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> School closures are having a disproportionately negative impact of poor and middle class families, whose parents can’t work from home. Using schools for dayc

> School closures are having a disproportionately negative impact of poor and middle class families, whose parents can’t work from home. Using schools for daycare facilities isn't an honest discussion of the drawbacks of leaving schools closed either.

dr_dshiv 6y ago
Why not? What do you suggest people do with their kids, if they need to work and don't have resources for private babysitting/tutoring?
- ghaff 6y ago
  I know "schools aren't daycare" is one of the talking points for a number of the unions in particular. But it sort of is (among other things). The alternative is for the government to have someone else provide the childcare--which doesn't really change the problem. Or parents have to figure things out on their own however they can.
  - inetknght 6y ago
    > The alternative is for the government to have someone else provide the childcare Another alternative is to pay workers a fair living wage sufficient for everyone to afford private care.
    - dr_dshiv 6y ago
      How would that be different from teachers providing child care?
dabbledash 6y ago
Under normal circumstances are people supposed to keep a baby sitter on call at all times just in case society is suddenly upended and schools go away? If kids are usually in school all day, parents are going to build their schedules around that. It would be pretty silly to do otherwise.
RHSeeger 6y ago
Like it or not, our society has been set up (for many years now) such that children attend school during the days. Implying that parents are the bad guys and "treating schools as daycare" is disingenuous and insulting. Parents, and society as a whole, make long term, life plans around the fact that children will be in school; not because it's a daycare, but because it's important and required. Changing that (cancelling school) impacts life in a significant, financial way; the kind of way that negatively effects both parents and children. We see the same type of thing when schools suddenly change starting times to be later; work schedules need to change and it's very stressful to everyone; people lose jobs over it. This is like that, but orders of magnitude more impactful.

dr_dshiv 6y ago

Why not? What do you suggest people do with their kids, if they need to work and don't have resources for private babysitting/tutoring?

ghaff 6y ago
I know "schools aren't daycare" is one of the talking points for a number of the unions in particular. But it sort of is (among other things). The alternative is for the government to have someone else provide the childcare--which doesn't really change the problem. Or parents have to figure things out on their own however they can.
- inetknght 6y ago
  > The alternative is for the government to have someone else provide the childcare Another alternative is to pay workers a fair living wage sufficient for everyone to afford private care.
  - dr_dshiv 6y ago
    How would that be different from teachers providing child care?

dabbledash 6y ago

Under normal circumstances are people supposed to keep a baby sitter on call at all times just in case society is suddenly upended and schools go away? If kids are usually in school all day, parents are going to build their schedules around that. It would be pretty silly to do otherwise.

RHSeeger 6y ago

Like it or not, our society has been set up (for many years now) such that children attend school during the days. Implying that parents are the bad guys and "treating schools as daycare" is disingenuous and insulting. Parents, and society as a whole, make long term, life plans around the fact that children will be in school; not because it's a daycare, but because it's important and required. Changing that (cancelling school) impacts life in a significant, financial way; the kind of way that negatively effects both parents and children. We see the same type of thing when schools suddenly change starting times to be later; work schedules need to change and it's very stressful to everyone; people lose jobs over it. This is like that, but orders of magnitude more impactful.