School Closures Keep More Minorities, Women from Finding Jobs

Extended school closures would likely keep more minorities and women from finding jobs, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data.

Economist Ernie Tedeschi noted last week that sizable percentages of women and minorities had reported that they were unable to find jobs because they had to stay at home to take care of children who were not at school.

Nearly 6% of black women reported being out of work because schools and day cares were closed. Hispanic women were close behind.

White women were significantly less affected, with only about 3% reporting that they were out of work due to school closures. Percentages for men in all racial and ethnic groups were lower.

The percent of adults in May who said they were out of work due to children not being in school or daycare, by sex and race/ethnicity. https://t.co/xs7uy63haG pic.twitter.com/lhpvSD7gkr

— Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) July 2, 2020

In addition, a recent survey found that when children are forced to learn from home, black and Latino children had less access to live video classes on Zoom, Google, or other Internet technologies.

In general, wealthier families have been better able to manage the challenge of school closures. Keeping schools closed for longer imposes greater costs on poorer families, many of which also depend on school breakfast and lunch programs (some of these programs have remained open even though schools have been closed).

President Donald Trump has been pushing for schools to reopen, but many cities — including New York — may not open schools in the fall due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus, though children are less susceptible to the disease. Teachers unions are generally opposed to reopening the schools.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.