"for all its children, rich and poor, in every city and town of the Commonwealth"

Image: Tweet from Stephanie Murray:
Baker is ordering a three-week school suspension for private + public elementary
and secondary schools starting Tuesday #mapoli 

Please imagine something with me:

• Imagine for a moment that you are a single mom. You make enough, just, to keep an apartment where the kids share a room and food on the table. Your kids are now home, but you don't have anyone to take care of them while you're gone, so they're pretty much on their own, and you're hoping no one finds out. You're really worried that your job may be cut as businesses are closing, and then what will happen to you and your kids? And what if you get sick and can't work?
  The school district sent home an iPad and a mobile hotspot, but you don't have time or energy after work and making them dinner to get it set up. Plus, having them home all day is already running up the electricity bill, and plugging in more things is going to send your budget, which is barely working already, over the edge.
• Imagine for a moment that you're a parent of a student with special needs. You've fought, year after year, to make sure that the district is providing what your child needs. This year, you finally, finally feel like things are working: the connections are there, your child is happy and learning, and you're getting into a rhythm.
  And now there's no school for at least three weeks, and you can already feel the progress that your child made slipping away. You're seeing happy posts online of kids connecting with their classes through videos, but that won't work for your child. You see well-meaning friends arguing passionately that their own child for special needs to be met to convert to online learning, that 'progress must go on.'
• Imagine for a moment that you're a high school student for whom things at home aren't great. You've been moving from friend to friend's house, staying for a few nights, so you won't become a burden. When school's open, you're in clubs and sports, so you're in the school building til late, so you don't have to find places to be elsewhere, and can usually manage to get your homework done.
  You're hearing they're posting things online for students, but with restaurants only doing take-out, your usual practice of buying something off the dollar menu to use the wifi is gone. You've already overstayed your welcome at your latest place; you don't know where you'll go next, since families are shutting themselves in. 

...do I need to go on? 

Do we need one for a kindergartner whose parents are working three jobs and don't speak English?

Do we need one for the rural family that doesn't have broadband and has an income dependent on tourism?

Do we need one for the refugee family that just got here and doesn't even have clothes for March in Massachusetts, let alone resources for students to learn?

Do we need one for the trans child who is now at home 24-7 with a family that doesn't accept them and wonders about their physical safety?

Can we please remember what "all" means here? 

We are responsible for ALL children, no matter their income, their home lives, their language, their family, their race, their location, their ANYTHING.

If your primary concern right now for your own child or the children you teach during this pandemic is their academic achievement, including MCAS, then I am asking you to take a breath, take a minute, and spend some time helping to figure out how we support the above kids and their families.

It isn't through free wifi and Chromebooks.
It isn't through expanded broadband.

We have kids right now whose very existence is threatened.

Am I worried about what this amount (and probably more) of time off is going to do to their education? Absolutely.

Is that my first worry for them right now? Not by a long shot.

from McDuffy, of course