MIdmorning With Aundrea - October 12, 2020 (Part 2)

(Part 2 of 4) Aundrea chats with travel guru Kelly McKellar about travel trends during the pandemic.

Apara a very specical midmorning starts right now.

A new school year is getting underway.

But that doesn't always mean children returning to the classroom.

In fact, the majority of the nation's large school districts have opted for remote learning instead.

Some parents are taking things into their own hands, forming what are known as "pandemic pods.

They're a version of home-schooling for small groups of children, sometimes led by teachers or tutors.

But as more companies pop up to organize these pods, a debate is brewing about equity.

Meg oliver reports.

301ó0431.mxf nats/teacher austin: remember you can use adding, subtracting, multiplying, whatever you want.

The numbers again are 5, 3 and 1.

All summer in this quiet backyard under a canopy of trees&these four students have tackled math, english and social studies three days a week.

301ó0431.mxf nats/teacher austin: "think bac to your summer and what was the most awesome part of it?"

This private education pod in larchmont, new york is just one of many popping up across the country.

10-year-old bianca arencibia is going into 5th grade.

Bianca: 11:42:42 it helps me because i have much more attention than i do in regular school.

Meg oliver: 11:42:48 yeah?

And do you like coming to your pod?

Bianca: 11:42:51 i love it.

When schools shut down last spring bianca's mom, giulia, couldn't keep up with the stressful demands of remote learning with three kids.

11:25:40/guilia arencibia "and found it really challenging to go from physics with the older one to, you know, tapping out sounds to learn how to read for the kindergartener.

It was two very different sets of skills.

Meg oliver: 11:25:48 did you feel like you were treading water at times?

Giulia arencibia: 11:25:50 that's how i felt the whole time.

She turned to school house, a service that matches families with teachers for in-home education.

Joseph connor: 11:04:21 //i think it's safe to say we hit our five years business goals in about five months.

Co-founder joseph connor launched the company in january.

With 8 students in a pod, the cost is about 14-thousand dollars per child per year.

Meg oliver: 11:03:48 so how is this different than homeschooling?

Joseph connor: 11:03:50 so it's different because we provide professional teachers.

// we recruit them from all over the country.

A lot of them come from private and charter schools..// 11:11:42 generally our teachers can make anywhere from 10-20% more than what the local average salary is.

It's an attractive model for parents but one that could lead to less students in local school districts ...and less funding for the children left behind.

L'heureux lewis mccoy 19:00 our schools are more diverse than they have ever been, but they're still segregated.

Our pods have an opportunity, unfortunately, to become even more segregated l'heureux lewis mccoy is a new york university sociologist who studies educational inequality.

He worries about vulnerable communities ... including the estimated 17- million kids without high speed internet access at home.

15:46 lewis mccoy "the families tha have more money are actually creating boutique, almost private school environments for their children.

The danger in this is that as these children move far ahead, that many of their classmates and many of the people who we'll later be comparing them to as they apply to college, their life looks very different."

It's something entrepreneur cate han says is on her mind.

Cate han: 14:14:08 // we have no interest in taking funding away from schools.

We wanna work with them, and in fact we've reached out to a number of schools in-- in my local school district.

Han and doug schachtel -- both co- founders of pricey new york private schools-- teamed up for a company called learning pods.

Cate han 14:11:20 so over the summer, we decided, you know, we need to be-- bring-- have a way to bring joy to kids.

So the idea of having summer pods, where you have a small group of kids meeting with a counselor, camp counselor, who brings curriculum with them and they meet in a family's backyard.// cate han: 14:12:31 so learning pods are really-- they're a vehicle to deliver education safely and effectively during the pandemic.

The company kicks off its fall program later this month...parents of kids in kindergarten through 4th grade can expect to pay around 15- thousand dollars for the academic year.

Meg oliver: 14:23:07 --how are you looking to make this affordable for everybody?

Doug schachtel: 14:23:11 so a part of every tuition goes towards financial aid.//in addition, we're working with foundations to-- and personal donations to feed that same financial aid fund.

// a good start, but not enough to go around for the many children in need, says lewis- mccoy 2634 what do you do when you have a system where half of the kids are on free or reduced lunch?// the magnitude of disadvantage that public schools deal with cannot be compensated for with private partnership.

Meg oliver: 11:09:02 this could be the wave of the future as we, you know, try to navigate through this pandemic?

Joseph connor: 11:09:14 absolutely.

So we really think that this is not just a solution for the present.

We think that this is the best way for teachers to teach and students to learn.

// 11:09:42 we're also working with-- some philanthropic groups to make sure that we have sponsored pods, and we're actually also trying to work with some state governments on offering these pods through government programs a complex problem that many parents are thinking about ... including giulia arencebia.

Giulia arencibia: 11:28:52 right.

And i-- i think it's a horrible situation.

I wish it weren't the case.

It's something i think about a lot.

I've spoken to school house about it.

I know they're working in a lotta ways to make it more equitable, because i know this is something that's important to them.

11:29:05 and i think that, you know, at the end of the day, i need to do whatever i can for my children.

And frankly, if i can keep my children at grade level, then they won't need services that can go to another child.

There's really nothing in it for anyone else to have my child needing help, as well.

So by taking care of my children and their needs, in some ways it's helping everybody.

If you are tired of staying in the same old zip code, kelly mckellar says you can travel again.

We'll talk about where - and how next on mid morning.