Jacobin Radio w/ Suzi Weissman: COVID and the Crisis in Education

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Suzi talks to Arlene Inouye, UTLA Secretary and Bargaining Chair about the system-wide pressures facing teachers, support staff, students, and their families, all seeking safety and stability during the deadly and disruptive pandemic. A new NEA survey reveals anxiety, exhaustion, burnout, and an alarming number of educators leaving the profession they have loved. Arlene gives us a big picture of the crisis and the pre-existing problems made suddenly worse by COVID: teacher and staff shortages, declining enrollment, and irregular class attendance. We’ll hear how UTLA has addressed the health and safety concerns such as ventilation, masking, and other actions to make safer classrooms, and what ideas and programs they are trying to implement to address these issues in an unstable environment with ongoing funding issues. Georgia Flowers Lee brings her experiences and difficulties teaching preschoolers during the pandemic. The conditions of teacher and staff shortages—plus frequent shutdowns for two weeks whenever someone falls ill or tests positive with COVID—adds to burnout and hardship for educators, students, and their families. Hector Perez Roman, who teaches high school AP world history in Arleta in the northern San Fernando Valley, brings us news and stories from the classroom in an underserved and hard-hit area. Perez-Roman talks about how teachers and students are dealing with the trauma of COVID illness and loss, attendance uncertainty, lost time for learning, yet are still being bogged down with unnecessary standardized tests. Belinda Barragan is a LAUSD PSA (Pupil Student Attendance) counselor working with students and their families, teachers, and staff on the mental health issues brought by pandemic stress. She sees more cases of depression and social anxiety daily, with parents coming in to ask how to deal with these issues with their child at home. She describes teachers who are frustrated, anxious, and fatigued from their own classrooms while also covering their peers because of the shortage of substitutes available. We hear their stories, and Arlene Inouye discusses the UTLA platform to address these issues with solutions that bring hope.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Suzy Weisman. On today's program, we spend the hour looking
0:18.5	at education during the pandemic. A new national education association or any A survey has
0:25.0	revealed the depth of the crisis in education with system-wide pressures on teachers, support
0:31.3	staff, students and their families, all seeking an educative environment that provides safety
0:38.6	and stability. The survey reveals exhaustion, burnout, and an alarming number of educators
0:44.0	leaving the profession they have loved. We're fortunate to have with us today an incredible
0:49.4	group representing preschool elementary and secondary teachers, a school counselor dealing
0:54.8	with the mental health issues of students, teachers, staff, and parents. We begin with
1:00.3	Arlene Inouye, UTLA secretary, that's the United Teachers of Los Angeles. She's also the
1:05.7	bargaining chair. And then we bring in elementary educational specialist Georgia Flowers Lee,
1:13.1	who teaches three to five-year-olds, Hector Pettis Roman, who teaches high school AP World
1:19.0	History in Arlida, and Belinda Baragan, L-A-U-S-D-P-S-A counselor. And that is the pupil student
1:29.1	attendance counselor. She works with the mental health issues of students and their families,
1:35.4	as well as teachers and staff, all dealing with the trauma of the pandemic. We'll get their
1:40.3	stories as well as what kind of solutions they think can address their concerns that give
1:45.4	us hope. All this won our program returns in just a moment.
2:01.6	This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Suzy Weisman and really pleased today at the panel that we're
2:06.9	going to bring that's addressing education in the pandemic and some of the issues that
2:12.4	are not just for the education sector of labor, but are very specific to it. And that's caused
2:20.0	by a recent NEA survey of members' opinions, that's the National Education Association,
2:27.1	on key issues facing public education during the pandemic and it shows that the massive
2:33.8	staff shortages in America's public schools are leaving educators increasingly exhausted
	...

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