I will not post any more notices about school closings, because there are so many of them. Every day brings news of another district or city or state that is closing its public schools in response to the coronavirus, in an effort to reduce exposure to the virus. Some of these closures are limited to a few weeks; some are indefinite. In every case, I hope that district officials have given serious thought to supplying meals to children who depend upon them. As reader Chiara pointed out, the closures remind us of how important our schools are in the lives of children–the social interactions, the opportunity to learn, the library, the clubs, the musical groups, the sports, the peer relationships, access to social services, and exchanges with human teachers. Being online just isn’t enough of a substitute for human relationships.
This story appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles school officials on Friday voted to shut down the nation’s second-largest school system effective Monday, citing concerns over the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The district has about 900 campuses serving more than 670,000 children and adult students.
Schools will be closed for two weeks while the situation is evaluated, said L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner. There will be 40 centers where students and families can receive services, including meals, starting on Wednesday.
The “family resource centers” will be open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will offer childcare and hot meals. The district hopes to have a list of locations soon.
Los Angeles district officials said that they will also offer televised and online lessons in an attempt to help families.
School district employees will continue to be paid, even if not directly involved in working with students.
San Diego Unified School District will also shut down on Monday. Neither district said when schools would reopen.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In a moment of shameless self-promotion, I’ll share this with you: http://grumpyoldteacher.com/2020/03/13/to-teach-or-not-to-teach/
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I read your poem grumpyoldteacher.
Really 👍.
Thank you.
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Diane, this information I am posting may be extremely important. I want to call it to your immediate attention:
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Please note that I am a retired Ph.D. biochemist and previously managed NIH-funded the GenBank National Nucleic Acid Sequence DataBank which is the repository for the Human Genome Project data, not a layperson.
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“the NIH-funded” – editing too fast today.
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David, does that warning include metoprolol?
One can’t be in a higher risk category than me.
I am 81 and I have compromised lungs, since having a pulmonary embolism in 1998.
So I am living on borrowed time anyway.
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I’ll look up that drug and get back to you quickly. I am not an MD.
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Metaprolol is a beta blocker. It is not an ACE inhibitor or and ARB (angiotensin receptor blocker). Metaprolol apparently works by blocking adrenergic receptors that transmit signals into cell caused by adrenaline and noradrenaline, so this appears not to be something you should be worried about. The class of BP drugs I mention have over a total of 100 million prescriptions a year in the US alone though, so you can see why I am very concerned about this and have been busily researching this topic for the last several days since I learned that the virus attacks the ACE2 protein in lungs.
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sorry for a couple of typos again above!
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That is what I read, based first on your article, then checking the description of metoprolol.
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Stay well Diane!
I am on lisinopril and got confirmation of my concerns on the morning of Friday the 13th 😱when I received the link to the Lancet article. I hope it turns out, as I noted in the article, that lisinopril is not a possible culprit. It was the most widely prescribed medication in the US in 2017 with 104 million prescriptions (!!!) according to Wikipedia (caveat emptor).
The authors of the Lancet article are somewhat unclear as they mention combination therapy with both ACE and ARB drugs. A local specialist thought that only ARBs may be the culprit. They won’t be able to resolve this question quickly enough, so I think people on both types of meds should take extra precautions to avoid exposure to sick people. Unfortunately one worries that it is the asymptomatic ones that might kill…
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Thanks for this info, David. I, too, am on Lisinopril, so this is concerning. Glad to hear that the drug Diane is taking is not a culprit.
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News on this is updating constantly. I am talking with local doctors at the moment, so please check the blog article again if you haven’t done so recently.
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Thanks, David. I have shared your info with family and friends and on social media. I’m trying to encourage them, anyway, to limit social exposure as much as possible.
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“These data suggest that ACE2 expression is increased in diabetes and treatment with ACE inhibitors and ARBs increases ACE2 expression. Consequently, the increased expression of ACE2 would facilitate infection with COVID-19. We therefore hypothesise that diabetes and hypertension treatment with ACE2-stimulating drugs increases the risk of developing severe and fatal COVID-19.”
Yikes.
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Bob, I have made significant new additions to the article as of 6:50 PM Pacific Daylight Time on Friday the 13th. EVERYONE SHOUKD READ THE LATEST VERSION!
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Note that they say “hypothesise.”
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ALL K-12 schools in Illinois have been ordered closed by the governor. A good idea for big cities like Chicago, maybe not for small rural districts that know who has traveled where and can more accurately assess their exposure to risk.
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All schools in FLorida, too, for two weeks, to be reevaluated at the end of that time.
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The New York Times is reporting that according to the CDC, between 160 million and 214 million American could be infected over the course of this epidemic, between 2.4 and 21 million could require hospitalization, and between 200,000 and 1.7 million could die. A week and a half ago, Trump said that because he imposed a ban on entry from China, the number of cases would soon be down to around 5.
We need to mobilize the National Guard to set up field hospitals, and we need to divert troops from our military services and do training of them, now, to act as medical paraprofessionals. It will be too late to do this AFTER the need arises.
Please, please, everyone. Limit your exposure to other people.
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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
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The major thing that we have to fear is lack of fear–late and inadequate response by authorities, people spreading the disease unknowingly by being nonchalant about it.
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If only we had such a leader, LeftCoast…
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Sorry for the language, FDR was a badass.
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If you haven’t done so, I recommend a visit to Hyde Park and the presidential library and home. I took my kids there a long time ago. People need to remember those times.
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FDR was a badass!!! Oh, LeftCoast!!! Yes. Yes. Yes.
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I have added significant new information to the article I posted earlier as new opinions from experts come in. Please read it again for the latest updates. I will make further updates as warranted. As news people say, this is a “breaking story.”
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I’m ready! I’m looking forward to reading and binge watching my favorite shows on TV. Unfortunately, my 93 year old mom broke her hip and is at rehab which has banned visitors. She’s on her own. I also worry about two of my daughters, one works at Roswell, a cancer hospital, the other is an EMT. Their services will be needed on site (no working at home for them). Buffalo is starting to shut down – the schools are making arrangements, both for academics and the nutritional needs for their students. My grand daughter will be devastated if they cancel the Senior Prom and Graduation Ceremonies.
It’s a lot to take in.
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Diane and all you bloggers – please take care.
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Best wishes to you, your Mom, and the rest of your family during this difficult time, Flos56!
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Thank you Bob. I’m sure you and everyone else out their will be faced with their own concerns (many more troubling than my issues). I wish them all well and hope none of us face tragic results.
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Very sorry that you are being hit with all of this at once. Strength to you!
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VP MIKEY DENSE: Thank you, Mr. President. Your nation thanks you, and I thank you.
I just wanted to say that I am humbled and grateful that you have chosen me to lead the Donald Trump Coronavirus Cheerleading Squad and Glee Club during this great crisis that our nation may or may not be facing depending on how you feel on a given day. And I know, I know, Mr. President, that the nation is reassured that your firm, and very large hand, is guiding us through this.
As we’ve seen today, you have assembled the greatest minds in the country to deal with this problem that the Fake News keeps talking about, though these are only scientists, and your intuition is so much better than science, as you have wisely reminded us many times, Mr. President. And not to take away from anything others have said here today, I just wanted to say, Mr. President, that some have, though I’m sure they didn’t intend to, wasted valuable time talking about this disease that may or may not be an issue and hinting at some response that we might or might not take in the future if that’s appropriate when WHAT THE NATION REALLY WANTS TO HEAR IS HOW GREAT DONALD TRUMP IS AND WHAT A FANTASTIC JOB YOU”VE BEEN DOING.
So, let me just say that. As I was telling Mother last night just before our night-night prayers, it really has been the privilege of a lifetime to work under you, Mr. President, and to see your sharp mind in action, pointing out that by this week the number of cases would be down to five and that this was all just a Democrat hoax. Your steady hand enabled us to put off having to do anything until this spread or may not have spread throughout the entire nation, which might be a challenge, of course, but isn’t that the point, Mr. President, that America has always been up to its challenges? With faith in God, and your guidance, Mr. President, how can we fail? And though we might have a little rough patch, all these business leaders behind me here, brought together by your wisdom, Mr. President, are going to do their very best to rise to the occasion, under your leadership, and to make as much money as they possibly can off this while delivering whatever is necessary to serve the interests of the richest Americans. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, Mr. President, and you are the toughest and the strongest and the prettiest and the smartest and the bestest, as I’m sure all real Patriots across this nation will agree.
And so, soon, because of your remarkable leadership, unparalleled in the history of this country, nay of the world, nay of the galaxy, nay of the universe, we will have the four or five tests we need to have for every one million Americans who have contracted what is, after all, just a cold or a flu or whatever you say it is today, Mr. President, and we don’t need to worry about having enough paraprofessional medical personnel or hospital beds or ventilators or hazmat suits or face masks or tests or about setting up field hospitals or about sick leave for a bunch of lowlife poor people who wouldn’t recognize real leadership, like you provide each and every day, Mr. President, if they saw it.
So, that said, let me conclude by addressing what I’m sure is most on the mind of Americans throughout this land, on this fateful day, just how great you are for getting way ahead of this thing early on by sending troops and other personnel without hazmat suits to escort people off that cruise ship, ones who could then go back to their bases and communities around the country and spread the virus, uh, the news about how expertly you contained this and nipped it in the bud as only you, in your genius, Mr. President, could have done. So, if I could lick your shoes clean, later on, Mr. President, that would be, as always, my great honor. Thank you, Mr. President. Did I do OK?
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If Trump keeps ignoring the advice of these scientists, it will soon be President Pence.
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Oh the irony!!!!
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Good, practical advice on here from people I trust. Thanks.
Of course, humanity worldwide is wrangling with a crisis most institutions don’t have a playbook for. Or, a playbook that was finished, practiced or even funded to begin with.
For example, how does an emergency response team at our schools, well, respond right now? We have those teams. I know at my school they’ve done amazing work in the past. From my perspective, the past week people have been doing a damn good job holding things together. But, what’s the plan?
In some ways, the top-down, do-as-state-education-department-says mentality has ill prepared our public schools for this quickly unraveling crisis. For years now, Common Core, Race to the Top, really, all those asinine reform schemes have enforced a “follow the orders even if the orders are obviously wrong” mindset..
Wrong.
Years ago Diane generously posted on here something I wrote about how World War II was really won by troops on the ground. It was those G.I.s who innovated, made their own decisions and, yes, sometimes had to break the rules. The individual creativity, brashness and courage of those troops bested very tenacious enemies. Sure, there were other factors in our eventual victory, such as the relative industrial might of the United States. But it was the freedom of thought inherent in our society and the stubborn work ethic of millions of immigrants (and children of immigrants) that won the day.
Hitler thought we were a ‘mongrel nation’. That our diversity would be our downfall. Far from it. (And, of course, there are other authoritarian leaders out there at this very moment who just hoping and waiting for our country to fail, so they can say, yes, there’s the proof that democracy can’t work.)
If memory serves me right, Diane has posted other pieces on here that talk about how the freedom and creativity of our American public schools are, in fact, admired by many people worldwide. Our schools don’t need to be “made great again”.
Yeah, we need an effective federal government to start providing real leadership.
But it comes down to this. Time for people to step up.
Trump was never going to ‘make America great”. We are and we will.
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John,
You are right. The “boots on the ground” won the war. But those boots need a plan, not left to figure things out for themselves. I’m reminded of “War and Peace” but I can’t remember the passage, the lesson being that the foot soldiers were moved around by distant generals who were never under fire. Those on the ground lived or died because of decisions made by others they never knew.
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You are certainly right about that, Diane. You are thinking of his description of Napoleon and the Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov at the Battle of Borodina (1817), outside Moscow. While Tolstoy did not invent the term “fog of war” (which came from Carl von Clausewitz– Nebel des Krieges), he does an unforgettable (and heartbreaking) job of describing it.
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Thank you, Bob. You are indeed a polymath.
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I have this really, really bad habit of falling into mansplaining. And then I kick myself. One of the thing that age has taught me is how profoundly ignorant I am about how very many things. Talk about tilting at windmills–I will go to my grave trying to empty the ocean of my ignorance a teaspoon at a time.
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The beginning of wisdom is to know what you don’t know.
This is why Trump is so dangerous. He thinks he knows everything and more than experts. And he surrounds himself with equally ignorant people who are expected to praise his knowledge, insight and wisdom.
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All of which you doubtless, as a historian, know more about than I do, Diane. And speaking of fog, Trump.
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Yesterday, Axios posted, “Why the U.S. is so far behind in coronavirus testing”.
A listing of labs that perform the tests (lumped into 20 categories) was included.
The NIH website is flush with references to the Gates Foundation so I wasn’t surprised that Axios listed the Gates Foundation as one of the virus testers.
The article’s free market spin was expected, i.e. the federal government restrained the labs’ responses.
South Korea tests 20,000 people a day. At this point, U.S. capacity is 22,000.
One question to ask- did the countries with better response to the coronavirus rely on their federal government for medical response or, are they similar to the U.S., which relies on labs unrelated to the federal government but, jockeying to direct it.
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Similar to the education sector, libertarian-created NGO’s, who self-appointed to play a substantial role in health decisions… organizations like the Gates Foundation… are shielded from public accountability and media take pot shots at the common good/services which have been starved of funding by the politicians of the wealthy.
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Great advice on weathering this:
View at Medium.com
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