When Teachers Strike, Kids Lose

When student learning takes a back seat, students should be able to take their funding with them.

This week, two of Arizona’s largest school systems, Gilbert and Chandler Unified School Districts, found themselves bracing for teacher “sickouts” aimed to derail the districts’ plans to provide in-person learning to students, with Chandler ultimately assenting to the demands and sending its kids back to Zoom for another 2 weeks over the objections of many parents and families.  

Now, there has been no one-size fits all solution to the education challenges posed by the pandemic, and with cases surging in Arizona and elsewhere and with a vaccine in deployment, now is not the time to throw caution to the wind. Yet a growing body of work has documented that school shutdowns have taken an extraordinary toll on students (particularly for the most disadvantaged), with research showing shutdowns linked more strongly to local union muscle than actual community risk.

Read the rest of the op-ed at the Daily Independent.

Matt Beienburg is the Director of Education Policy and the Director of the Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy at the Goldwater Institute.