Online-Only School Districts Declared 'Virtual Snow Day' on Tuesday

And you thought COVID was the only excuse the teachers’ unions would come up with not to go to work. Silly people.

There are endless excuses:

At least five Michigan online-only school districts gave students a “virtual snow day” even though most teachers, staff members and students could work Tuesday from the safety of their homes.

The snow days in such districts as Ann Arbor, Flint, Lansing, Holt, and Okemos come as heated debate continues over the continued use of online schooling without offering an in-person option. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has urged districts to give families such an option by March 1. 

In a Monday letter to parents, Ann Arbor schools Superintendent Jeanice Swift referenced mental health and personal wellness as reasons for the snow day, which she said was an opportunity “to make memories, to have fun and to celebrate community.”

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So let me see if I have this straight. You go to school every day without leaving your house. For months the school districts have insisted this is just fine and there’s no reason to make any change to it.

But on Tuesday, because it was snowing outside – which has nothing to do with what’s happening inside – your “mental health and personal wellness” suddenly hang in the balance unless you’re relieved of your online learning obligations.

Got it.

For much of the education establishment, it seems the snow day is as much a ritual of passage as it is an adjustment born of necessity. Tuesday was a day – unlike many days when schools declare snow days – when there truly was substantial snowfall and it made sense for schools doing in-person schooling to tell kids to stay at home that day.

I suppose there are some kids who lament the fact that, when other kids get snow days, they still have to sit in front of the computer and learn math and whatever else. It’s not surprising that some educators would be tempted to join in on the snow day fun because all the other districts are doing it.

But how can these same people say with a straight face that they take student instruction seriously? The whole point of doing school online is that there is, arguably anyway, a public health threat to in-person learning this year. You can quibble about how real that threat is, and whether it justifies months on end of computer learning, but at least you can see the rationale for it.

And most people recognize that the kids are paying a price by having to do it this way, especially if they attend a school that isn’t set up for online learning and is figuring out on the fly how to do it. (As an aside, my son attended an online high school that is designed for that purpose and it was an excellent experience. Your average public school district doesn’t really know how to do it.)

The kids have fallen far enough behind in their learning this year without being given a day off for no reason whatsoever, apart from school officials wanting the same day off their colleagues in other districts are getting.

If you just don’t feel like coming into work and you’ll take any excuse, fine. Admit that. Don’t sit there and tell us day in and day out how you’re “caring, dedicated educators” when you give yourselves days off on a whim, and put your students even further behind than they already are.

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And public schools wonder why families want to find alternatives for their kids.