Education pods aren't the only thriving community development this summer, but definitely one we have to digest cautiously for the fact that they contribute to inequalities in education. With parents taking education into their own hands, disparities will continue to mount for those who can't afford a pod, who work full time or who expect public education in Ontario to reform with haste.
When the ministry of education is unable to instil confidence in parents and educators due to its lack of effective solutions, public education can become a privately regulated affair, and the public ministry responsible for it, loses some of its power to govern it once that shift occurs. This is the ultimate danger condition - solve it, or I will, and you'll have to pick up the pieces.
Communities all over the world are having the same debates, and solutions are wide ranging, but the steady sentiment is two sided - either, "I need to work, my kids have to go back to school" or "I'm not comfortable with the lax protocols, they are not taking health seriously enough so I'm not sending them back to school."
These are real stories, real parents and real educators who are caught between health, equity and economics.