To send her children at school at the risk that they catch the coronavirus and infect a family without health insurance ? Or keep them at home to attend school online, at the risk of compromising their education and preventing their parents from working?
This is the dilemma of many low-income families New York, the only one among the large American metropolises to provide a partially face-to-face education in this start of the 2020 school year, upset by the pandemic. The Democratic town hall, however, postponed the opening of establishments from September 10 to 21 on Tuesday, to satisfy a teachers’ union which requested additional health measures.
Maria R., a domestic worker of Mexican origin, who requested anonymity because she is undocumented, explains that she resolved to send her 7 and 14-year-old children to school, despite serious concerns.
Will they be equipped to accommodate children safely? What days will they go to school? Will there be outdoor classes, and what will happen in cold or rainy weather?
Many questions bother this 35-year-old woman, who queues at a free food distribution in her neighborhood in Queens.
Seniors to the rescue
Poorer families, often black and immigrant like Maria’s, cannot afford the luxury of hiring private tutors to help with online classes, unlike affluent, over-represented families in Manhattan.
Parents with low incomes also cannot rely on reliable internet access, nor can they help their children themselves: often the technical aspects intimidate them, they speak poor English and have not finished their schooling themselves.
Maria thus relied on her 14-year-old elder: it was he who helped her little brother when schools closed in March and then went entirely online, she says.
In the United States, the country which recorded the record number of more than 185,000 dead of the coronavirus, resuming school has become a political battle issue as the November presidential election approaches, Donald Trump pushing to reopen establishments to help revive the economy.
Some Republican-run states, such as Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee or Indiana, had initially followed his advice, but some schools later backed down after a sudden spike in the number of cases.
The other large American cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Philadelphia and Miami have they planned a virtual re-entry only.
“Better to waste a year”
Some 37% of New York City families – including low-income families, proportionately more affected by the pandemic due to a higher incidence of chronic disease and often non-existent health insurance – have, however, chosen not to send their children at school.
More than a third of the approximately 1.1 million New York schoolchildren will therefore follow an education only online, an option offered by the town hall.
I know they won’t learn the same at home, but they’d better lose a year and be healthy
unemployed Brooklyn cook Marisa Machado, who is raising three school-aged children on her own, told AFP.
New York City Hall, like many experts, stresses that face-to-face education is essential both for children’s mental health and for preventing further deterioration. pit
education between wealthy and modest backgrounds.
A lost school year has direct consequences in terms of income
once they reach adulthood, and the poorest students are the most affected, Naomi Bardach, pediatrician and professor of public health at the University of California at San Francisco, told AFP.
The negative effects are proven, both financially and in terms of health
, she stressed.
Still, the fear of the virus is omnipresent in the neighborhoods most affected by the pandemic.
The fear is there, the children are afraid too. We must survive
pandemic, said Miguel Hernandez, an employee of Mexican origin currently unemployed, who also does not want to send his three children to school.
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