“Zooming” out: Distance learning’s long-term consequences for students and schools

Relaying his experience as a parent during COVID-19, columnist Joe Mathews argues that distance learning as employed during the pandemic was an inevitable failure. Parents were overwhelmed with “go-between” duties, students were unmotivated to attend virtual school, and California’s online infrastructure was insufficient. State legislators must focus on overcoming setbacks post-COVID and revitalizing high quality education, Mathews asserts on Fox & Hounds Daily.

I’m doing my duty as a California parent. I’m flunking distance learning.

Because failure isn’t just an option when you must become your children’s teacher during the worst pandemic in a century. Failure is the goal.

Imagine the educational carnage if distance learning didn’t fail! If parents proved better instructors than teachers, how could unions defend their weaker members? If I administer my home classroom effectively, how could school districts justify employing expensive administrators? If students did better at my kitchen table than in a physical classroom, why would school construction firms ever donate to school board campaigns again? 

Educational success, in these circumstances, would be nothing less than an attack on public education, which I revere. So parents of  school-age children must accept their roles as actors in a show that, like Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” is supposed to flop. Even Gov. Gavin Newsom, who imposed distance learning in March, has dropped any pretense that this is anything more than educational theater. As my local school superintendent recently wrote to our San Gabriel Valley community: “California’s public-school system does not have the infrastructure or appropriate regulations to support a comprehensive, all-in, distance learning program for all students.”

This article originally appeared in Fox & Hounds Daily.

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