Every Wednesday at 7:40 pm EST, the Network for Public Education has hosted a conversation about education. All the conversations are archived here.
In the first one, I discussed my new book SLAYING GOLIATH with Carol Burris.
In the second one, I talked to Pastor Charles Foster Johnson of Pastors for Texas Children about their fight against vouchers and for public schools.
In the third one, I asked Mercedes Schneider about her new book and her skill at investigative reporting.
In the fourth one, I discussed the effects of the pandemic on early childhood education with ECE experts Denisha Jones and Susan Ochshorn.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Two things to consider are that the risk of harm from COVID-19 is approximately zero, and that, as far as I am aware, there is no evidence of any cases where COVID-19 has been transmitted from young children to adults.
“the risk of harm to young children,” that is
It seems completely unlikely, to me, that transmission from infected children to adults would not occur. I can’t imagine what mechanism would cause that not to happen just because someone is younger than 18 years of age.
All the data indicates that this is the case. It may occur, but it appears to be extremely rare. It may have something to do with the viral loads carried by young children (who are very rarely gravely affected by the virus).
When this subject comes up, I think of other coronaviruses and rhinoviruses I have known. LOL. Every teacher knows that when kids come back from a break (fall, winter, spring), the entire school will be sick for next two-to-three weeks. These spread through the school like fire on a parched prairie, like a Russian meme through alt-right media.
Teachers will get sick. Likely (based on current information) from colleagues and other adults if we’re talking about elementary. Middle and high school, transmission from students will probably be higher than elementary, although I haven’t seen (and I don’t think we have) much data on that.
There is no stopping this thing. It is very infections, but not nearly as deadly as initially assumed. And no vaccine is coming anytime soon.
We do not know now that the disease is less easily transmitted from children to adults than from adults to adults. This is not yet known. Until we have ubiquitous testing and contact tracing, reopening schools sounds to me like a dangerous, scientifically unwarranted gamble.
Here’s what the CDC is saying about this:
If children meet in groups, it can put everyone at risk. Children with COVID-19 may only have mild symptoms, but they can still pass this virus onto others who may be at higher risk, including older adults and people who have serious underlying medical conditions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/children-with-coronavirus-may-be-just-as-infectious-as-adults
This would indeed be a report that is “contrary” to all the contact tracing studies, and hopefully if this has any substance it will receive more coverage (and a direct link to the study) to elaborate on the noncommital lede that “children with the new coronavirus may [or may not!] be as infectious as adults.”
So, one of the authors of that report, Flerp, says that it was widely misreported, that while children do not get as sick, usually, as adults do, they have the same level of viral load and that there is no evidence that they are less likely than others to transmit the disease. It seems likely that this is something that we just do not know, yet. And it is obvious enough that simply reopening schools would be taking an enormous gamble.
https://www.businessinsider.com/children-do-transmit-covid-19-says-researcher-amid-confusion-2020-4
Thanks so much for the information and links, Bob! Very timely, too!
As an Early Childhood Education specialist with decades of classroom experience, I can attest to having personally caught virtually every bug that went through my class for decades, despite my implementing Universal Precautions diligently, including washing my hands so often that I felt like a doctor. (I had no PPE but I was fortunate to have had a sink in my classroom.) So I’ve found it very difficult to stomach the notion that young children cannot easily catch or transmit the coronavirus. Clearly, the jury is still out on those conclusions and a lot of caution should be exercised until more is known.
These conversations are wonderful. Highly recommended to other readers of this blog.