By Katy Knight, Illustration: Siegel Family Endowment, The 74, June 27, 2022
The past two years have demonstrated that schools are much more than places of education. While pandemic-related closures interrupted learning, reduced academic expectations and widened inequality gaps for students, they also carried high consequences for communities at large.
When schools shut down, working parents — especially women — who were left without child care suffered career setbacks as they struggled to help their youngsters learn remotely. Students who relied on school libraries for free internet access could no longer get online. Community groups and organizations for the elderly lost the auditoriums and cafeterias where they would gather to socialize.
The pandemic proved that schools have grown to serve a multidimensional purpose across communities. And historic investments from the Biden administration to reimagine the country’s infrastructure offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve America’s neighborhoods and schools simultaneously.
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