The DOE’s New Zoom Farce

It’s one thing for the city Department of Education to allow some kids to do remote learning amid the Omicron wave, but another to let any student count as attending if he or she meets briefly with teachers on Zoom and gets class materials online. The child doesn’t even have to be sick or under quarantine!

This is a blatant effort to ensure the DOE gets every possible dime of state per-pupil funding, which is tied to attendance. Actually caring about the kids would require schools to provide live remote instruction for the entire school day, and reserving the remote option for those who can’t attend in-person.

Students who have to isolate should get a learning experience “substantially equivalent” to their in-person peers’. Anything less shows that the bureaucracy and the unions don’t really care about any obligation to offer quality learning.

Tellingly, the DOE told principals: “If staff are willing and their supervisor approves,” they can offer live remote instruction but teachers must be “compensated accordingly.” That is: bonuses for doing their jobs.

For all his flaws, ex-Chancellor Richard Carranza at least admitted as COVID closures hit that the DOE was “flying the plane as it’s being built” when it came to remote instruction. But that was nearly two years ago, and the plane still remains unbuilt.