I generally support Gov. Asa Hutchinson, having voted for him four times. Yet when his administration declared that the Fayetteville Public Schools had to make its responses to covid-19 conform to the rest of the state, I had the same reaction as when the Obama administration issued edicts micromanaging school discipline.
If you want to run my local public schools, how about moving to Fayetteville and applying to be school superintendent? (I sent an open letter to that effect to President Obama, but he was too busy to get back to me.)
Like many public policies, opening schools in a time of covid-19 involves difficult tradeoffs which reasonable people view differently. Recognizing that, our sensible Superintendent John L. Colbert and other Fayetteville Public School leaders spent long hours developing scheduling options reflecting local values, with input from classroom teachers--something that seldom happens in public education.
The resulting plan allowed students to attend school online, or via two-day in-person options. By having half the in-person students attend Monday/Wednesday and half Tuesday/Thursday, schools would run at roughly half-capacity, enabling social distancing. In contrast, most other Arkansas public schools offered traditional five-day-a-week in-person schooling, as it appears will most European countries.
The Hutchinson administration had the Fayetteville Public School covid-19 plan since mid-July, so why stop it at the last minute? In fact, why stop it at all? Similarly, why did the state government tell schools not to cover new course material after schooling went online last spring? On our own, my locality might have found a better way.
Traditionally, my Republican Party stood for devolving power to lower levels, where individuals have some shot at influencing the bureaucracy. Republicans try to empower parents and teachers rather than bureaucrats, school districts rather than state regulators, and states over the federal government, for three good reasons reflecting both research and common sense.
First, local conditions vary. Policies that work in one town might fail in another. Second, unlike distant elites, local people have skin in the game. Third, in a multicultural world, people of good will have different values. Locally determined policies better reflect local values.
Some say we should just do whatever experts tell us, but experts often disagree, as in the still-unresolved dustup between Swedish and British health experts over how many precautions to take to limit covid-19. Experts are humans with interests and values, much like the rest of us.
A physician friend who prioritizes physical health wants a national lockdown for years, until we have a reliable covid-19 vaccine. Another friend, a sociologist focused on mental health, wants life back to normal now, albeit with masks. He fears that without jobs, physical schools, and houses of worship, people suffer isolation, depression, and violence, dangers that disproportionately kill young people. Both are experts. Both are caring. Who is right? It depends on factual assumptions, but also on what tradeoffs one prefers.
Individuals disagree about what risks are worth the rewards. Everyone favors taking risks for things they value. New York City's mayor sought to end religious services to limit infection, while seeing protests as worth the risks.
I know someone in a low-risk health category who has refused to leave his house since March for fear of covid-19. He pays Amazon workers and other poorer people to deliver his food. (Seemingly their safety matters less than his.) Yet he entered dangerous equestrian competitions well into middle age, because "that was different."
To me, teaching classes in person, something I love, seems an acceptable risk, while visiting my mother-in-law seems far too dangerous.
Regarding teaching, a friend lives in one of the wealthiest townships in Pennsylvania. Her local public schools will thoroughly disrupt teaching to limit infection, while continuing contact sports as usual, as if sitting in class spreads more germs than tackles or hard fouls.
I can understand why my fellow Arkansans will retain contact sports during covid-19. High school teams unite communities, and we lack pro teams. In contrast, my friend lives near where the Philadelphia Eagles play, and her township still prioritized athletics over academics.
But at least in Pennsylvania, her local school district got to make the call.
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Robert Maranto (rmaranto@uark.edu) is the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and has served in local and national government. These thoughts are his alone.