Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize winning science writer. This article in Foreign Affairs explains why Trump and DeVos’s demand to reopen the schools for full-time, in-person schooling in a few weeks will fail. The schools don’t have the money to meet the necessary safety requirements. The less affluent the community, the less money is available to reduce class sizes and make the schools safe.
The article makes excellent points and contains a useful summary of research. I urge you to read it.
But be warned: it has the worst, most misleading headline I have ever seen in any article. I don’t hold writers responsible for headlines. I wonder whether the person who wrote it read the article.
The schools are neither a moral nor a medical catastrophe. It would have been more accurate to say that the federal government’s treatment of the schools is a moral and medical catastrophe. After all, we have a president who scoffs at science. Who can trust their children’s lives to his uninformed advice? It is obvious that his desire to open the schools is based on his political self-interest, not the lives of children and staff.
Where the pandemic is raging, it is not safe to open schools. Where it appears to have been controlled, the schools must reopen cautiously, with the resources needed to keep people as safe as possible, and with full awareness that there might be a resurgence of the virus.
This was one of the better, succinct and informative articles I’ve seen on this issue. I encourage everyone here to read and thank Diane for bringing it to our attention. As a nation, we’ve learned nothing or done anything of consequence for the past 8 months. It once again sums up the fundamental issue related to Covid-19 and moving on with our lives: uncertainty. In this case uncertainty can be deadly, debilitating and continue to exacerbate physical, psychological and economic well-being. It’s creeping and nesting into all facets of live, yet without national leadership, without a New Deal-style comprehensive governmental response, including paying people to stay home, we’re cooked. This morning I read an article about prospective medical students who were infected while taking the MCAT, it’s truly everywhere. The fascist in the White House seems intent, like his hero from 1945, on tearing down the nation with him, blaming us for all his egregious shortcomings.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/87663
And no, I am NOT among those who don’t believe in masks. I wear one every time I am in public (yes, even when I am more than six feet from someone)
Not for those easily offended by profanity:
Sometimes profanity seems more than appropriate.
great line: it’s creeping and nesting into all facets of life
So, why is this fellow not wearing a mask on his face?
Or maybe he thinks wearing on on his arm is good enough?
And no I doubt buy the ” no one would be able to understand me if I wore a mask excuse” because I know it’s BS
No one around him, six feet, has it at the ready, and surely put it once done. Is that all ya got? Do you wear your mask in your house based on that comment. Were you wearing one while making this comment?
That’s easy. He’s protecting his arm from COVID.
The point is if you are making a plug for mask wearing, you wear a mask.
Otherwise, those who don’t believe in masks level precisely the criticism I did.
And no I don’t wear a mask in my house.
Any other stupid questions?
No one has yet made a case for what infection rate represent safe to open. All comparisons with Europe are meaningless with better infection controls and support systems.
Sweden has better infection controls?
don’t knows specifics of every country. So, maybe not “All.” How about most? Most have been better at mask wearing and probably all better at heath care system support.
I don’t know if this qualifies as “making the case,” but the author of this article says that infection rates must be close to zero for schools to reopen.
“If rates of infection approach zero, schools may open ….”
If infection rates of zero (or “approaching” zero) is the benchmark for “safe enough to reopen schools,” then we need to pull the plug already and commit to full-remote learning. Even in NYC, which has obliterated the curve of the virus, infection rates from new tests hover around 1%.
The US has not made a united attempt to control the virus. Allowing politics to take priority over science has been a grave error in judgment. We would be in a very different place if the administration had acted decisively early instead of trying to ignore this politically inconvenient pandemic.
My second cousin in Pennsylvania reluctantly turned in her papers for retirement after thirty-one years of teaching. She didn’t want to bring the virus home to her elderly mother who lives with her. She said we don’t know enough about the virus to really be safe. We all have to do what we think is best for ourselves, particularly where there is little coherent leadership.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/80-of-teachers-at-stuyvesant-will-seek-exemptions-from-returning/amp
80% of teachers at Stuyvesant high school in NYC are planning on seeking medical exemptions from returning to the classroom.
This is in a city where the covid curve has been crushed and deaths have almost trailed off to zero. This shows that fear levels are so high that, short of infections falling to zero — which has never been a realistic goal of lockdowns or mitigation — teachers will not feel comfortable returning to classrooms until a vaccine has been approved and administered.
The school applied to the DOE for permission to run remote-only this fall. Permission denied.
Hybrid learning will be more expensive and will force the school to offer fewer courses.
We need to go full-bore on remote learning for high school at a minimum, take remote learning seriously, and rather than treat it as a temporary stopgap, accept that it will become an essential part of education from here on out (given the potential for future pandemics) and invest in the technology and training accordingly.
That’s how I’m feeling this morning.
Diane is correct. The headline is terrible, and may not have been provided by the author. The proper headline should be, as Diane suggests, Trump’s Polices Are a Moral and Medical Catastrophe.
I wanted to see the comments on the article, but these were taking a very time to load.
What is very clear by now, when everything else is being made ambiguous, is this. There is no one-size fits all answer to school openings. Trump/Devos are engaging in blackmail with federal funds by threatening to send those funds only to schools that open with students physically present. Otherwise the federal money goes into a slush fund for parent/student vouchers for the education they desire.
I have yet to see any indication that the use of these vouchers will be monitored to eliminate scams and schemes that ensure eligible students are easy to teach and with a high profit margin.
As the School Year Approaches, Education May Become the Pandemic’s Latest Casualty
Molly Ball/Middletown, Conn.
TIME
July 23, 2020
…Districts across the country are facing the same agonizing calculations. “It’s the most complicated issue we’ve faced in generations as a school system,” says Derek Turner, head of operations for Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, the state’s largest district. How do you get kids to school when a bus that would normally transport 50 or 60 can take only 12 because of distancing? Where should students eat to avoid having them shoulder to shoulder in a crowded cafeteria? How do you make sure there are no more than two kids in the bathroom while requiring everyone to continually wash their hands? The district’s schools were already overcrowded, and the pandemic has led to a budget freeze. “It’s like a Rubik’s Cube with 60 sides,” Turner says. “Every time you change something, it creates more difficulties down the line.”…
https://news.yahoo.com/school-approaches-education-may-become-100823588.html?soc_src=hl-viewer&soc_trk=ma
This is science, but it isn’t rocket science. We know enough about covid right now in that it’s prevalence is airborne, thus easily transmitted. Therefore, we know we ALL should wear masks, especially indoors. We know we should wash our hands w/soap for at least 20 seconds (30 w/hand sanitizers). We know we should social distance. But all of us do not. Statics aside, does even ONE child need to become deathly ill? Does even ONE school staff member–teacher or not–need to become sick? ONE is one too many. If we look at it in this way, even if that ONE is not your child, even if that one is not your sister, brother, mother, father, cousin, grandmother, if we don’t care, aren’t we looking at this as the very people we constantly criticize here–that is, “other people’s children.” It’s okay if “other people’s children” are sickened &, perhaps, die?
It’s okay if “other people’s” relatives pass away?
NO. JUST NO. I am as sorry as anywhere here with children at home who are sick to death of distance learning: I have an active 11-year-old grandnephew (& his mother is a 1st Grade teacher) who is bored and distraught, & I am saddened by this. I have friends with grandchildren they watch & try to help. But none of them want their grandkids back at school.
We know enough to know better. We are not WHit. The U.S. is up to 4 million cases, over 143,000 deaths today. I don’t think we, here, want more.
In case you didn’t know it, Trump is actually winning in the polls. It is our fake media that is reporting the wrong numbers. This bit of BS comes from Patriotic Times. People believe this garbage.
“But it just won’t work. Americans love President Trump and know that he is the only chance we have to save this country.”
Mainstream Media Refuses To Report Swing State Polls Showing Trump On Top
by Joe Hoft
2 days ago
Breaking huge news – President Trump is crushing Sleepy Joe Biden in current polls in the swing states where it matters.President Trump is running away with the lead in polling where it matters. Sleepy Joe may be slightly ahead of the President in Delaware where Biden is campaigning but that may be it.
Last night President Trump’s Media Director released polling numbers in the swing states where the President is showing sizable leads.Dan Scavino tweeted results from recent polling at the American Principals Project(although his tweet is no longer available):
POLLS OUT TONIGHT—YOU WON’T SEE ON TV:
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POLLING
Georgia: Trump 49, Biden 46
Kentucky: Trump 60, Biden 34
Michigan: Trump 50, Biden 45
Montana: Trump 52, Biden 42
North Carolina: Trump 49, Biden 46
Pennsylvania: Trump 48, Biden 47
Texas: Trump 49, Biden 45
The Mainstream Media (MSM) is doing all it can to discourage Trump voters with phony polling but unfortunately for them, America has been through this rodeo before (only 4 years ago). Today’s results are very encouraging for those on the Trump train. If President Trump is polling ahead in these polls in these states now, after the Democrat MSM doing all it can to curtail free speech and hurt the Trump campaign with fake news and fake polls, the real outcome will be a massive Trump win.
There is no reason to be discouraged. Americans see through the Democrat and foreign entity sponsoring of the Democrat city riots. Americans see through the insane actions of Democrats in regards to the China coronavirus, trying to destroy the economy before the election. But it just won’t work.Americans love President Trump and know that he is the only chance we have to save this country. We never knew how corrupted the country was after the Obama years until now. All we have to change is everything and Trump can lead that change.
Author: Joe Hoft
Yeah…
Still, take NOTHING, NOTHING for granted, as we did in 2016.
Contact your county election board & request a mail-in ballot NOW.
DON’T wait for them to contact you. (In IL, if you voted in at least one of the last 3 elections, they’re sending voters a VbM application automatically.) Then, check your registration online 3x before the election, making sure you’re still registered.
Vote as if your life depended on it…because, it does.
An editor or a panel of editors usually writes the headlines. They also can cut stories, revise stories, and add to stories that reporters turn. An editor can easily change the focus of a news piece with a few small changes from what the reporter wrote.
Idaho needs a reality check on reopening schools safely
BY LANCE MCINELLY
JULY 26, 2020 07:00 AM
Public education in Idaho is on a collision course, with two trains barreling toward each other. On one track is an out-of-control increase in cases of a deadly virus. On the other track is Idaho’s woeful funding of public education.
It is an unfortunate but somewhat self-inflicted dilemma. State and local officials want to reopen schools, but they lack the resources to do it safely and effectively. COVID-19 cases in Idaho are spiking exponentially just as state officials have rolled out their recommendations for reopening schools. If Idaho is going to reopen school buildings during a pandemic, resources for districts and equitable learning opportunities for all students are imperative.
Idaho’s educators and support personnel want nothing more than to be back in classrooms with their students. We know that in-person instruction is markedly better than emergency and online education. But more and more we are realizing that those benefits do not outweigh the risk to the health, and even the very lives of educators, students and families. It is time to recognize our professional educators as “essential workers,” prioritize their safety, provide hazard pay and the resources and support that they and their students deserve. School buildings absolutely should not reopen if the cases continue to rise and there is community spread within the community where the school district is located. Educators are essential, not expendable.
Reopening our schools safely will require modifications to the traditional way of doing things, all of which come with a price. Providing face coverings, cleaning supplies and desk dividers and achieving smaller class sizes to ensure physical distancing should be minimum requirements. As state and local officials contemplate reopening, some key questions remain unanswered.
Will they be able to achieve smaller class sizes and physical distancing with the same, or in many cases, fewer personnel?
Will they replace educators who decide not to risk their lives by going back into school buildings?
Will our classified employees receive the training and resources needed to provide the services that our students need?
Where will they find substitute teachers for educators who become sick?
Without sufficient school medical personnel, how will they evaluate and treat students and staff who exhibit signs of COVID-19?
How will districts support the mental and emotional health of students? Idaho’s counselor numbers were critically low before the pandemic, and COVID-19 will only make the situation worse.
Some of these questions could be successfully addressed with sufficient funding from state, local and federal sources. The harsh reality is that Idaho’s leaders have put their local school districts, professional educators and students in a precarious position. Here are some troubling facts:
Idaho ranks 51st out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in per student funding.
With the 2006 tax shift, the 2018 tax cut and other policies, Idaho has consistently misfired on opportunities to substantially invest in public education.
We are facing a mandated $99 million holdback for K-12 public education in 2020-2021.
Already heavily reliant on local levies and bonds, districts are finding it even more difficult to pass these levies, which are “supplemental” in name only. Districts need them for essential student services.
Rather than ramping up with the additional personnel needed for reopening in a pandemic, many local districts are cutting budgets and eliminating positions.
When school buildings across the state were closed this spring, the decision-making was based on science and data. That approach seems to have been abandoned in the rush to reopen schools this fall. Idaho is at or near the highest percentage growth in COVID-19 cases in the nation. That is a troubling backdrop for a rush to reopen schools where large numbers of people will be gathering, and health precautions will be difficult to achieve…
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article244447232.html?#storylink=cpy
https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article244447232.html
Notice they are not 6 feet apart…Trump has anyone who gets near him tested. The same safety protocol isn’t available to public schools who are supposed to open full time in person.
The United States’ coronavirus death toll exceeded 1,000 for five days straight last week, but who could possibly expect President Donald Trump to sacrifice a day of golfing because of a deadly pandemic?
Brian Morgenstern, White House deputy press secretary, told WTMJ-TV Favre and Trump “discussed the importance of sports as a critical unifying and uplifting part of the safe reopening of America.”
The coronavirus death toll has only increased since June, when fewer than 120,000 people had died of the virus. The United States’ COVID-19 death toll was more than 146,000 Saturday, ABC News reported. In single-day, coronavirus death tallies, states reported 1,037 deaths Saturday, 1,178 deaths Friday, 1,039 Thursday, 1,126 Wednesday, and 1,029 deaths Tuesday, according to the volunteer-led COVID Tracking Project.
?ref_src=twsrctfw|twcamptweetembed|twterm1287368577557975041|twgr&ref_url=https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-has-time-to-golf-as-states-report-more-than-1000-covid-19-deaths-for-fifth-day-straight/
it is embarrassing to view the opinions of foreigners when they see the devastation that Trump and the GOP have brought upon this country. OPEN and LIBERATE!!
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The United States leads the world in Covid-19 deaths, nearing 150,000 lost lives.
Video: ‘That’s Ridiculous.’ How America’s Coronavirus Response Looks Abroad.
From lockdowns to testing, we showed people around the world the facts and figures on how the U.S. has handled the pandemic.
By Brendan Miller and Adam Westbrook
Video didn’t send the link. I’ll try again.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000007227777