By Dana Goldstein and Kate Taylor
Published February 5, 2021 | Updated February 10, 2021

The idea makes sense, so much so that at least two governors, a national union leader and President Biden are behind it: extend this school year into the summer to help students make up for some of the learning they lost during a year of mostly remote school.

By summer, more teachers will be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Transmission rates might be significantly lower. And it will be easier in warm weather for students and educators to spend time in the open air, which is safer than being indoors.

Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia promoted the idea on Friday, saying that schools should make summer classes an option for families. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Randi Weingarten, the powerful president of the American Federation of Teachers, have offered similar endorsements. Boston teachers and the district have started talking about summer options. And Mr. Biden is expected to ask Congress to approve $29 billion to fund summer programs and tutoring as part of his pandemic stimulus package.

But if parents and students have learned anything during this crisis, it is that even simple, intuitive ideas are hard to pull off in a public education system that is simultaneously decentralized and highly bureaucratic.

Governors have few ways to compel districts to expand summer offerings. Local contracts typically make it impossible to require teachers to work over the summer, and a recent poll of educators found that only 19 percent support a shorter summer vacation in 2021 or 2022.

Teachers who did agree to work over the summer would need to be paid at a time when districts are already stretching their budgets to cover costs such as updating ventilation systems, hiring school nurses and testing staff and students for the coronavirus.

Kimberly Adams, president of the Fairfax Education Association, the teachers’ union in Virginia’s largest school system, said that reactions from teachers, parents and students to the idea of extending the school year were “definitely mixed.”

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“Memories our children should be creating aren’t possible right now,” says Noah’s mother Pam Gaddy, a 24-year social studies teacher and mother of four. “It takes a toll. But as an educator, I know my children, and my students, are resilient. As adults we’re not giving them enough credit for that.”

As the debate over whether or not students should attend school for in-person instruction rages on among school administrators, policy makers, families, and the medical and scientific communities, the noise has all but drowned out the voices of the students themselves.

This generation of young people has experienced profound disruption to their lives and their learning. But if we just stop and take a moment to listen, we can better determine how to help them get back on track.

“I feel like a Zoom Zombie.” “I used to get better grades before the virus and now I am stressed out.” “My dad took a hefty pay cut and has less in-person work.” “I don’t have friends to talk to.” “I got sick. My mom, too. It was hard because hospital payments were so high.” “I wish it would end and go back to normal again.”

These are the voices of students, ages 13 to 18, in grades 7 through 12, who participated in an NEA and National PTA research study to gauge what they felt were the most pressing issues facing them during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis.

“Today’s research will tell you a story of the impact of this pandemic on students from an academic, social, and economic standpoint,” said NEA President Becky Pringle in a joint NEA-PTA press call releasing the findings. “The research we did together looks at a cross-section of middle and high school students who, while faced with unprecedented challenges, have demonstrated an extraordinary resilience in the face of the pandemic.”

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Published, February 2, 2021