How the coronavirus is making school segregation worse – By Maya King and Nicole Gaudino (Politico) / Sept 23 2020
The pandemic is widening long-standing gaps to school resources that fall along racial and socioeconomic lines. A generation of students could fall further behind.
In New York City, the nation’s largest school district, teachers and students of color say they don’t feel safe returning to school. Many of their schools lack windows that open, an ample supply of soap, masks or working ventilation systems — making it nearly impossible to navigate live classes in the middle of a pandemic.
An hour’s drive from the U.S. Capitol, about 27,000 Baltimore city school children — 1 in 3 students — do not have computers vital for virtual school. Thousands lack reliable wireless internet access.
And in Salinas, Calif., a photo of two elementary school girls huddled over their laptops and using free Wi-Fi outside a Taco Bell went viral last month, raising alarms in this majority Latino city and seizing the attention of public officials.
“This is California, home to Silicon Valley … but where the digital divide is as deep as ever,” tweeted Kevin de León, a Democratic member-elect of the Los Angeles City Council and former president pro tem of the California Senate.
Continue to article: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/23/how-the-coronavirus-is-making-school-segregation-worse-420839
