Jessica Giles: Our students need a just and equitable recovery
Since last year, many families have been grappling with COVID-related challenges from illness, death, job loss and social isolation. Our educators and school leaders have pushed forward, providing students with virtual and in-person learning. Despite their best efforts, many students’ academic progress — as well as their physical and mental well-being — has faltered.
As DC continues to reel from the disastrous impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, we need to immediately meet students and families where they are right now and fully address the academic impact and the physical and psychological traumas caused by the pandemic. The mayor and the DC Council must do the following:
Prioritize the health and safety of all of our students, educators and families. Continue to ensure all teachers, school staff, child care workers and residents with qualifying medical conditions — particularly in select ZIP codes where vaccination rates are lowest — have guaranteed access to receive the vaccine. Establish school buildings and other community cornerstones as safe, public vaccination sites. Partner with trusted community leaders to increase support for vaccines.
Reconnect with all of our students and families, and build trust. Engage students and build trust with families when returning to buildings. We must do whatever it takes to prepare for safe, in-person learning this fall. Schools should have the option to extend the school day, week and year to give students additional opportunities to learn and receive social-emotional support.
Invest boldly in education. Significantly increase funding and resources for all students, particularly students who are considered “at-risk” and English learners, to ensure they have what they need for a strong academic year. This means increasing the foundational level of the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula by 4%, raising the at-risk weight to 0.37 and English learner weight to 0.61 — the levels recommended in the 2013 Adequacy Study commissioned by the District. The mayor recently announced her proposed increases in education, which are an important start. In addition, schools face significant new facilities costs and challenges to ensure their safe function. By renewing and extending the public charter facilities allowance, with an annual 3.1% increase each year to reflect the average growth in the cost of constructing school buildings to ensure every student has a safe learning environment.
Advance solutions that work. Implement a large-scale tutoring corps for students who have fallen behind during the pandemic. Expand the Summer Youth Employment Program as a fifth academic quarter to help students reach critical milestones on their path to graduation, college and career. Provide consistent access to high-quality and affordable behavioral health care services by expanding the school-based mental health program to all remaining public schools and restoring funding to community-based providers. Strengthen our teacher diversity pipeline by providing Black and brown public school students a free accelerated path into the teaching profession in DC.
Finally, DC leaders must foster a love of learning. The path to a just and equitable recovery won’t happen overnight, but we can get there by meeting students and families where they are right now.
Jessica Giles is the state director of Education Reform Now DC.
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