

dentally ignited in Philadelphia and a faul­

ty  space  heater,  along  with  open  doors,

may have been the culprits in the Bronx—

each  fire  has  sparked  questions  about  the

state of affordable housing.

In  Philadelphia  there  is  a  shortage  of

housing  for  the  400,000  people  living  in

poverty. Much of the available stock is old

and  shoddy.  Philadelphia’s  housing  au­

thority  (pha)  serves  81,000  people;  some

40,000  are  on  its  waiting  list,  which  has

been closed for almost a decade.

In  the  1950s  the  phabegan  buying  up

empty row houses around the city. In theo­

ry  such  scattered  housing,  where  people

from different income brackets live in the

same neighbourhood, is a sound idea, but

could be hard for a cash­strapped agency to

maintain. The fire was in Fairmount, a for­

mer  working­class  neighbourhood  now

gentrified by high­earners attracted by the

quaint  houses  on  narrow  tree­lined

streets.  Jenna  Collins  of  Philadelphia’s

Community  Legal  Services,  an  advocacy

group, says, “It’s easy to hide the underin­

vestment  outside  a  really  beautiful­look­

ing row home in Fairmount.” The scope of

the  Philadelphia  fire  had  a  lot  to  do  with

overcrowding:  26  people  were  crammed

into the house’s two small apartments.

Many  of  the  apartments  in  the  Bronx

fire  were  also  crowded  and  home  to  poor,

multigenerational families, including im­

migrants  from  the  Gambia.  The  building,

Twin  Parks  Northwest,  was  part  of  an  ur­

ban­revitalisation  plan  dreamed  up  by  lo­

cal clergy at the height of white flight in the

1970s. With help from the state, they built a

dozen  buildings  for  renters.  When  Twin

Parks Northwest opened in 1973 it was con­

sidered  a  model  of  low­income­housing

design, with spacious apartments, outdoor

areas and nursery­school rooms. But with­

in  a  few  years  drugs  and  crime  took  over.

Fire alarms go off often, so are ignored.

After some lethal blazes, such as that at

the  Triangle  Shirtwaist  Factory  in  1911,  the

horror of so many deaths prompted chang­

es  to  building  codes,  fire  regulations  and

labour laws. This time the lessons may be

missed. The fire department is reminding

New  Yorkers  to  close  doors  behind  them

when they flee flames. Officials are talking

about the need to use space heaters proper­

ly, not wondering why the family had to re­

sort  to  one.  In  Philadelphia  officials  re­

vealed  that  a  five­year­old  child,  who  has

lost his family, accidentally started the fire.

Better  to  have  protectedhisprivacy  and

wondered why his largefamilywas not ac­

commodated adequately.n

P HILADELPHIA

The real cause of recent deadly fires

was poverty

ATwin horror