Teachers In Migrant Camps Reveal Just How Much Public Schools Have Become Foster Care

It was only a matter of time before the government would enlist teachers to work in the migrant shelters sprouting up due to the crisis at the border.

When people accuse me of being a glorified babysitter because I’m a teacher, I usually laugh and respond, “Who said anything about being glorified?” During the COVID-19 lockdowns, I can now add, “Who said anything about being a babysitter?”

These days, teachers in many parts of the country are paid for doing next to nothing since reopening schools would expose them to the virus. For teachers who have returned to the classroom, much of their work has moved online and many don’t see students in person, or see them in person often.

Given this situation, particularly in states that have kept public schools closed, it was only a matter of time before the government would enlist teachers to work in the migrant shelters sprouting up due to the crisis at the border.

It was recently reported that teachers from San Diego Unified School District were asked to work with migrant children housed in the San Diego Convention Center. Because SDUSD has yet to open their schools — all their instruction has been virtual this year — this apparently leaves some teachers free to provide in-person instruction to minors who crossed the border illegally.

LINK: San Diego Parents: Prioritizing Migrants for In-Person

Instruction Is ‘a Slap in the Face’ 

Naturally, residents of San Diego are outraged at this double-standard. While their children languish at home staring at a screen, children in migrant shelters have a physically present teacher. Simply responding that “all children in California, regardless of immigration status, have a constitutional right to education” doesn’t excuse this. One group of kids is receiving real instruction from a real person, and another group of kids is stuck with a cheap digital facsimile disconnected from reality.

Then again, it’s fair to ask if the teacher recruits from SDUSD are providing an actual education in the sense of taking attendance, presenting lessons, and grading assignments, or if they are mostly herding groups of young people from one place to another and dispensing basic living necessities. In other words, are they primarily teachers or social workers?

If they’re teachers, and what they’re doing with migrant children is the same as what they would do with Californian children, then the standards for what passes as education are probably quite low (and, judging from California’s test scores, they are). If they’re social workers, and they are providing food and toiletries to needy children, then it makes no sense to have teachers do this instead of trained social workers.

Read the rest from Auguste Meyrat HERE

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