Do Continued School Closures Promote Racism and Segregation in Fairfax County?

As we and our supporters pointed out early on, COVID school closings disproportionately harm disadvantaged and low income families. Now the data is in and confirmed our worst fears. The impact of prolonged school closings is devastating academic achievement in Fairfax County. In particular, it’s crushing Hispanic students and students with disabilities:

We’ve reached out to local leaders for comment, including the Fairfax GOP, Fairfax Democrat Party, The Fairfax NAACP and the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO). As of publication, only the Fairfax GOP responded with a comment promoting school choice. We’ll update with responses from the others if/when we receive them.

Meanwhile, out in California, (Democrat) politicians are recognizing the disparate impact that school closures have on minorities and are referring to school closures as “state sanctioned segregation”. It’s easy to understand the sentiment. While some students have thrived or been minimally impacted by school closures, most have been ravaged. Students of limited financial means and/or those who need extra support like students with disabilities are the ones suffering the most.

Keeping schools closed in the early days of COVID made sense and was a reasonable decision when we knew so little about the virus. Nine months later, we know the risk of transmission in schools is small, COVID is less dangerous to children than the flu and schools around the world and even here in the U.S. have found ways to make in person instruction work. School closings fail the most basic cost benefit analysis. That’s probably why Dr. Fauci now supports reopening the schools.

Fairfax County’s three teacher’s unions support keeping schools closed despite the harm caused to students.

The data demonstrates that school closures are harming minority and disadvantaged students the most. At this stage, keeping schools closed looks like a de facto racist policy. That may not be the intent, but it’s the outcome.

Those who support continued school closures and who aren’t prioritizing reopenings risk supporting racist policies and undermining efforts to improve equity in Fairfax County Public Schools. This includes the local Fairfax County Public School teacher’s unions (the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, the Fairfax Education Association, and the Association of Fairfax Professional Educators). It also includes local elected officials and leaders that support keeping schools closed, are silent about the situation and/or are supported by or support the local Teacher’s Unions.

Further reading via NBC News: When Covid-19 closed schools, Black, Hispanic and poor kids took biggest hit in math, reading