Picture your sixth-grade English teacher leading a convoy on a dusty highway outside Kandahar.
Or your high school chemistry instructor flying fighter missions over Syria. The football coach sweating aboard a destroyer underway on the Arabian Sea. Maybe your kindergarten teacher training commandos in the Horn of Africa.
Beyond teachers who are military veterans and those in the Guard or Reserves, it might be hard to imagine.
But COVID-19 has thrown our educators on the front lines of a deadly conflict, and according to the statistics, far more teachers have died from COVID-19 than soldiers deployed to conflict zones.
At least that’s been the case since March 2020, when COVID took hold, through Sept. 30. During these 19 months, the Department of Defense reported 35 overseas deaths in conflict zones. Compare that with 1,859 school workers killed by COVID during the same period.
You can cut these numbers a lot of ways — and we can’t assume a teacher has acquired COVID at school. But the point is risk; and in the case of teachers, COVID presents a level of risk they did not sign up for.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 3.6 million people work in elementary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, and trade and professional schools, as well as in educational support services. That’s roughly 1 COVID death for every 1,936 school workers.
The DOD has about 1.4 million people. Divide that by 35 overseas deaths since March 2020, and that’s 1 per 40,000 DOD employees.
The numbers change as we dig into the data.
Only 170,000 service members are assigned overseas. Even with that lesser figure, it’s about 1 overseas death per 4,857 DOD employees.
Of course, smaller numbers are in hostile areas, and military members die of everyday causes in noncombat zones. But stick with me.
Those joining the military sign on with the knowledge they’re entering a dangerous business. Teachers, not so much. Despite the risk of school violence and shootings, teachers don’t sign the proverbial “blank check” to their country.
Tuesday marked World Teachers’ Day, and as blue ribbons celebrated their service and sacrifice, our society hasn’t done enough to protect our educators from COVID, a silent, relentless and deadly enemy.
America doesn’t tolerate sending our daughters and sons into harm’s way without the best training and equipment. Nor do we accept high numbers of military casualties.
This isn’t the case for school workers across the country, especially in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott blocked districts from requiring masks and vaccines. COVID has claimed at least 54 Texas school workers since late July.
We’ve seen the angry school board meetings and some teachers protesting vaccines at the same time headlines about teacher deaths have forced some school districts to shut down.
On Sunday, the Express-News reported that “record numbers of teachers have left the profession since the start of the pandemic,” and a labor shortage “is hurting schools’ ability to hire and retain staff of all kinds.”
It’s so bad in Massachusetts that the governor called in the National Guard to drive school buses for districts across the state. Other states are also eyeing the option.
Is it too much a stretch to picture Guard members stepping into the breach to teach? Picture the troops in camouflage teaching the kids.
“Hello, class, I’m Staff Sgt. Smith. I’m a police officer in my day job, an infantryman in the National Guard, and I’ll be your substitute history teacher.”
Or: “Hi, kids, I’m Capt Gonzales. I’m a dentist in both my day job and the Guard, and I’ll be your biology instructor today.”
There are probably some at the Pentagon who would be thrilled with more military people pitching in to help struggling school districts. After all, you can’t start recruiting too young.
Ironically, on Sept. 23, the Air Force’s recruiting branch, headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, declared victory over its annual recruiting goals. According to Maj. Gen. Edward Thomas Jr., commander of the Air Force’s Recruiting Service, it’ll be the first time in five years that the active-duty, Guard and Reserve all met their recruiting goals in a fiscal year.
Maybe school districts should look to the military’s extensive recruiting and marketing arms for hints about talent acquisition and retention. Time for some flashy teacher branding and slogans?
In the meantime, we should thank school workers for their service and help ensure they have the best equipment, training and safety protocols to accomplish their critical mission of teaching our children.
Brandon Lingle is a retired lieutenant colonel who served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force with assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea and across the U.S. brandon.lingle@express-news.net
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