This week, Hillary Flynn, editor of The Post and Courier’s Education Lab, a recently-launched watchdog enterprise unit covering systemic issues in the state's education system, explains how the spread of the delta variant created a chaotic first seven weeks of the school year in South Carolina.
The start to this school year in South Carolina was a pretty chaotic one.
The delta variant of COVID-19 was quickly spreading, infecting students, teachers and staff and sending people into quarantine.
Meanwhile, schools couldn't enforce mask mandates.
The result: Seven weeks into the year, at least 15 districts, 233 schools, and 156,169 students had reverted back to virtual learning.
This week on Understand SC, we talk with Hillary Flynn, editor of The Post and Courier’s Education Lab, a recently-launched watchdog enterprise unit within the paper that’s focused on in-depth reporting and large-scale projects that examine systemic issues within our state’s education system.
She gave us some details on what we can expect from the Education Lab, and shared what went into recent report which followed the stories of three people who experienced the first seven weeks of school from different perspectives: a high school student nervous about going back to school in-person and reconnecting with friends, a teacher excited to be teaching in the classroom again but cautious about COVID-19 and a parent who hoped for a return to normalcy and sent her kids to school without masks.
Listen now, then check out the latest from the Education Lab.