Op/ed: After COVID and Racism, School Closures a Third Pandemic
Researchers Outline Impact of Shutdown on Children of Color
Photo by Stocksy
For many children of color, their schools are vital centers of resources ranging from meals to vaccinations, and school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic create dire effects, argues a group of researchers including a UMD urban studies and planning profesor.
America is confronting two pandemics—COVID-19 and racism—writes a group of researchers in urban studies, politics and planning, including Ariel Bierbaum, UMD assistant professor of urban studies and planning.
In an article in Education Week, the four lay out a third pandemic that black and brown children in particular are facing: the temporary or even permanent closure of their schools, with potential dire consequences.
For black and brown children living in poverty, the school building is a portal for crucial assistance, where students, their families, and members of the broader community receive a variety of resources from free meals to flu shots. The closure of the school building deactivates the distribution of those same resources, and in doing so, reveals the irreplaceable role that they place in filling the gaping holes in our weak social safety net.
Closed school buildings result in a loss of routine child care that makes going to work every day possible for the 11 million parents with school-aged children who live in poverty. For the nearly 1.5 million students experiencing homelessness, school closures remove an important source of stability and access to social workers and health-care providers. For the 13 million children experiencing hunger, they disrupt a critical source of food that students rely on to maintain a nutritional diet.
Read the rest in Education Week.
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