Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Schools Reopening Despite Risks

There’s no doubt that in our nation COVID-19 has had its biggest impact on communities of African-Americans, immigrants and other minorities. Not only have their living quarters been more at-risk, their hospitals less well-equipped, and their access to information impaired, they are more likely to hold jobs that are deemed essential. In rural America, these jobs, such as working on factory farms, in slaughterhouses, or as cleaning help for the messy rest of us, plus small-town jobs such as working in warehouses and prisons, are the worst paid and yet the most missed when they are vacant.

Not only that, but these essential workers are often required to work longer hours, and more irregular hours, than other folks. Many low-paid people hold down two or three jobs to make ends meet. And, these essential jobs are jobs that cannot be performed remotely, from the safety of one’s own home. If anyone doubts that health care needs to take care of everyone, just look at the numbers of COVID-19 cases in counties where slaughterhouses (think: Big Meat, like Tyson, Cargill and other multi-nationals) are the major employers. We are all at risk If we can’t take care of the lowest-paid, who, in small towns, shop at the same stores and share our roads and parks and pathways. And schools.

Even the richest schools will face challenges, and for poor kids the difficulties are multiplied. America, it turns out, isn’t the land of opportunity for these kids. Instead, our policies mimic the worst traditions of the worst caste systems you’ve read about in National Geographic.

“COVID” is a tricky little virus. The Kansas City Star reported that one Tyson plant tested 3,748 workers in Arkansas, found 13% tested positive, but 95% of those were asymptomatic. It’s getting harder to find those numbers, by the way. Employers are playing the privacy card when journalists check in and county health departments are spooked. Employers are doing their own testing, keeping the results private; many workers are non-citizens, some with company-supplied inadequate housing. The meat industry is so hooked in to rural economies that nobody dares to make a challenge.

As schools re-open, parents are scrambling to figure out how to keep their jobs and keep kids safe. While many experts recommend remote learning, inadequate internet connections in some areas make that impossible. How about home schooling? How about private schools? You’ve already guessed the answer on those options.

Rural kids, who have avoided the disease by staying home with siblings, cousins or, yes, alone, are now at risk. Isolation has kept them safe all summer, but now they face crowds. And school buses. School bus rides of an hour are normal around here, as are unsupervised games of tag while waiting at the bus stops. Social distancing while playing tag? Possible?

Well-heeled school systems can double the number of buses to pick kids up and get them to school safely. Other school systems promise that the buses will be sanitized when they come into the shed, maybe twice a day, or at least once. In many cases, drivers with early or late runs keep their buses at home, and that leaves sanitation up to them. And we know they’ll do their best.

Here’s a partial list of what a safe district needs: Extra books, art supplies, sports equipment so kids don’t have to share; handwashing and other cleaning supplies; temperature monitors at the doors; sack lunches for kids to eat at their desks; replacement of water fountains with water bottle filling stations; loaner equipment for distance learning at home.

School boards have worked hard to incorporate the suggestions of the Centers for Disease Control and their state government and of course school families. All the schools have plans for distance learning if families prefer to keep their kids at home. But essential workers need the child care, and a missed day of work for the lowest-paid means missed meals, missed medications, missed rent. And, so far, none of the schools has explained how they’ll shut down when someone tests positive.

Public schools in my county have stopped short of requiring kids to wear masks. They prefer to leave it up to the families, although schools say they will provide masks if the student, faculty member or support staff asks for one. Somebody has convinced Republicans that mask wearing is an infringement on the First Amendment or an offense to God. Or something. There will be ample opportunity for teasing and playground bullying over the subject.

A couple of years ago, under financial strain, our schools went to four days a week rather than five. One of the major questions at that time was how kids were going to eat. Some students counted on school lunch and school breakfast. Fortunately, churches and neighbors came through with lunches on the off day.

Now, other school systems are going to the four-day week. One will use the fifth day for teachers to tutor kids that need extra help. A good idea, but one that creates more transportation and meal problems. No easy solutions.

And, for this column, and this subject, that’s the conclusion: No easy solutions.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History”. Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, September 1, 2020

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