If children are at more risk out of school than in school, then the problem isn’t school.
- If kids who aren’t in school are hungry, then increase funding to food pantries and community kitchens. (BTW–many public schools have been feeding kids all summer.)
- If kids who aren’t in school are in greater danger of abuse, then improve child protective services, counseling, and intervention services.
- If kids who aren’t in school don’t have a safe place to stay, then build more shelters for families in need.
- If kids who aren’t in school are more likely to suffer from mental health problems like anxiety and depression, then let’s spend more money on mental health care and increase access for young people to social workers, mental health counselors, and child psychologists.
The problems that children who are not in school are facing are because of the destruction of the social safety net–by the exact same people who are now demanding that the public schools reopen without making sure those schools have the resources they need to do so safely, and without offering the services our kids have been getting in our school because they’ve been eliminated in our society.
