The U.S.: A Nation Neglecting Its Future

There is little doubt that the future of our or any nation largely depends on the wellbeing of its children, how carefully we nurture, love, and educate our future leaders and workforce. What is the priority we place on the proper environment for raising a child and emphasis we place on educating each child to the maximum of her/his intellectual gifts? For many children in this country these requirements are well met. BUT, for millions of others we are woefully lacking in many areas. A chaotic home and neighborhood environment is a deleterious presence for many (Ref.1).  Our public education was also failing children especially in the inner cities long before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Ref.2).  However, the pandemic with the closing of in-person learning, has made matters far worse with devastating results in mental health, socialization and educational achievement even though many thought that the risk of in person schooling was vastly overblown (Ref.3). In response about a million parents have moved their children to charter or private schools some with in-person learning and others with superior virtual opportunities (Ref.4).
    As Delta waned and it appeared that schooling would return to normal, along came the more infectious, but less virulent omicron variant.  The first knee-jerk reaction by many cities was to again resort to ineffectual public school distant learning, reaffirming that we are willing to sacrifice childhood education as the first option along with a lack of contingency plans dealing with a shortage of support staff (Ref.5).  One of the reasons stated for those proposing school closure is the recent increase in hospitalization of children. Children are far less susceptible to serious complications than adults; however, the number of recently hospitalized has disturbingly increased to around 672/day out of a population of about 49 million of school age. Unknown in interpreting these numbers is how many had underlying conditions, were fully vaccinated and their individual hospital course (Ref.6). These numbers would also have to be considered in relation to the collateral damage caused by closing schools along with the uncertainty if the schools or the general community is the source of their infection.   
    Flexing its muscle, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to close schools for a few days despite the opposition of the school board and mayor (Ref.7,8). The White House although supporting open schools refused to condemn this action by the Chicago Union and appears to be more concerned about the wellbeing of the Teachers Unions than the overall performance of public schools (Ref.9).  Importantly, there is yet little urgency from any of our educational or political leaders to intensify learning to make up for a two-year loss of education, especially for the disadvantaged, aggravated by a rigid curriculum in many school systems (Ref.10).
         There is no doubt that our present educational system is NOT meeting our need to produce highly skilled adults, living proud productive lives, regardless of socio-economic background.  For our nation to have a prosperous future we will need ALL able-bodied adult Americans gainfully participating in our economy; perhaps then we will be able to successfully reengineer our federal budget with its ever-increasing debt and unfunded liabilities (Ref. 11,12). It is imperative for the future of our nation to seriously address our priorities, putting far greater attention to the outcomes of our schooling and less to the incomes of our present special interests. Something foolishly we are not doing at this time.

1. Education, Effects of Home Environment on Academic Performance, Arsalan, October 22, 2019, available at: https://academic-master.com/effect-of-home-environment-on-academic-performance/ (accessed January 10, 2022)
2. Jill Barshay, A decade of research on the rich-poor divide in education, many studies show large and growing inequalities, The Hechinger Report, June 29,2020, available at: https://hechingerreport.org/a-decade-of-research-on-the-rich-poor-divide-in-education/ (accessed January 10, 2022)
3. David Leonhardt, No Way to Grow Up, American Children are starting 2022 in crisis, The New York Times, January 4, 2022, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/briefing/american-children-crisis-pandemic.html (accessed January 9, 2022)
4. Carl Campanile and Selim Algar, Charter schools gained, public schools lost students during pandemic: report, New York Post, September 22, 2021, available at: https://nypost.com/2021/09/22/charter-schools-gained-over-public-during-pandemic-report/ (accessed January 12, 2022)
5. Scott Calvert and Douglas Belkin, Inside a Covid-19 School Closing: A Pennsylvania Superintendent Agonizes Over Going Remote, WSJ, January 5, 2022, available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-a-covid-19-school-closing-a-pennsylvania-superintendent-agonizes-over-going-remote-11641416872?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1 (accessed January 6, 2022)
6. Holly Yan and Travis Caldwell, A record-high number of kids are getting hospitalized with Covid-19 as overall Covid-19 hospitalizations soar past Delta peak, CNN health, January 5, 2022, available at: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html (accessed January 6, 2022)
7. Jeremiah Poff and Elizabeth Faddis, Chicago cancels classes after teachers union voted for remote learning,  Washington Examiner, January 5, 2022, available at: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/chicago-public-schools-poised-to-cancel-classes-as-teachers-vote-to-go-on-strike (accessed January 6, 2022)
8. Amir Vera, Brad Parks, Holly Yan, Chicago Schools: Public School students will return to classroom Wesnesdy after teachers union suspends work action, mayor says, msn news, January 10, 2022, available at: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chicago-schools-public-school-students-will-return-to-classroom-wednesday-after-teachers-union-suspends-work-action-mayor-says/ar-AASBMG4?ocid=uxbndlbing (accessed January 10, 2022)
9. Steven Nelson, WH says it wants schools open – but won’t blast CHI union for move to close, New York Post, January 5, 2022, available at: https://nypost.com/2022/01/05/president-biden-doesnt-take-on-chicago-teachers-union/ (accessed January 6, 2022)
10. Catherine Cheney, As schools reopen, experts call for plans to ‘actually teach kids’, devex, December 20,2021, available at: https://www.devex.com/news/as-schools-reopen-experts-call-for-plans-to-actually-teach-kids-102242 (accessed January 10, 2022)
11. Kimberly Amadeo, Erika Rasure and Emily Ernsberger, US National Debt by Year, the balance, December23,2021, available at: https://www.thebalance.com/national-debt-by-year-compared-to-gdp-and-major-events-3306287 (accessed January 10, 2022)
12. James Anderson, An Unfunded Future: US Federal Government Liabilities, SD Bullion, September 24, 2019, available at: https://sdbullion.com/blog/what-are-unfunded-liabilities-for-the-us-government (accessed January 10, 2022)

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