Pandemic underscores the need to support education

This year will mark my 22nd year working in public education, and the start of this year is unlike any other. I have vivid memories of my first day of teaching, and I ache for new teachers this year whose first day will not create those same memories. Anchorage School District had to make an agonizing decision in order to keep students, staff and the community safe. More than 50,000 staff and students enter through the doors and offices of the school district daily. When the city’s risk level increased, ASD felt it was safest to move all learning to online. Making this choice is not about money; this is about potentially saving many lives in our community.

Schools closed down in mid-March. We left for spring break with every intention of returning to our classrooms on March 16. Instead, we were kept home, scrambling to take care of ourselves, our families, learning how to Zoom and find a supply of toilet paper. Nothing felt easy at first. ASD was in triage responding to the incredible demands not only on the students it serves, but also the challenging circumstances of its entire staff. A staff that was now, like the rest of the country, working remotely while tending to their own families, fears and frustrations.

As educators came up for air in May, teams were formed to begin creating a platform that would be available for online instruction. Educational reform is complex, difficult work even when there is adequate time, collaboration, funding and planning. We have had less than three months to completely turn around the way we teach and anticipate the way kids will learn in the midst of a global pandemic that is continuing to expand its reach here in Anchorage. This is no small feat and continues to be a challenge.

In these few short months, not only has ASD created a comprehensive system in which to teach our standard-based curriculum, but it has also created a new educational option through ASD Virtual which allows for flexibility, safety and connection to your home school. Anchorage should be proud of its school district’s efforts to continue providing a variety of options to educate all of its students.

Educators understand that parents are being forced to make life-altering and devastating sacrifices in order to continue their children’s education right now. We all want this pandemic to end. There’s not a single teacher who prefers Zoom sessions over returning to the classroom and seeing the joy on a child’s face when he learns to decode his first word, or proudly creates something that reflects her brain’s power to analyze.

A colleague recently asked me why schools weren’t better prepared. She was formerly in the military and said they have been anticipating and planning for a pandemic for years. The reality is that while other industries might have had the budgets to effectively plan for unlikely scenarios, the ASD has been having to make choices about whether to cut gifted programs or health teachers rather than form a comprehensive pandemic planning team — the result of years of inadequate and diminished funding. If anything, this crisis should prove the need to have robust, comprehensive and sustainable funding and support for all of our public education agencies.

We all want this to end. We want to go back to school, eat at restaurants, hug our friends and bump into an old co-worker at a downtown concert. These are not normal times, and we cannot respond in our normal way of continuing to deprive our schools. Now is the time to invest in public education.

Sara Dykstra is an educator, parent and member of Great Alaska Schools. This column is her personal opinion and does not reflect the views of the Anchorage School District.

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