Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Schools Closing Because Teachers Don’t Like Child Care Options

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

by Hans Bader

My school system in Arlington County is needlessly closing today. Supposedly, the reason is the “weather,” but the school system admits that actually, “the primary and neighborhood roads in Arlington are clear and our schools are ready.” Why then, are they closing? Because some teachers have kids, and some of those teachers complain they are having difficulty finding decent childcare options for those kids! As the lawyer Clark Neily notes, “they’re going to go ahead and pass that inconvenience on to us — while billing us for the privilege, of course.”

This is the same school system that is considering getting rid of grades on homework and allowing constant lateness and retakes on work. The school system claims that is about promoting “equity,” but eliminating grading also reduces work for the teachers, which may be something their union wants (on the other hand, allowing retakes is probably something teachers don’t want).

As I explain at this link, abolishing grades for homework will result in students studying less and learning less. The Arlington school board can be reached by email (at school.board@apsva.us).

Below is the Arlington Public Schools school closure notice:

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10 responses to “Schools Closing Because Teachers Don’t Like Child Care Options”

  1. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Wait! They ARE the child care option. Care, and if the GOP gets their way, white-grievance learning.

  2. ARL Avatar
    ARL

    Funny that no childcare option is seen as an inconvenience when it’s someone else’s kid. Arlington school district has a lot of issues, but if outlying school districts are closed and Arlington SD teachers and staff don’t live in the district, then it’s mother nature to blame. Or maybe part of the problem is that it’s too expensive for teachers and staff to live within the district so it’s a mix of reasons, but that’s a guess.

    Either way this doesn’t seem like a woke-inspired problem; maybe more just if it twitches shoot at it.

  3. Stephen Haner Avatar
    Stephen Haner

    But no break for custodial and maintenance staff….nice. They don’t have children or are so well paid that expensive temp daycare options are fine for them?

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Hey! Right to Work state, remember?

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Hey! Where’d that comment go? Finally, something useful pops up on BR, and *poof* gone before I could copy the link.

    BTW, just spend thirty seconds trying to “unhighlight” the selected region in that image.

  5. energyNOW_Fan Avatar
    energyNOW_Fan

    FCPS (Fairfax schools) closed all week too. Seems like hidden reason is to give COVID a break, but that is not stated, so it is speculation. Another recent example of lack of communication is trash/leaf disposal which has experienced hardship due to labor shortages. Fine, but we got no explanations about what was happening. Just “leave” us in the dark, prob elected officials embarrassed because their priority was banning plastic bags, but we have to have a system actually running before we have a liberal mandate on how to do it..

  6. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    I am not sure what all the fuss is about. If neighboring jurisdictions are closing, that means children of Arlington County children are at home and need a parent there as well. There must be a lot of Arlington County teachers who live outside Arlington for this to have a such large impact on the school system. As Steve noted, however, it does seem a little hypocritical to require custodial and maintenance staff to come in.

    The day will be made up later in the calendar.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      The neighboring jurisdictions should not have closed either. The author may be focused on hi home-county of Arlington but the rest of NoVa is in the same boat.

      It snowed Sunday night / Monday morning. The roads were clear yesterday and were certainly clear this morning.

      This is not about the snow.

  7. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Youngkin should enforce the 180 day school rule. No waivers this year.

    1. Interested Observer Avatar
      Interested Observer

      No waiver required. There are 6 extra days built into the system: extra days in the calendar and 3 cobbled together by adding extra time to the school day. All 6 of these days are instructional, unless there are emergency closings. In the last few years, net instructional time has come out on top.

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