Howard E. Manning Jr. | An innovative tool for at-home NC schoolchildren

Earlier this year in The News & Observer I noted that a sound, basic education for our little ones isn’t possible through a computer screen in homes where there are adults who may not be able to read above the ninth grade level and no classroom teacher there to instruct and assess each child’s progress. State leaders should think outside the box, I said. Online learning does not provide each child with a competent certified teacher in a classroom setting and thus fails the Leandro requirement.

That remains true today, and our little children are being deprived of their constitutional right to the equal opportunity to obtain a sound basic education.

In October, I called for UNC-TV to air reading and math instruction for students learning from home. Lo and behold, UNC-TV, in coordination with the Friday Institute at North Carolina State University, was working on such a project already! I believe the educational product it is producing will be worthwhile to our little ones while they are stuck in this challenging situation.

In the early weeks of the pandemic, UNC-TV set out to leverage a direct multi-media line into every home in the state to provide a broadcast bridge for our children. Its work is a model for cooperative educational innovation.

The program has leveraged the strength of the UNC System, PBS’s position as a trusted provider of educational content, and partnerships with both the Department of Public Instruction and the private sector to fill the learning void created by the pandemic.

There is no surprise that UNC-TV has risen to the occasion. It is a role it has played before. For 65 years it has provided educational television with proven learning outcomes. The pandemic has compounded basic inequalities, adding insult to an already intolerable educational gap between at-risk children and others. In my view, the present hodgepodge of virtual/limited in-class instruction is simply constitutionally insufficient and just going through the motions. It is not actually providing the minimum Leandro requirements for the children.

UNC-TV’s goal is to help bridge those Leandro deficiencies by advancing an at-home learning plan for North Carolina’s children. Soon UNC-TV will distribute on-air and online lessons designed by North Carolina teachers for North Carolina children, including 192 N.C. teacher-generated literacy and math lessons for pre-k to 5th grade. Again, if children cannot read and write by the 3rd grade they are doomed for academic failure in the long run.

UNC-TV has partnered with NCDPI and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at N.C. State to ensure the programming draws on the best of our North Carolina teachers, aligns with students’ curricular needs, and integrates best practices for maintaining social and emotional learning.

While these televised classroom instructions cannot fully replace the requirement of having a certified, competent classroom teacher and school principal, they are a competent alternative.

Let me remind parents and teachers once again that each child’s constitutional right to the opportunity to learn to read and write and become an educated citizen belongs to the child, not you.

Now that UNC-TV is providing this quality on screen instruction for Pre-K through 5th grade students, parents have only to turn on the television in the morning and follow the guide to the on-screen classes that apply to your little ones.

There is no silver lining to the pandemic — but we can do a lot better for our children in our educational response to it. Not only hope for a vaccine or treatment but hope for innovations that improve life after the virus for all North Carolinians.

UNC-TV’s educational instruction is a bright spot in an otherwise dreary school year, giving us a glimpse of what is possible when our institutions work together to put our children first.