School closures haunt Democrats as frustrated parents cast their votes

[AZLD4Candidate]

The father was furious. “Figure it out, or get off the podium,” he shouted at school board members in Loudoun County, Va.

He was not irate about critical race theory, which would come to dominate the state’s gubernatorial race, with the Northern Virginia exurbs at the center of that battle over how to teach history in schools. His anger did not stem from debates about which bathrooms transgender students should use. Those heated battles were still months away. It was January 2021, and what the screaming father wanted was more immediate and concrete.

He sought the end of remote learning.

“It’s not a high bar,” he shouted at the school board members sitting before him. “Raise the freaking bar.”

Remote learning had relegated children across Virginia — and much of the rest of the country — to attend classes via Zoom since the previous March, when the coronavirus had first transformed living rooms and bedrooms into the new American classroom. Parents struggled to balance the demands of work while also playing the new role of remote learning instructor.

https://www.aol.com/news/school-closures-haunt-democrats-frustrated-223021447.html

Don't read the comments. Like all online message boards, it's been taken over by the right wing to spew every red herring and talking point one can conceive.

I'll put it simply. People want their free, state paid for babysitting service back. For the most part, these parents that are complaining would NEVER go to board meeting and never show up at parent-teacher conferences, except to yell at a teacher about why their precious child is failing and how it is the teacher's fault and the school's responsibility.

[JI7]

1. And they did nothing when Right Wingers try to defund the school programs

[AZLD4Candidate]

2. That's because right wingers market their pablum and snake oil as "tax cuts."

As I say to people I meet on the campaign trail: "If you vote Republican, you get their policies. Can't have buyer's remorse after they are elected." Caveat Emptor, especially in politics.

[In It to Win It]

13. Because they don't feel that pain. When their kids have no school to go to, they feel that.

[Freddie]

3. It's not just the "free babysitting"

Some kids just don’t do well at all with distance learning, like my granddaughter who has ADHD. I HATED the months of online school and couldn’t wait for her to get back to class, where she does well.
Even though my district stayed almost all the 20-21 year (2 week delay in Sept.), R’s campaigned on “keep our schools open” and won all 4 open school board seats. Hopefully now that kids can be immunized, and with the new Covid meds, this issue will go away. Very frustrating to see our board turn bright red (and God knows how much damage they will do to education) because the schools did the right thing in the spring of 2020.

[janterry]

5. A few years ago I homeschooled my daughter

using an online option. It was AWFUL. She's pretty inattentive and at home it was so much worse

I could easily imagine some kids just cruising through the material and heading outside to play. She really just couldn't focus. At school, she's super well-behaved (she really is) so she will try to focus for the teachers.

With me? Not a chance. When the pandemic hit she was in HS so I really just stayed out of it. Her HS was really small and supportive and knew her well (she graduated in May - off to college, now!).

But for sure, all kids are different and online doesn't work well for many

[Freddie]

6. That's how my granddaughter was

4th grade at the time. She has to be “sat on” to do her homework. Just not self-motivated for schoolwork although she’s intelligent. A kid who’s not self-motivated will do horrible at online learning.

[Tree Lady]

7. Both my grandsons in middle and high school

Had a very hard time. When going in person was offered my daughter put masks on them and sent them back. Had nothing to do with babysitting. She is working from home and kids were doing class in dining room and bedroom. They just didn't have the self discipline to get their work done. She said they use to do a lot in school but teachers were looking over them.

One of my grandsons has Aspergers and needs more help. By the way both kids are vaccinated.

[Sympthsical]

17. We had two nephews live with us during the first year of things

Since my partner and I work from home, and their mother was a single mom and a nurse, it was just better for us to have the kids. We had the time and presence to supervise everything.

Yeah . . . I don't know what they learned that year, but too many of those teachers were all out of fucks to give. I'm sorry, but some of them treated that shit like it was vacation. They're not even my kids, and I was getting pissed. "Watch this ten minute YouTube video then write a few sentences about it." Oh, that was your class plan for that day? I'm getting worked up just thinking about it. We took it upon ourselves to fill in some of the gaps where we could.

The kids couldn't really socialize, so they just moped around the house, played a lot of video games, became sullen and depressed. It was hard for them to focus in class, even though we had them in the kitchen during scheduled classes where we could both keep an eye that they were paying attention.

It just didn't work. I have some sympathy for the teachers and administration. They weren't prepared for it. I get that. But even I could've done a better job than some of them. And then whenever these representatives or whomever talked down about parents, made fun of them, had their secret little meetings and comments that inevitably leaked out.

Parents aren't happy. "Free babysitting" is exactly the kind of comment that pissed them right off. Yeah, that's kind of part of the function of school. Parents work, that's where the kids go during the day. Suddenly, they had kids at home who were not supposed to be there. It's not like work stopped for many of them. Meanwhile, the people talking down to the parents were hanging out in their jammies. "They just want us to babysit." I mean, Jesus, tell them what you think about your job without telling them.

When McAuliffe sat there with the teacher's union president as his last speaker before the election, I was like, "He really has no idea where he is, does he." It was so tone deaf. That speaker is the person the parents were fuming about.

I can tell you, a lot of parents in my district and surrounding are suddenly keeping a much closer eye on what's happening in the schools. Being home with the kids, overseeing their learning, and watching how some of these people approached their jobs was eye-opening. Before, it had been "out of sight, out of mind." Send the kids off and forget about it. The pandemic put it all in sight.

And parents have not been very happy since.

[tanyev]

4. And how many of those furious parents will also refuse to vaccinate their kids because "freedom"?

[liberalmediaaddict]

8. They want schools reopened

But oppose mask and vaccine mandates.
We can easily move past this pandemic by spring if the "live free or die" crowd gets out of the way.

With all the successful vaccines and treatments available there's no reason we can't put Covid in our rearview mirror.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. Oh well

His kid also won't be vaccinated - guarantee it.

Let the vaccinated kids take off their masks and enjoy their lives. Open it up.

This father will be in the FA & FO crew in no time.

[tenderfoot]

10. "Concerned Parents" right wing operatives posing as concerned parents

[Lady Freedom Returns]

11. So protecting the children is a bad thing?

For a party that preaches family values, the right are coming off very 🤬 the family.

[Sympthsical]

12. "People want their free, state paid for babysitting service back."

Yeah, say that to parents. Put it in a campaign ad.

I'll wait for the stunned, "How did we lose?!" after.

[AZLD4Candidate]

15. I'm not running anymore. My wife's green card has been rejected and the NVC isn't going to change

its mind.

So, since I am not running anymore due to going back overseas to be with my with that I haven't seen due to COVID19 and the US Government, I don't need to couch my words, do I?

George Carlin said that parents are about the most full of crap people on the planet, sucking up the glory when their children are winners, and blaming others when their children are losers. Everyone needs to have their egos stroked and parents in most school districts are no different.

Personally I think teachers and administrators should say a lot more to a lot of parents.

[Sympthsical]

18. Your attitude will be the death of us in suburbs

It doesn't matter if you're running. You're not the only person I see on our side who say this sort of thing.

It is absolutely poisonous. Furthermore, it is absolutely disrespectful and oblivious towards working parents. The disdain wrapped up in the comment.

The sheer, arrogant condescension involved. Good lord. If a politician around me said that secretly and it got out, I'd not be voting for that person. Full stop.

[AZLD4Candidate]

23. I didn't ask you to, and at this point, I couldn't care less who you will vote for

It is of monumental uninterest to me.

Have a wonderful day.

[BlackSkimmer]

21. Good lord man.

I’m not even a parent and I’m insulted.

And I pay a lot of school taxes to the “babysitting service” as you so disrespectfully call it.

Aren’t you a teacher? Guessing you’re not a parent.

[In It to Win It]

14. I think I read this a couple days ago. I believe it. We need some 'Life after COVID' messaging

I've been saying for a couple of months now that people are COVID-fatigued.

Language around mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and school closures will not win us any elections. I think the school closures and learning loss were more of a threat in the Virginia race than CRT.

[AZLD4Candidate]

16. Well, we sort of let unelected doctors set public policy and allowed "mandates" and EOs

to usurp established protocols as to how punishable acts are created.

I've been wearing masks since November 2019 being in Shanghai. I am fatigued, because this virus is one of the two biggest reasons I have no seen my wife in 18 months.

[Mad_Machine76]

26. Uhhhhh......Public Health? That's kind of like their job.

BTW it's not Dems whom are keeping the pandemic alive and kicking.

[brooklynite]

19. Face to face teaching is a state paid for Babysitting service?

I’m on the Board of Trustees of a secondary school which went through live, remote and hybrid teaching. Live teaching is far better and parents are going to be upset if their kids aren’t getting that level of education quality.

[BlackSkimmer]

20. That hit me a bit wrong too. nt

[Caliman73]

22. I agree with some of your points.

I think that people take for granted that teachers and school leadership will "take care of everything". I understand the frustration, and given my little bit of knowledge about what you have gone through with your immigration struggles, and your lost election, I can see how you would be upset.

It definitely seems like people want "babysitting", etc... Some of the comments in response show the frustration that people went through. My wife and I had our 4th and 5th grade students at the time, at home during COVID. It was difficult. My daughter has ADD and it was difficult for her to focus. Fortunately, my wife is an ex-teacher and a psychologist and I am a social worker, so we had a lot of tools that other people did not have with which to guide our children through the SIP. We struggled mightily.

Like I said in the beginning sentence, I think that people take schooling for granted. I don't think that people will understand how much time goes into preparing lesson plans, grading, engaging children, classroom management, etc... unless they are actively participating in their children's education. Many of us work outside the home however so it isn't something that we focus on. The pandemic and SIP literally brought it home. The funny thing is that people notice the teacher who "doesn't care" and that stays with them and they maybe extrapolate that to all teaching. The good teachers tend to just slide by because the expectation is for them to go the extra mile, to spend their own money on supplies, to perform during a pandemic as if they are not personally affected.

I think that we do not realize how much we rely on the school system to provide education, care, and a safe place for our kids to go, so that we can work and do our jobs, yet the anger is so easily turned to them when an extraordinary event happens and we lose that service. We could have had children back to school a lot earlier if we had coordination between Federal, State, and local authorities to get the best information and pay for the best practices to keep children safe at school. Instead we had REPUBLICANS from Trump down to the local boards, turn the pandemic into a culture war and political struggle. We need to remember and we need to CORRECT that record every time we can. Where we are today is 90% the fault of ONE political party. Parents have been and are continually lied to by ONE party. Republicans are lying about this. They cut funding, they ban mask mandates, they are poisoning the discussion around vaccines. REPUBLICANS. We need to remember that.

[Zeitghost]

24. To dismiss all complaints and criticisms of remote learning...

To dismiss all complaints and criticisms of remote learning as parents missing their free babysitting is misinformed at best. There are a number of sources that point to children being better off both educationally and in general with in person learning. We purposely chose to live in a small, well run public school district and even with it's amazing staff and committed leadership, the problems were massive. I have a number of teachers in my social circles and the stories they relayed, especially in poor and working class schools were frightening with some reporting that 10-20% of kids simply disappeared from school altogether.

[MichMan]

25. Students will spend years trying to catch back up if it is even possible

The normal school day is 6 -7 hours. There may be some exceptions, but I seriously doubt that kids in remote learning received anything near that amount of time learning. Yet, they were all promoted to the next grade anyway.

For classes that build on the previous years subject matter as prerequisites, I don't understand how students can maintain that progression. For example, how can a student that learned only half of the material for Algebra I be promoted to take Algebra II the following year?

Will the schools spend much of the school year on remedial learning to try and catch up what was missed last year? And if so, that means they won't be teaching the material for the current year, which will cause the same cycle to occur once again the following year.

Will these same students once graduated from HS find themselves woefully unprepared for college level courses? Will they be forced to take out student loans to learn remedial material that they should have learned in HS, making finishing a 4 year degree a relic of the past.

[Volaris]

27. The idjits yelling at school boards for being closed are the same

Assholes who wont go get their damn shots.