Mitchell Robinson is a professor of music education at Michigan State University who writes frequently about K-12 issues.
In this post, he explains what is necessary for schools to reopen.
The solution isn’t rushing to open schools before they are safe–the solution is for Congress to pass a stimulus package large enough and bold enough to pay people to *not* go to work, and that provides bonus/hazard pay for those who *do* need to work–health care workers, public safety personnel (fire and police), grocery store workers, etc.
And that stimulus package also must provide the federal and state resources to actually *do* something about making schools safe, which to my knowledge has happened in very few places. It’s not enough for school districts to “encourage” their employees to get vaccinated–school systems should be proactively securing enough vaccine doses for all employees to get two shots, and immediately set up the infrastructure for that to happen.
Now, what are the chances of that occurring? Slim and zero.
Because you can not systematically defund public schools for decades, eliminate teaching positions, school nurses, counselors, psychologists, and other support staff from school budgets, and fail to maintain school facilities, while simultaneously increasing class sizes, cutting health care and retirement benefits for school employees, lowering standards for who becomes a teacher, increasing the number of charter schools that compete for tax dollars, and implement voucher programs and “tax credit” schemes that function exactly like vouchers, and then expect public schools to function like well-funded, adequately resourced public institutions.
Shaming teachers and blaming unions won’t work.
Schools must be safe.
Then they can reopen.
So far, no one has been willing to pay the price.
If they are serious, they will.
Yes, yes, yes.
At a minimum: vaccinate all school teachers, administrators, and staff.
Set up regular testing of all students.
Set up a national online contact tracing system.
Enforce wearing of masks in schools.
Produce enough N95 masks for all students to have them.
Use the Defense Production Act to make these things happen.
What if school teachers and staff don’t want to be vaccinated?
You would require masks to be worn in schools (and presumably disallow all school sports that cannot be done with distancing, school choir, etc) even after teachers and staff are vaccinated? For how long? Years?
Well, then they should not be allowed to enter public school buildings, just as people are not now allowed, by order of the CDC, to ride public transportation without a mask. A person’s rights end where another’s nose begins. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre. You cannot refuse to be vaccinated and make yourself a potential vector for a disease that will kill others.
I think you have to pass regulations saying people have to meet certain health requirements by state, and of course you cannot force people with known health allergies to receive the vaccine. The battle over religious objections is ongoing, and the status of anti-vaccers in various states is up in the air, I think. As to how long restrictions are kept in place,…who knows. We still have more to learn. At some point restrictions will be lifted until we have some understanding of how long the vaccine gives immunity. What did we do with polio? I don’t remember any government restrictions, but I do remember precautions my family took voluntarily.
from the CDC:
All 50 states currently have school entry requirements for vaccinations. All state policies feature medical exemptions. For many vaccines, the CDC recommends that parents of children with certain diseases affecting the immune system consult with their pediatrician to receive, wait for or skip certain vaccines. Forty-seven states permit vaccine exemptions on religious grounds, and 18 states allow exemptions for personal or philosophical reasons.
“Forty-seven states permit vaccine exemptions on religious grounds, and 18 states allow exemptions for personal or philosophical reasons.”
I’m not sure these people shouldn’t have other restrictions placed on them if they choose to be exempted, especially in the case of an outbreak because of them.
Until, Flerp, everyone is vaccinated.
That definitely sounds like years. Possibly many years, if ever.
I think the virus is going to be around for good. And to be honest, I don’t want to live in a world where people wear masks for years, avoid physical contact with everyone outside their immediate family, don’t play sports, don’t sing together, don’t dance together.
It is possible to vaccinate the entire population within a year, Flerp.
Current CDC projection: 594,000 deaths by May 1, with one of the more transmissible variants to become the most common by mid March.
Right now, in most states, you can’t enroll in public school without having had your measles vaccination. Same principle applies.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
I actually think it’s a good idea to continue wearing masks and gloves at least to public places indefinitely. Why not? Why didn’t we do it before covid? It seems like a good idea to me especially in winter months when colds, flu, etc are transmitted easier.
I would add, too, that the more we allow this virus to be transmitted, the more we give it opportunity to mutate. It doesn’t hurt to wear masks and gloves in public places.
Bob
You are right that there are already mechanisms in place — and have been for a very long time.
In 1947, there was a threat of a smallpox outbreak in NY City and 6 million people!e were vaccinated in a matter of just a few weeks.
There is a lot more going on currently than meets the eye and not all of it is simple incompetence or even science denial.
One thing that is going on behind the scenes is that the wealthy and well-connected are gettiing moved to the front of the vaccine line.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/29/gut-punch-invite-only-vaccine-clinics-seattle-area-spark-ire
Money rules when it comes to everything in the US.
Our medical establishment is certainly no exception.
Anti-vaxxers and far-right groups just closed down Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where people were in line to get the vaccine.
What’s next?!
In Utah, being vaccinated is not a condition of employment. And even though teachers and students are all supposed to wear masks, at least one teacher at the school in which I teach isn’t consistently wearing a mask. In front of students
Masks in public bldgs are a no-brainer (tho granted some states have no brains). Why worry now about for how long? Worry now about getting community spread down to where we can stop locking down & also give the virus less time/ hosts for mutation. Don’t do it, watch the crisis extend longer. Those w/vaccine allergies & anti-vaxxers are a teeny proportion of pubsch teachers/ staff, why would that hold up the works? Give them a tel# to call, email them a form.
Now, if only the House of Representatives would prohibit guns on the floor of the House, which would be a problem for Rep. Lauren Boebert from Colorado, who says she never goes anywhere without her Glock.
Her Democratic colleagues must be terrified to have her in the same room.
I am dealing, right now, with the long-term consequences of having contracted Covid19. Not great. But I am one of the lucky ones. This is no game. There are no do-overs. People get this thing and they die. Not taking these steps first amounts to the following calculus: x number of teacher deaths and y amount of consequences of “Long Covid” <= the negative consequences stemming from temporary alternatives to in-person schooling.
My take: people dying has to be weighted pretty heavily in that equation.
The Value of A Person
It’s measured in the dollars
The economic worth
The economics hollars:
“Depends on height and girth”
Heavily weighted
Hollers
Damned autocorrect doesn’t speak hillbilly
That gives me an idea.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have an autocorrect that translated to different dialects?
Then again , I guess that would be way beyond the capabilities of the programmers who can’t even design one for standard English.
The one for my browser speaks a dialect that is almost unrecognizable as English.
Every once in a while it throws in an English word. OOtherwisekt might as well be speaking Klingon.
“Otherwise it”
!!!!!
Dear Siri:
It’s almost never “ducked.”
The search engine is the exception.
But for some reason every time I try to search for that , mg D’s get changed.
“there are no do-overs” — that should be every essential workers rallying cry
Robinson left out one thing. Long term commitment to staff that is involved in Covid. Bob references potential long term effects of Covid. If states are serious about getting school open, the very least they could do is to pay all long term health costs for any teacher or staff at school during the pandemic. They should be required to bet their budget that the return to school is safe.
We could say the same for all workers in “essential jobs”. If Tyson or Perdue has workers during Covid, their company should pay for their health care for the rest of their life. How can we ever know if the malady a worker suffers is Covid-related if we do not really know about Covid? They should bet their bottom line they are correct in requiring the workers to come in.
And you all can send me a cool million when all of this happens.
I would add to the long term healthcare by employers of essential workers that we as consumers who need their products or services must be willing to pay higher prices for these products or services. No, I am not for passing on all the costs so that a company can make a profit that does not fuel the continued existence of the company. However, I want to avoid the knee jerk reaction that assumes that any increase in cost is just so executives can buy another boat. When it comes to public service employees, we have to be ready to pay the taxes associated with providing the necessary benefits. Time for a more robust government subsidized healthcare system anyone? There are too many people that are being forced to risk their and their families’ health who have no guaranteed health benefits but prefer to support themselves and their families rather than living on the streets.
The Middle Man
The problem is the middle man
Who always takes his cut
Eliminate, we surely can
And really, simply must
Dean Baker on why the vaccine rollout has been so slow
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/29/why-has-vaccine-rollout-been-so-slow-answer-big-pharma-patent-monopolies
As Baker points out, the problem goes much deeper than Trump because vaccine rollout has also been very slow in countries like Germany with competent leadership. And a German company actually produced one of the vaccines, but Pfizer owns the rights.
Very interesting link. Stats show this is not just about having centralized govt healthcare services.
Thank you!!!
Mitch
Imagine if the EXpresident had done four of the actually rather simple no-expertise-required steps in Bob Shepherd’s comment above.
Testing
Tracing – in district at minimum and it is quite do-able
Masks required –
National production directives for tests and ppe mass production
Just add:
5. Social distancing requirements
6. ventilation standards
7. hand washing all day long
8. entry screening (temperature taken, exposed to anyone positive?, showing symptoms?)
Heck these steps are so no-expertise-required, the freaking EXpresident could claim to have come up with them all on his own.
And, if the keystone cops president had one ounce of caring for other people, schools would have reopened everywhere by Easter (take that one mr. EXpresident) and definitely by September.
Instead we got bleach, denial, money laundering, the no-mask badge of loyalty.
300,000 deaths should be added to the articles of impeachment.
(yeh, the world has changed, but it’s gonna take a while to reduce the bitterness and anger)
Just one little niggle about Mitchell Robison’s argument. Have we or have we not during the same time period seen proportionately greater numbers of admins hired [due to reqt to manage additional testing/ data-collection/ social duties foisted off on pubschs], at proportionately higher salaries [due to enticing MBA’s away from private sector instead of promoting ed pro’s from within]? It’s a once in a century healthcare crisis, & they supposedly have mgt chops.
Leadership, anybody?