Background: I was trained to be a teacher, but won the draft lottery somewhat more than fifty years ago. I’ve returned to teaching through tutoring, mentoring students, teaching skills and educating small groups. I last stood in front of a classroom full of public school students in 1970. I enjoy teaching, and believe I’m fairly good at it.
Covid19 is not a hoax. It is a virus that causes potentially fatal illnesses in vulnerable people. That doesn’t mean it cannot be used as part of a scam. It has been used to support multiple scams from rip-offs selling ineffective protective equipment to giving cover to politicians seizing extraordinary power. The worst scam, I believe, is the Public Education scam.
Every Covid19 story begins with number of new cases. Many people believe it’s important; I’m not convinced. Coronaviruses are, along with Rhinoviruses, Influenza viruses and Adenoviruses, common cold viruses. Most affect the respiratory system, which has implications for consequences of being infected. Age and pre-existing conditions have major influence on Covid19 consequences, one of the differences with influenza viruses. Pre-existing conditions influence consequences, but age does not appear to be a major factor.
Public school teachers cannot return to work because of the danger of Covid19. To whom, from what? For most people, becoming infected is irrelevant. That’s right, irrelevant. Let’s take this awful danger of teachers returning to work. Globally, there have been nearly zero reports of public-school teachers being infected by students. I believe the total was two, worldwide. Roughly the same as the number of public-school teachers eaten by wolves. In younger patients, even up to the age of 17, many – if not most – display no symptoms. An asymptomatic patient was proposed as more contagious than a symptomatic one earlier, but that was disproven in an article carried in Lancet.
Numbers matter in a pandemic and in epidemiology. In the U.S. the death toll for people younger than 18 is 208 of a population of 72.3 million. That is 0.00029%. That’s the danger to students. What about the danger to teachers? We know that the death toll for people 65 and over is 384,400 of a population of 54.2 million; 7.17%. The death toll is so skewed toward the elderly that the average age at death for Covid 19 is the same as the average age at death for the whole population: 85. The danger to school teachers is lower than the danger of driving.
First, there is no real danger to returning students to public schools, either to students or to teachers. The median age for public school teachers is 41; the risk of death to people younger than 44 is 0.008%. That’s far less than the risk of dying in a traffic accident. We let people drive; why are we hung up on people younger than 44 teaching in person, eating in restaurants, going to bars, going to medical appointments, just living their lives? The edicts shutting down public schools are a scam.
This becomes self-evident when looking at private schools. There are somewhat more than 30,000 privately-run schools in the US, many affiliated with churches. The vast majority, serving more than five million students, have been open and providing in-person education to students since September 2020. They have done so without massive federal subsidies, compared to at least $63B already appropriated for public schools, and an additional $87B appropriated in the most recent Covid Relief Bill. The CDC found, in a focused study, “COVID-19 incidence in schools conducting in-person instruction was 37% lower than that in the surrounding community.” In fact, the Public Education scam is not merely wrong, it’s intentionally harmful. It is safer to send students to in-person instruction in schools than to keep them at home.
I can hear the gears meshing and speeding up. “Death isn’t the only bad thing to happen, people get complications that last a lifetime. Old people aren’t alone, youngsters get COVID as well.” All true, all irrelevant when talking about a global pandemic. Hospitalizations are not a reliable indicator, because the standard for hospitalization differs from place to place. In the United States, it’s often ordered for the physician’s benefit as much as the patient. I was hospitalized by a cardiologist who sensed something was wrong, but had no evidence. I underwent an abdominal X-Ray, and had a cancerous tumor removed from my bladder. Later that year a heart attack and much worse ensued. The physician knew something was wrong, he just couldn’t determine what it was. That would never happen in most South American or African countries, except for the very wealthy.
The standards for reporting complications do not exist. What is a complication in one country is just another problem in a second. Some things would seem evident: use of ventilators, for instance. The entire country of Mali has a total of five ventilators. Mali will never exceed five patients on ventilators, no matter how many actually need them. Comparing that to New York, where the Governor bitched and moaned publicly until the President invoked the Defense Production Act, is inappropriate. The State of New York already had all the ventilators it needed.
Scams are not victimless crimes They not only have victims, they have beneficiaries, those who gain something from the scam. Victims and beneficiaries have both been identified, but neither has been widely publicized. The primary victims are poor children. A study published by Yale University demonstrated that there would be little impact on children from the richest 20% of neighborhoods, but that children from the poorest 20% of neighborhoods will lose as much as 25% of their lifetime earnings post-pandemic. This will increase income inequality, causing yet further fractures in our society. People of color are disproportionately poor. This is genuine systemic racism.
Who could possibly benefit from this scam? Certainly not students, certainly not dedicated teachers who want to interact closely with their students, certainly not parents, and absolutely not taxpayers. Teachers union leadership benefits, as do politicians dependent on teachers unions for campaign contributions. The time for anger has passed.
Now, it’s time for rage.
I agree with your concerns, however I am reluctant to place a large share of ownership with the teachers union. I am more suspicious of the objective to deconstruct the delivery of public schools in general. Brick and mortar cites are no longer deemed necessary, although I believe they are essential. Private schools are becoming the only viable option and this neglects so many beautiful minds.