We return to school this fall in a world we never could have imagined a year ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on our schools, our families, and our world. It has also laid bare the painful inequities in our educational system and thrown our economy into crisis.
Amidst all of these anxieties, our country experienced further tragedy: a horrifying series of murders of Black men and women by police officers. Protestors flooded the streets, and our nation was once again shaken to its core. Now, as a new school year begins, we are carrying this stress, anger, loss, and, yes, trauma in our hearts. In our cover story, “Healing from COVID-19 Trauma in Our Schools,” we talk with educators who are helping school communities recover and reconnect.
In “Your Voice Matters,” find out how educators are influencing decisions about schools reopening, distance learning, and teacher pay. Of course, as educators fight for their jobs, school privatizers see opportunity. In “Profiting Off the Pandemic?” read how Betsy DeVos and her corporate allies are siphoning federal relief funds for private schools.
Against this difficult backdrop, our nation must also confront the injustice of police violence, particularly against African Americans. In “‘This Is No Time for Us to Look Away,’” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García and NEA affiliates call for systemic changes and the need to hold powerful people accountable.
You can be a part of this change. Explore some steps your school can take in “An Unequal Starting Place,” and “The Power of Ethnic Studies.” We will carry all of these struggles with us as we vote this November.
While the mail-in ballots are still coming in, we say farewell to our inspirational leader of six years, Lily Eskelsen García, in “Thank You, Lily.” Also read about NEA’s first-ever virtual Representative Assembly in “Educators Vow to Help Lead the Nation Through Crisis.”
We are living in tumultuous times, but as always, we will join together and find strength in our families and colleagues, and in our union, which gives us a voice for making our schools and our world a better place.
