Closing the school system is a losing position; mitigation is a winning position
It is time the Chicago Teachers Union collaborates to figure out how we will keep our schools open amid the pandemic and beyond.
Getting tests, vaccinations, and closing certain schools or flipping them as they did in South Korea early on in the covid pandemic is the way to minimize the disruption in educational continuity and maximize the containment of the virus.[1]
Multiple studies show that closing down whole sectors of a country or a community is detrimental to fighting the covid pandemic on a macro level. Once people get off the lockdowns, they are exposed to the infection again.[2]
The latest studies show that being vaccinated and getting the virus builds better immunity.[3] Shutting down a school is a good thing, but shutting down the entire school system is a bad thing for our city as a whole to keep going forward to fight this pandemic, which will be around for another few years at least.[4]
Politically, hundreds of thousands of workers have not taken any days off from their employment, such as police, first responders, and other city workers whose children we teach.[5]
Just think of how it looks for "the champion of the working class" to be saying they do not want to go to work cuz they are scared of getting infected with COVID.[6]
Practically, calling workers and community members during the holiday break [7] to figure out what position they have or want to take is a position of weakness.[8] For all the political capital and resources we have expended, it seems strange we are asking our members to do more, especially now during the workers' time off.[9]
We are the Union; we should be the example and vanguard for workers not to be cowering in a corner, scared to work, or making excuses. The union leadership, including the workers at the CTU, should be working for us, not the other way around the workers doing the Union's work.[10]
The Union should have collaborated[11] to develop a standardized wholistic remote learning program[12] and continuity of instruction[13] by this time. If the employer refused to bargain over remote learning, then the Union should have put its resources into developing such systems and curriculum for its members, rather than let everyone figure it out on their own and then ask them over the holiday break to work harder[14] to build the power of the Union. That way, the public would have been with us when we go or ask to be remote without a fight each time we have an outbreak or an event that calls for in-person learning to be changed in some way, but we have failed to do so as a Union.
Workers already work hard they should be allowed to enjoy their holidays and the fruits of their labor that is why they joined a Union.
Előre,
Dr. Kugler
Editor Substance News
References
[1] Hae-Young Kim et al., “Policy Review and Modeling Analysis of Mitigation Measures for Coronavirus Disease Epidemic Control, Health System, and Disease Burden, South Korea - Volume 27, Number 11—November 2021 - Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal - CDC,” Wwwnc.cdc.gov, accessed December 22, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2711.203779.
[2] Amy Dighe et al., “Response to COVID-19 in South Korea and Implications for Lifting Stringent Interventions,” BMC Medicine 18, no. 1 (October 9, 2020), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01791-8.
[3] Timothy A. Bates and Savannah K. McBride, “Antibody Response and Variant Cross-Neutralization after SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Infection,” JAMA, December 16, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.22898.
[4] Sarun Charumilind and Matt Craven, “When Will the COVID-19 Pandemic End? | McKinsey,” www.mckinsey.com, August 23, 2021, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/when-will-the-covid-19-pandemic-end.
[5] Analysis by Maeve Reston CNN, “Analysis: The Political Vise Tightens on Biden as He Faces a Covid Storm,” CNN, accessed December 22, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/22/politics/joe-biden-covid-politics-omicron/index.html.
[6] Olsztynski, J. (1988) Plagues and Epidemics. Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine. 5:5, 42-56. https://www.plumbingsupply.com/pmplague.html
[7] “‘I Don’t Know How We’ll Keep Going’: A COVID Holiday Surge Is Coming,” BuzzFeed News, accessed December 22, 2021, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/us-covid-omicron.
[8] Celine McNicholas and Lynn Rhinehart, “Why Unions Are Good for Workers—Especially in a Crisis like COVID-19: 12 Policies That Would Boost Worker Rights, Safety, and Wages,” Economic Policy Institute, August 25, 2020, https://www.epi.org/publication/why-unions-are-good-for-workers-especially-in-a-crisis-like-covid-19-12-policies-that-would-boost-worker-rights-safety-and-wages/.
[9] “Chicago Teachers Union Spent $1.5M on Lobbying: Report,” NBC Chicago, accessed December 22, 2021, https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/chicago-teachers-union-spent-1-5m-on-lobbying-report/2204010/.
[10] Lévesque, Christian, G. Murray (2010) "Understanding Union Power: Resources and Capabilities for Renewing Union Capacity", Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 16 (3), pp. 333-350 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1024258910373867
[11] Amanda Woo, “The Art of Shifting from Conflict to Collaboration in the Workplace,” The Startup, February 6, 2020, https://medium.com/swlh/the-art-of-shifting-from-conflict-to-collaboration-in-the-workplace-72be88b556cd.
[12] “Effective Virtual Learning: Holistic Approaches to Learning amidst Uncertainty,” UVM Professional and Continuing Education, September 14, 2020, https://learn.uvm.edu/blog/blog-education/effective-virtual-learning-holistic-approaches-to-learning-amidst-uncertainty.
[13] Filomena T. Dayagbil et al., “Teaching and Learning Continuity amid and beyond the Pandemic,” Frontiers in Education 6 (July 23, 2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.678692.
[14] Orwell, George. 1945. Animal farm. London: Secker & Warburg. https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011.txt
