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Rarely have the two been so disconnected.

The reality of the moment, in schools across the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ area and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, is stretched to the breaking point. With the omicron variant of COVID-19 surging through schools, waves of absences have marked the restart of classes in 2022.

For teachers in many schools, that has meant skipping their prep period to cover for a class where the teacher is out and no substitute is available. Counselors, administrators and other staff members also find themselves called into a class at a moment’s notice, leaving their jobs undone.

For elementary students, that has sometimes meant having your own class split in two, with other teachers absorbing half of your class due to absences. In some high schools, dozens of students have even been herded into auditoriums to be overseen as a bigger group.

It’s been a tough start to the year.

“Even though we’re contracted to teach five periods a day, we’ve taught six just about every day we’ve been back,â€� said Paul Cunningham, a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ City Council member and physical education teacher at Gridley Middle School. “I really want to give a hand to the teachers who have gutted this out every single day.â€�

By email, Flowing Wells Unified School District Superintendent Kevin Stoltzfus described how that district’s schools have been forced to take sometimes drastic measures, including converting three sixth-grade classrooms to remote learning for three days due to teacher absences.

“Although our employees are team players and want to support their colleagues and students, the uncertainty and disruption is taxing on people,� he added.

It’s also exacerbating an already untenable staffing situation at many schools, noted Margaret Chaney, president of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Education Association.

“This year, people are just burnt out,� she said. “A lot of people have left and resigned or retired early. That leaves a permanent hole for the rest of the year.�

On top of the severe staff shortage, exacerbated by omicron, all ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ public schools are facing the threat of a massive spending cut March 1. The aggregated spending cap, a relic of the 1980s, needs to be lifted in February, or it will lead to cuts of about $1.1 billion in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ school spending beginning March 1.

Neither the governor nor the legislative leadership has said much of anything about how they plan to avert that disaster.

GOP playbook

That isn’t to say they aren’t talking about schools, though. No, no, no. That’s practically all they’re talking about — a nightmare vision of schools as filtered through focus groups and political messaging tests.

You see, the GOP won a surprise victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial election last year, thanks in large part to candidate Glenn Youngkin railing against the conjured threat of critical race theory in public schools.

This came on top of growing discontent over how schools performed during the pandemic. So, attacking public schools has become the Republican way to reverse their loss of suburban voters, which cost them the 2020 election.

Gov. Doug Ducey knows all about this strategy. He is the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, which helped guide Youngkin to victory.

Ducey has applied this strategy in his own way. In August, he announced a new program that would allow “schools following all state laws� to receive part of a $163 million pot of federal money. The “state laws� reference was to the law, since invalidated by the courts, prohibiting mask mandates by schools.

In essence, he created that and other funds to reward schools that did not impose mask mandates. This was a shocking move because it punished schools for following the guidance of the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control on protecting school children.

The Treasury Department told Ducey he could not use the money that way and would have to return it. But this is a motivating issue on the right. So Ducey has pushed on, harvesting continued political benefits by using taxpayer money to sue the Treasury Department over the conflict.

He has also attacked teachers’ unions for allegedly trying to force schools to revert to virtual learning. That happened in Chicago, but I’ve seen no evidence of any ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ teachers’ union doing so.

None of this is really about improving education, of course — it’s about political power. The governor is trying to punish those who defy him while garnering political benefits for his side. He’s touted the support of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, his steady allies, on this.

Fake outrage

The Legislature, too, has swerved into politically beneficial irrelevancies on education policy, introducing cookie-cutter bills proposed by Republicans around the country. In ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥:

attempts to ban a caricature version of “critical race theory,� by prohibiting teachers from teaching that “an individual, by virtue of their race, ethnicity or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive� among other things.

would get ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ into the book-banning business by requiring school boards to approve all book purchases in advance and to publicize for 60 days what books the school libraries plan to buy while allowing public comment on the planned purchases, among other things.

would prohibit schools from interfering in parents’ upbringing of their children, giving parents the right to sue the school district if they feel their rights have been violated.

would prohibit schools from using or referring to any sexually explicit materials or conduct including the blanket category “homosexuality.� This broad-brush bill could be used in all kinds of nefarious ways, from banning books to limiting health education.

Now, one of my children graduated from public high school in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ last year, and another is attending public high school in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ now. Overall, their educations have been good.

None of these bills would address my principal concern, and neither does Gov. Ducey’s attention-seeking fight with the Treasury Department. In fact, they aggravate the main real problem I’m seeing, which is insufficient high-quality staffers and teachers.

New Mexico and Colorado are in the midst of jacking up teacher pay to attract and retain school workers. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is acting as if the “20 by 2020â€� plan — a pay-raise plan approved in 2018 — is enough. In this job market, with the added stresses of the pandemic, it simply is not.

Ducey has proposed modest increases in spending on schools, which is good. But as , the money is there for the various sides to strike a “grand bargain� of another sustainable, large surge in school spending this year while also cutting taxes.

This is a wonderful opportunity, but thinking we’ll take advantage is probably naive.

The problem is that those in charge have little incentive to solve the actual problems afflicting schools these days. Their incentive is to conjure and solve imaginary school problems that preserve their political power.