I don’t have kids who are in school, however I smile as I drive past the school bus stop each weekday morning, seeing children waiting with parents for the bus to arrive, carrying book bags and lunch boxes. It’s a scene played out across the U.S. every morning and in urban areas you watch kids walking to a neighborhood school, greeting the school-crossing guards on corners.
Then I think about Puerto Rico and the USVI, and wonder how parents and kids are coping with not only the devastating effects of Irma and Maria to hearts and homes, but to the complete disruption of the school year, and all that entails.
Puerto Rico’s education system is one of the largest in the U.S.
40,000 children back at school after Puerto Rico hurricane - but others may have to wait for months
Five weeks after the storm that killed more than 50 people and devastated the islands, about 40,000 students are back in their classrooms. A total of 119 schools were reopened yesterday in the San Juan and Mayagüez regions. Education officials say they hope to get many more of Puerto Rico's 1100 schools open - but it could be months before that happens.
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About 700,000 children there were affected by Hurricane Maria - which followed the devastation that Hurricane Irma caused to education on several Caribbean islands. Apart from education, being in school can give displaced or traumatized children a sense of structure and direction. A safe place to play and learn can help them heal by providing a return to familiar routines.
Between 15% and 20% of Puerto Rico's schools will have to be closed permanently because of the damage, according to Secretary of Education Julia Keleher. Many others could be without running water and power for months. About 190 schools are being used as community centres and another 70 as shelters for families made homeless.
Julia Keleher Secretary of Education in Puerto Rico, just wrote an upbeat op-ed piece, for The Hill. Keleher, new to the position last January, came under fire in May for her decision to close 179 schools, “as part of her plan to decrease government spending.”
In her op-ed, she is clearly trying to present the current disaster as an opportunity to make changes in the future:
Puerto Rico’s schools can rise up from the hurricane's devastation
More than 40 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, our school system is still reeling from its impact. One week ago, we made every effort to open back up as many schools as possible.
But challenges persist. Principal among these is ensuring the safety and security of our schools; while this is a top priority we need to keep accelerating the pace of inspections. Families need their children back in school. Students want to return to their studies. School communities are seeking a sense of routine and normalcy.
Nevertheless, I remain committed to seeing how we can turn these challenges into opportunities. Our schools and our families have shown that they are resilient. This is the first sign that we can build back better.
Given the lack of power still—in many parts of the island, and questions about access to safe water that does not have to be boiled, along with the financial straits the island faces in the future, without enough aid coming from the U.S. government that is the ultimate authority— I’m not as sanguine as Keleher. I understand why those who have the economic ability to flee to the mainland are doing just that, or sending their school age children to family.
FYI: I’ve gathered stories and tweets here, which I hope you will pass on.
This report from mid-October speaks about many of the difficulties in reopening. Andrew Ujifusa points out that more important for schools even than electricity, is water. Students need not only drinking water, toilets have to function.
Education Week reporter Andrew Ujifusa reports from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to discuss how teachers and other educators are coping with the aftermath of the storm, which devastated the U.S. territory on Sept. 20
Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) has spoken out strongly with concern for the children of Puerto Rico and the USVI:
These Puerto Rican kids are fighting to reopen their school
GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico — They protested. They waited. They were even inspected by the U.S. military. Still, a public Montessori school in the Juan Domingo neighborhood here has yet to fully reopen after Hurricane Maria pounded its walls and windows more than a month ago.
The school, which serves 369 students from elementary to high school grades, is the beating heart of the low-income community less than an hour’s drive from the capital San Juan. There, many of the houses’ roofs have caved in, and fallen trees lie alongside the road. The area doesn’t have power, and access to clean water remains scarce.
More than 80% of the islands' residents have no power and a third don't have safe drinking water.
This school has become a shelter.
Meanwhile on the Mainland:
Children and young people are Puerto Rico’s future. They are our citizens and as such will affect the future of the entire United States.
Help give them a chance.
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