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Casey Briggs

Professor Freeland

English Comp. II

6 December 2020

How has COVID-19 had negative effects on Schools in America?

The year of 2020 has been a very interesting year to say the least. One of the biggest occurrences

of this year was the appearance of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. A little background about

COVID, it was brought over to the US from China after a man ate a bat, and it acts kind of like the flu,

being deadly to some people with previous ongoing diseases. It has affected many people with their

everyday lives and some with their health, but one of the biggest problems it has brought is schooling.

Due to the social distancing rule, schools have had to change how they are teaching the students to keep

them safe. Covid-19 has completely changed the ways schools are being run in America which is having

a negative impact on school sports, how students are learning, how teachers are teaching, and even how

the parents are having to help their children.

The reason schools are being closed down is to help “ ensures that people can limit their

interactions with others and slows the spread of the virus while the healthcare system copes with

the pandemic” (UotP) says the University of the People, a non-profit organization dedicated to

getting people a higher education. When the virus first arose, it was found by scientists that it

was spread by being in contact with others. This was a concern in schools because so many

teachers and students come in contact with so many different people, so it would be an easy

place for the disease to spread. So schools saw this as the only option in the early phases of the

disease. This then forced the decision to start online schooling for the students which is one of

the biggest impacts out of it all. The online schooling in the early stages was a very rough

experience for many of the students and teachers. The teachers didn’t have any time to prepare
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on how they were gonna teach their classes, and the students didn’t know how the classes would

be run. Many students had a hard time online just because they couldn’t get themselves to focus.

Online was also a problem though because many schools and universities weren’t able to have

online schooling, which could make them close, said The University of the People. Not all

schools have the finances or resources to go completely online, so some had to just go on long

breaks from school. The finances part of it was a problem for many schools and the economy

though.

Schools not being open was not only a big problem for students, but also for the economy

and school finances. The US economy is one of the biggest sufferers in the finance part of it. US

News stated that the schools being closed would cost the economy of America roughly between

$14 trillion and $28 trillion if they don’t open back up. This is not money they are losing now

though. This is money they will lose in the future due to the lack of education these students are

getting. Especially to the students in low income households who will have an even harder time

trying to learn, the future for them will be even harder. Two economists from Stanford

University and the University of Munich got together and wrote “students in K-12 will

experience a 3% lower income over their lifetimes because of the pandemic, translating to an

average of 1.5% lower annual GDP for the remainder of the century”(USNEWS). Because of the

lack of education these students will be getting, the less amount of money will be made in their

lifetime, which then will affect the economy and how much it will change. This is because the

learning is said to be equal to one-third of a year, which then gets that 1.5% lower GDP for the

century. Which then equals the 14.2 trillion dollars that is expected to be lost, which then if the

online education system is still being used, it would then double to 28.4 trillion dollars. This was

written back in September when many schools did not know what they were gonna do in whether
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they were gonna open or not. Many schools have currently but this number will still be relatively

high in the amount that will be lost. So even though the numbers are not 100% accurate, the

amount lost in the future will be a substantial amount with the fact that the schools were and may

still be closed for one or two thirds of a year.

In the topic of money, it also goes along with the idea of parents having problems. It is

not as big of a problem for parents with children who are in middle school or high school, but the

ones with children in elementary school. These are the students who have the biggest problem

with online education. Getting young children to sit down on a computer and focus for many

hours of the day is a hard task to do. And you can’t leave them alone, because many of them do

not know how to use a computer other than maybe simple tasks. Which means when parents

have to stay and help them, they have to take off of work or even hire someone to help the kids.

This gets back to the financial point because the parents will either be making less or spending

more to let their kids learn. And then the parents that have multiple children have even more of a

problem. It then affects their personal lives too because they have to change their schedules to

help their children learn. “With young children at home from school and their normal schedules

disrupted, parents are needing to make schedules for children who would normally be in

school”(UotP). While having to find time to help their child or children, they also have to find

how they are going to attend online school. Not all schools were able to provide laptops to all

students which meant families were going to have to provide their own. And not all families

have the financial income to do this which became a problem. So this meant families would have

to take off work or hire a babysitter to help their children learn, and possibly even have to

purchase a laptop for them to use. This was a big problem for many families because not

everybody is able to afford things like this to happen. Some people had to worry about losing
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their jobs also so some were budgeting incase that happened. This was the biggest impact that

the disease had on parents that had to do with schooling.

There was also the worry that this disease had on students and parents psychological

health. When the students were quarantined and lost their social life, it took a toll on somes

health. Science Direct wrote an article about the mental health of parents and students, saying

“They found that quarantined people had an elevated risk of developing acute and post-traumatic

stress symptoms and disorders, and showed a higher prevalence of general psychological

symptoms, emotional disturbances, depression, stress, low mood, irritability, and anxiety-

induced insomnia”(ScienceDirect). Many of these symptoms were said to come from the lack of

social life and intervention with other people. The article shows many numbers of tests done by

several different organizations that show how the children were affected. One states that “an

earlier study found 30% of isolated or quarantined American children in areas severely impacted

by H1N1 met the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on parental

reports”(ScienceDirect). This test wasn’t the only wanna run either. There were also ones run for

anxiety, depression, and a lot of stress also. They ran tests about these three things mentioned

and some of the results were “Among the participants, 24.9% had experienced symptoms of

anxiety, followed by 19.7% for depressive symptoms and 15.2% for stress

symptoms”(ScienceDirect). These numbers were from six combined schools who agreed to

participate in the test. This was said to have a big impact on these students, and even the parents'

lives, because these were not things that would just disappear when this was over. These are

effects that may last with some of these students their whole lives. So while there’s the financial

effect on these families, there is also a big mental health effect that may have lifelong

consequences from it.

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Going along with the effects from lack of social life, there was a big problem with sports

being cancelled when this first started. Many athletes in the US were just starting their spring

season for whatever sports they were playing. Things like baseball, track and field, and tennis

were all cancelled due to social distancing. This took a toll on many athletes, especially the

seniors who were not gonna get their last year of their sport. Many places have stated that many

athletes may have a feeling of loss due to the shutdown of sports which was just the beginning

for some athletes. This cancellation was different for all age groups though. The Medical Center

said that younger children use sports as a way to build skills such as socializing. When you are

younger, a lot of your social skills come from sports and interacting with other kids your age.

When this gets taken away from the younger children, a lot of those skills are missed and

become underdeveloped. For older children though, it affects them in a more biological way.

Many high school students become stressed and form anxiety due to their age, so many use

sports as a way to decrease this stress and work around their anxiety. Without these sports, these

difficult times for these high schoolers just get worse and worse over time. Older kids understand

more what is being taken away from them, so they feel a little more hurt from it then young

children do. There are then the college athletes who this also affects. They have worked their

whole lives to be able to play at the next level, and then a year of it gets taken away from them.

Those college seniors who were gonna play their sport for the last time may never be able to

again because of the disease. The taking away of sports has had a big effect on kids of all ages,

no matter in K-12 or college, they are all getting a social event taken away from them.

With the topic of college sports, all college students have been affected by this crisis.

These students are paying a lot of money to attend these colleges, and they are getting it taken

away from them. Many students are paying to stay in the college dorms just to take online
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classes. All that money is being spent and wasted while they could just be staying home to do the

work.There have also been people in the same situation who could’ve stayed home, but they had

to attend only one class and the rest were online, which made them have to pay to stay there.

There is also the social side of it. People say that one of the best parts of college is the social part

of it. You get to meet new people, make new friends, some that they will know for the rest of

their lives, and now they may not get that. These college students are also getting ready to start

their lives. They are in the last step before they have a fulltime job and start raising a family.

Now they will be missing out on a year of college which may affect the outcome of their career.

This is forcing many new college students to transfer schools or pick new colleges because they

don’t wanna pay all that money for an education they could get a lot cheaper somewhere else.

These students have waited their whole lives to attend college and now they are getting a year

taken away from them.

This isn’t only affecting the students in college though. The colleges themselves are also

taking a hit with all this. These students are not wanting to pay tuition if they are just gonna be

taking classes online through the school. So they have been having to reimburse students for the

money that is not needed. This is making a big dent in the profits of the colleges. The Council of

Foriegn Relations stated that “More than 80 percent said they would want a tuition discount if

instruction is entirely remote. Colleges and universities also stand to lose out on the money

generated by athletic programs and on-campus dining and housing”(CFR). These things are what

the colleges run off of. The tuition paid by the students, and some, the money from the athletic

programs. This just adds on to the losses though. Because these colleges are bringing in less

money, it means they are having to lay off faculty because they can’t afford to pay them. This

had then led to some schools being forced to close. “Many schools have been forced to lay off
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faculty and staff to balance their budgets. According to a Chronicle of Higher Education tracker,

more than fifty thousand employees across academia have been laid off”(CFR). The number of

employees that got laid off is an example of the deficit that is happening. This just shows how

much of a hit these schools are taking, when some are even being forced to close down. Another

source of profit they are losing is because of foreign students. Foriegn students have been forced

to return to their home country due to the fact of the temporary travel band. This means these

colleges are losing money from these students too. A big loss for the schools are the foreign

exchange students. Many of them will not be able to come over to go to school and get an

education like in past years. This is a big deal for these colleges because for every foriegn

student they don’t get, that’s a full tuition amount they aren’t getting paid. These foriegn students

bring in a lot of income for these colleges, and without this income, schools are taking a big hit.

This has become a big problem for colleges because the future is uncertain for them.

High schools, while they are not as big and bringing in as much money as colleges, are

also having the problem of having enough money through these times. When these high schools

have a lack of money, it not only affects the school, but the students in the school also. “If

additional federal assistance is not given and predicted cuts to education funding are made, both

schools and students will suffer. Money matters in education, and a lack thereof can harm

students and educators”(AmericanProgress). This was said in an article that The Center for

American Progress had written about the financial problems of schools. These schools already

have a lack of funding, so when you add this to the factor, it makes it even worse. The US

government has tried giving stimulus funding to these schools but it is not enough for the efforts

they are trying to make. The schools are trying to “provide students with mental, physical, and

academic support; and provide a safe school environment for educators and students should
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schools reopen”(AmericanProgress). In doing this, they need the money that they just don’t have

and can’t receive. Which then means the students will suffer which then just causes a chain of

events. This just isn’t affecting the schools this year though, this will be affecting them for years

to come too. Some of the biggest funding from Kindergarten to 12th grade comes from the state

and sometimes the local area. Because of this, schools will lose a significant amount of money

and budgeting which will then have more side effects. This just shows how big of impact and of

a problem this disease is for schools. When the budgeting for schools is affected in upcoming

years, it shows the severity of this crisis. It is also after the hits schools took from the great

recession, which they are still recovering from. Even though high schools don’t have the size as

colleges, they are still taking financial hits from the crisis.

Another group of people that took effect by this is the teachers. The teachers were one of

the biggest groups that this had a negative impact on. There were multiple reasons this hit them

harder than most other people. For one, they had to completely change their teaching style. All

these teachers went from in person teaching to online which meant they had to learn how to

within a couple weeks. This then affected the teachers personal lives because things had to be put

aside for the creation of how they were gonna teach their online classes. This was not easy for

most given the short amount of time they had. This made it hard on them and students due to the

fact of a new way of learning. Another thing that affected them was the idea they could possibly

be fired. In fact, many were fired due to the fact that the schools just simply couldn’t afford to

pay them. This made manys jobs very stressful knowing that at any time they could be let go.

The only thing the teachers will know about layoffs is that most will be based on seniority. And

this wasn’t for certain, this was a guess by most. As stated by schools in the past, teaching

positions get reduced based on how long the teacher has been at the school. This means the
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longer people have been there, the higher chance they have of keeping their job. While the

numbers are just predictions, the number of teaching jobs that are estimated to be lost are rather

high. It is said that up to 300,000 teaching jobs could be lossed across the nation due to this

issue. 300,000 is not a small number to say the least. These numbers are just the predictions of

what could occur so they aren’t promised, but they could very likely happen. This means some of

these teachers could work all their lives to achieve these goals, and they could be fired a few

years into their dreams. This then goes back to the students though. As more teachers get let go,

there are fewer people to teach the children. This then means the less education the students will

receive which then sets them up for failure in life. This just turns into a long chain of negative

events. The schools need teachers but when they have a lack of money, they can’t afford to keep

them.

The coronavirus is something that has been seen very few times in US history. The

impact it has on schools is not something that will just disappear. This disease will have lasting

impacts for many years to come. This upcoming generation has been hit very hard by this crisis

and some don’t even realize it. From the lack of education, the lack of social skills, to possibly

even the chance of a less successful future. From people losing their jobs to colleges shutting

down completely. This is not something that has been taken lightly which is the reason for these

problems. The country put the peoples lives first which did ultimately lead to the decrease in the

amount of deaths. While some kids may never get to play their favorite sport again, and others

may not have another senior year, it has played a big impact in all of our lives. If this crisis

would have never happened, who knows where the country would be today. All that is known is

it has already taken a big impact on several peoples lives. This being said, it can be seen how
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many different ways this disease has had a negative impact on our education system including

students, teachers, parents, and schools themselves.

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Work Cited

“How Are U.S. Colleges Dealing With Coronavirus?” Council on Foreign Relations,

Council on Foreign Relations, www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-are-us-colleges-dealing-

coronavirus.

Lewison, Kiera. “The Impact of Coronavirus: Effects on Education: UoPeople.”

University of the People, 29 Oct. 2020, www.uopeople.edu/blog/impact-of-

coronavirus-on-education/.

Lisette Partelow, Jessica Yin. “Why K-12 Education Needs More Federal Stimulus

Funding.”

Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-

12/reports/2020/07/21/487865/k-12-education-needs-federal-stimulus-funding/.

“Report: COVID-19 School Closures Could Cost U.S. Economy $14 Trillion.” U.S. News

& World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/education-

news/articles/2020-09-14/report-coronavirus-school-closures-could-cost-us-

economy-14-trillion.

Tang, Suqin, et al. “Mental Health and Its Correlates among Children and Adolescents

during COVID-19 School Closure: The Importance of Parent-Child Discussion.”

Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 279, Jan. 2021, pp. 353–360. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.10.016.
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