John Merrow has tried to figure out what will be need to open schools safely. He concludes that it will take lots of effort and energy and cooperation.
What is needed is space, time, personnel, and resources.
He suggests creative ways to get what is needed.
Here are his thoughts about space. Open the link to read about his other ideas.
Two priorities cannot be compromised or negotiated: 1) Keep everyone safe, with frequent testing, social distancing, and adequate PPE; and 2) Create genuine learning opportunities, rather than simply replicating semesters, work sheets, 50-minute periods, and everything else that schools routinely do. Quite literally, everything else should be on the table, subject to change.
Serious ‘out of the box’ thinking begins with re-examining how schools traditionally use both time and space.
Start with space. No public school was designed for social distancing, and very few public schools have enough extra room–like the gym–to create safe spaces, even with the reduced ‘3 foot spacing’ recommended by the nation’s pediatricians. That’s why many school districts (including New York City) have announced plans for a ‘hybrid’ approach in which all students are at home at least part of the time, while other districts (including Los Angeles and San Diego) have announced that all instruction will be remote for the first half of the school year.
But there’s an important alternative: find new spaces and convert them for instruction. Spaces that are empty at least part of the day are everywhere: Houses of worship, meeting rooms at the local Y or Boys & Girls Club, theaters, and–because of the recession–vacant storefronts and offices. It will take some political leadership, but the 3rd Grade could meet at the Y, the 5th Grade at the Methodist Church, the 9th Grade at what used to be a shoe store, and so on.
Jamaal Bowman, a New York City Democrat who is virtually certain to be elected to Congress in the fall, likes this idea. He told Politico that he “would use alternative learning spaces to maximize the amount of face-to-face learning children have with a teacher and would demand substantial investments from our federal government so our school district can hire more teachers. I would also encourage cities to repurpose unused spaces like theaters, office spaces, and design spaces to classrooms.”
Superintendents I have communicated with raised the issue of liability in any new spaces, clearly a problem but not an insoluble one; it should be addressed in federal legislation now being discussed in Congress.
By dramatically expanding the spaces available for instruction, social distancing becomes possible and schools are now safe places to be. What’s more, everyone goes to school at the same time: no split days with noon starts, and so forth.
What does Merrow plan to do about the fact that Ms. Smith teaches 9th grade basic English, 10th grade honors English and American Literature to juniors? Does she have to drive to three different locations during her teaching day? To say nothing of the logistics nightmare of busing 3,000 kids to 13 different locations. And what does he plan to do about the “Jesus loves you” signs at the Methodist Church and the YMCA?
I think you mean what does progressive politician and former principal Jamaal Bowman plan to do, since he is the one that Merrow refers to.
But your comment does make an excellent point, which is that no matter what option is offered, it is very easy for people to point out the flaws.
I heard Carranza making some reference to all the options being bad. He was being truthful. Nothing is good. I’m not sure what the solution is. Except I know that just because 100% happens to be easy enough for my family, it does not mean that there aren’t far more vulnerable families who would be better served with Merrow’s plan, even if it means that their kids’ classroom has been moved to a church where a “Jesus loves you” sign is up or a mosque or a synagogue and they happen to be agnostic or atheist or practice a different religion than the place their child’s temporary classroom is.
^^^”just because 100% REMOTE happens to be easy enough for my family…” (sorry for typo)
Yes! Use of the many now vacant spaces, some needing work to be made safe, could go a long way to solving this problem. Bathrooms, air circulation and light are needed; vacant stores have those. Theaters might work for teenagers. Colleges that are choosing remote learning can also provide space. Outdoors is ideal for science teaching in schoolyards, community gardens, parks, and streets closed to traffic.
You are kidding, right?
I like it. We need to start thinking about creative alternatives, not curl up in ball and give up. Even if they aren’t all feasible, some certainly are. This calls for WPA-style funding and commitment. People could be put to work, rents could be paid for unused spaces, police can be used to facilitate safety, walking and work spaces, etc. Although it may not come to pass because of Republicans in Congress, state legislatures, and local governments, putting it out there as a vision will highlight their ineptitude and inaction.
Why are stores, theaters and colleges unsafe gathering-places for customers, audiences and college-students– but OK for K12 teaching?
It will take a new President and a new Secretary of Education … none of this other stuff will happen without that …
on the nose: why pretend otherwise
This would prove to be a huge and expensive undertaking, just like providing enough daily PPE for students and staff. Therefore, it would be yet another nail in the coffin of in-person learning, and further push the public into accepting remote/virtual instruction.
It’s going to take truth and trust to get through this pandemic. The decisiveness, fear and non- leadership in this country has got to come to a halt in November.
The DNC just decided against Medicare for All and Democrats are not pushing to continue the weekly federal unemployment supplement nor extend the federal eviction moratorium – three things that should be the bare minimum during a pandemic. Things may get somewhat better under a Biden presidency, but don’t look for decisive leadership regardless of who wins.
FYI: The DNC also decided against privatizing Medicare. The DNC also decided against forcing union members to give up their union-negotiated health insurance. The DNC also decided against ending Obamacare.
“don’t look for decisive leadership regardless of who wins.”
Say what?? We have had nearly 4 years of “decisive leadership” enabled by William Barr and those who were extremely upset that the democrats impeached Trump. William Barr is very decisive about quashing all progressive dissent.
We can absolutely look forward to “decisive leadership” to destroy all progressive dissent in the manner of Putin if Trump wins.
Putin and William Barr are very decisive. So is Trump when he arranges for anyone to be fired if they dissent from his “decisive leadership” to destroy progressive dissent.
“The DNC also decided against forcing union members to give up their union-negotiated health insurance. The DNC also decided against ending Obamacare.”
Yes, that’s EXACTLY the problem!!! They chose to keep the insurance companies in place as profit-seeking middlemen between you and your doctor. Those profits include premiums, co-pays and deductibles which unemployed and low-income people can’t afford. But, hey, union members got theirs, who cares about anyone else, so who needs Medicare for All?
Incidentally, union members would also benefit from Medicare for All.
As far as patting them on the back for not privatizing Medicare, that’s a bit like patting someone on the back for not murdering people.
dienne77,
I agree with you that it would be better for everyone if we had Medicare for All.
Just like (I assume) we both agree that it would be better for everyone if privately run charter schools supported by taxpayer dollars ceased to exist.
My point being that while I might wish Bernie Sanders and AOC would endorse the immediate closure of all charter schools, I understand that the incremental moves in Bernie Sanders’ platform to support public education and limit the expansion of charters and supporting more transparency and regulation of charters are still positive moves in the right direction. Don’t you agree?
RE: the dienne/ nycpsp counterpoints: the only thing I like about Merrow’s ideas is his willingness to think outside current political realities. That exercise is worth putting energy into right now, as the public contemplates failure of leadership to meet a crisis. The rest of his essay is nonsense. Countering his suggestions with covid reality needs to be done, and isn’t just flaw-finding negativism.
Think again.”Vacant spaces,” such as synagogues and churches are “vacant” for a reason. Clergy and staff are working remotely. Many are only allowing minimal staff in their buildings at pre-arranged times–and no indoor gatherings of any kind. These institutions are not holding live services, meetings, or any religious school classes, and are unlikely to change their safety policies to accomodate schools, as much as they might like to be of service.
Right on. And just to underline the point you’re making: why are we even contemplating less stringent safety policies for public school staff & students?
These suggestions are blissfully free of any understanding of legal liabilities of the owners of these spaces. The suggestions are like those of proponents of “anywhere, anytime” learning with students given the task of finding people who will serve (without pay) as on-call tutors, mentors, and teachers. In that vision, internet connections and competency with computer searchers are viewed as essential. Of course, only well intentioned people are presumed to volunteer to be on-call for students.
Yes indeed. Merrow seems to be thinking of some amiable “village” from the pages of Louisa May Alcott.
John Merrow is a product of New York City, and you can tell. Those of us in suburbs and rural areas do NOT have those kinds of “extra spaces” to just move into. We have one small church within walking distance, but there is NO WAY that anyone would allow their children to go to schools there.
And while we can “rethink” a lot of things, a lot of project based learning and other interesting ways of teaching, like debates and Socratic Seminars, are going to be next to impossible to do with social distancing. Kids wouldn’t be able to be close enough to hear each other or work with partners, unless we use a bunch of tech, which will have to be checked out to kids without computers at home, meaning that they won’t be able to be used at schools.
I disagree. If anything, Utah has more open space than just about any state in the country. Why not festival style tents? See my comment above for more. We have to show what’s possible and make people see it, whether it comes to fruition or not. There has to be political reward for creative ideas and political retribution for passing the buck.
Have you ever been to Utah in the months of May, June, July, August, part of September, and then from November to March or early April?
Utah does NOT have weather conducive to “large, festival style tents.” I’ve been in those tents during the scary microburst storms that we have here on a regular basis, and we were all nearly swept away inside that tent. And what about the blistering heat during the spring and summer (over 100 degrees into September) and the bitter cold (into the single digits sometimes) we have in winter? And don’t forget the canyon winds that are so bad that certain areas have trees that grow crooked because of the constant wind. We’ve had multiple hurricane-force wind storms over the last 6-7 years, as well as a tornado that touched down in my neighborhood.
We are a high desert, and contrary to the pictures you may have seen of southern Utah’s national parks, we don’t have a lot of open space on the Wasatch Front, where the vast majority of people live. In fact, open space is being gobbled up at a massive pace because of the large population growth we have here (some of the fastest population growth in the country). We’re bounded by mountains and the Great Salt Lake, so we have limited space in which to build. My county is over half IN the Great Salt Lake.
I am in a small, poor community where all the services are a 10-15 drive away and with not nearly enough bus drivers to service that kind of situation. Many of our bus drivers are quite old and thus at high risk.
We can think “outside the box” all we want. It doesn’t mean it will work.
Yes, I’ve been to Utah many times. In fact I was there just two weeks ago today on my first business trip during the pandemic. (I thought Ohio was bad with use of masks and social distancing, Utah was scary as hell.) I’ve also lived much of my life in one of the hottest, most humid parts of the country. So I get it. I’ll answer this in greater detail below in response to Wait What’s astute comment, but to address your last sentence first, if we don’t at least try to think outside of the proverbial box, then why go on living?
Boy, do I agree with you on the masks. Hardly anyone wears them. It’s scary.
Well, my NJ town of 30k has a fair amount of commercial space closed for non-covid reasons. Most recent retail victim, our anchor dept store. Many communities probably have some of these shuttered RE white elephants on their outskirts. Their vast, high-ceilinged spaces offer some promise– better than any of the smaller local places Merrow suggests. I can imagine their owners would be amenable to any form of rental income/ tax relief. Towns would have to fix up, add large, well-ventilated bathrooms, hand-washing stations, entry/ exit points. They’d have to insure/ hold owners harmless. But their ventilation systems might do w/minimal change.
There we go! Brainstorming ideas that on the surface seem totally untenable lead to possible application of ideas in some localities/instances. Merrow’s ideas are a starting point to be dissected for potential uses/alternatives.
And Louie Gohmert has just been tested positive for COVID! 🎉🎊 I may have to pray for just rewards on this one.
Gohmert got COVID after not wearing a mask.
Karma.
Didn’t you hear he thinks he caught it because he wore his mask? (snark alert)
Louie Gohmert and Ted Yoho, yeowww, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh, splounge, phlat!! Gohmertism plus Yohoism equals the end of civilization and a return to the darkest of dark ages.
We have some states where infection and death rates have been going down. We can’t let this continue. How can we ensure that both soar beyond our wildest nightmares! How can we make sure that we are No. 1? I mean, after all, this pandemic hasn’t reached anything like the level of the Black Death in 14th-century Europe. We’re slacking.
I have an idea. Let’s have 56.6 million Americans (the number of K-12 students in the US) start assembling in groups right away, and let’s keep them, for the most part, in poorly ventilated, enclosed rooms for hours at a time, every day–you know, Coronavirus Exposure Chambers–and let’s have them not wear goggles or protective clothing and just use some partially effective cloth masks, for appearances’ sake. That should do the trick.
Back during the flu pandemic, the mayor of Philly insisted on a big War Bond Rally. Most historians think that killed thousands there.
This is still an experiment! Schools must be physically closed. They will close when someone, a child, teacher, other school staff, bus driver, gets sick or dies. STOP coming up with this open now nonsense. We need the virus under real control. That will not happen under Trump. If he is reelected it will take years to develop herd immunity with millions suffering and dead including children. The best hope is a Democratic sweep on 11/3. Then it will take a national shut down for up to 8 weeks as other countries have done followed by careful opening with testing and tracing protocols. The best case scenario is schools cannot reopen safely until the Spring, face it. Of course you can’t depend on a Social-Darwinist Republican Party to help as this will take a massive societal commitment, governmental, to get us to this.
There is no guarantee that there is such a thing as herd immunity. Any immunity we may get from having the virus will not necessarily beyond months. We don’t know.
THIS. It’s the only sensible approach, & we have plenty of intl evidence. I say, let’s pool it & follow the best example. Read the Atlantic’s recent article on ventilation. Japan went w/best scientific info, modeling their policies on the role of aerosolized droplets in spreader events/ clusters. Results: despite denser population than most places, in a population of 127 million they’ve had 35k cases and 1k deaths. Their testing/ tracing & other healthcare policies have even allowed them to avoid massive shutdowns, while maintaining stats at the low end of OECD countries. We don’t have that option, but an 8-wk shutdown could give us a chance at do-over.
The best spaces for new classrooms are literally at our doorsteps: outdoors! Outdoor classrooms were used during the TB epidemic over 100 years ago,and have the benefit of making transmission much less likely than indoor spaces. Schoolyards and streets surrounding schools could be utilized; and wedding tent-type structures can help guard against some of the elements. (Outdoor classrooms served in 1910 throughout the winter, even in northern cities.) Many districts and colleges are already investing in this arrangement. Of course, this too requires funding, but it’s probably the safest and cheapest way to be getting teachers and students together face-to-face at the beginning of the school year, laying the foundation for a school year in which some forms of distance learning will undoubtedly be part of the mix.
When a parent or other person who is NOT supposed to have contact with his/her child (This actually exists.) decides to walk into my tent and take the child out, what do I do as a teacher? Do I wrestle the person to the ground? Do I use my cell phone to call someone? What do I do while I wait for this person to arrive? Will I be held responsible for this situation?
There are a lot of safety, liability and insurance issues associated with some of the proposals.
C’mon John sign the Safe Open Schools Pledge:
Safe Open Schools Pledge
I,_____(the undersigned)_____, will publicly commit seppuku or agree to be guillotined on the State House lawn when the first innocent childrens’ Covid deaths and co-morbidities obtain from the opening of schools without all of the proper health safeguards in place.
Random…
The idea is excellent.
Of course, there are all kinds of hurdles to overcome from legal to policy to practical… there are reasons that don’t sit well (Synagogues, Mosques, Churches)… there are many obstacles – – So… work through them. Do what works and don’t do what doesn’t.
But don’t throw the idea out with the bathwater.
Regardless of diverging opinions on any plan or details or ideas – – – just remember and remind everyone HOW WE GOT HERE! The White House.
And remember your “representatives” and Senators who watched for SIX MONTHS and said nothing – especially in red states which have become red petri dishes because of the WH. (yes – the effects of his inaction on his base)!
and –
The suburbs… oh,so many possible responses to that one…
(ok, one – are you telling your friends and neighbors how we got here?)
WW, as we say in German, “Lass dich umarmen!” You are right on the mark. We have become a nation characterized by greed, cowardice, retribution, blame, hate, lame excuses and paralysis and the dysfunctional politics of today. The pandemic has exposed it for everyone to see and no one can deny it any longer.
A few weeks ago I read a couple of sentences in Michael Tomasky’s biography of Bill Clinton that has caused me to change my thinking about our collective future, both as a nation and as citizens of the world. “American political discourse had once operated within broadly agreed-upon boundaries of self-restraint. It grew out of shared respect for institutions; the shared experiences of the Depression and world war that gave Democratic and Republican politicians a set of bonds that transcended partisan politics; and an understood need during the Cold War to be American at the end of the day.” Indeed, I can remember when Republicans and Democrats–all Americans, for that matter–agreed with the goal of “making the world safe for democracy.” We argued like hell about it, but the goal was easily agreed upon. The pandemic, rather than becoming a unifying common event that we all agree we need to address, not only for ourselves, but for the world and our standing in it, has become just another political football that makes us look foolish, scared and will remove all questions about whether the U.S. will ever be anything approaching the mythical “shining City on the hill” ever again. The school debate is a perfect microcosm of the crap we find ourselves in.
As tired as I have grown of the wacko deniers who will not take the pandemic seriously, I’m growing just as weary of the people on this blog who claim to be educators or for public education who retreat and resign themselves to a “no schools until we have a solution” argument and paradoxically embrace the “distance learning” as the ONLY answer, especially when we know, a) how ineffective and potentially destructive it is and, b) that this will be a “shock doctrine”-like justification to further marginalize and ultimately kill public education. We claim we want teacher autonomy, no standardization, respect for local control, engaged school board and administrations, master teachers who mentor rather than Pearson-based packaged curricula that require acquiescent drones, diverse physical education, play time, smaller class sizes, respect for facts and the scientific method, diversity at all levels, nutrition and health, and most of all, equal opportunity for all students, regardless of who they are, where they come from, or what their economic status might be. Can this pandemic be the spark that helps us to realize this–much like the Depression, world wars, and the Cold War were for past generations? Can we produce a political playing field like the one that Daniel Inouye and Bob Dole, both veterans who almost died and each of whom lost use of an arm as they opposed each other in the political arena, with a shared sense of respect and ultimate goals? If we base it on a snapshot of today, I doubt it.
But if we, as Wait, What? says above, determine that we “don’t [have to] throw out the baby with the bathwater” and recognize that “there are all kinds of hurdles to overcome [if we] work through them”, can we not begin to make something worth living and dying for? First things first. A real response requires a New Deal, comprehensive approach, one never before imaginable. New programs, new ideas, new commitments, and funding in a way that we’ve never seen in our lifetimes. If policymakers are too timid, then we must lead from below. We have to present a vision, whether it is achieved or not, by which everything that happens from this moment forward is measured. And public educators and their most passionate supporters are in a position to do this more so than any others in our society to show how this can and should be done. I have been heartened in the past few day of ever dwindling of limiting diplomacy and niceties expressed by Andy Slavitt, for FDA commissioner, and the statement made today by the people at Johns Hopkins who have been tracking this pandemic. It’s time for straight talk.
So what can public education do? Lay out some plans, rethink for the short term how to educate within the limits of the pandemic without resorting to the easiest, cheapest, most effort-free ideas. Who says that education has to happen five days a week in regimented, evenly spaced educational blocks in the same venues all the time? Why is the only solution distance learning? We have empty hotels and other venues–inside and outside, unemployed people, unused resources, cramped conditions. We have teachers whose lives are literally at risk if they step back into classrooms. We have students–students who want to be teachers and many who don’t yet know that they really want to be teachers–who are being prevented from returning to their colleges and universities. So how about some thinking way outside the box?
TOW laments above that thing in Utah are not as wide open as they seem. The Wasatch Valley is not like the rest of the state, it’s pretty crowded and it’s hot. You know what’s not crowded, virtually empty and unused right now and not so hot? Park City and the surrounding areas. Why can’t we create federal and state funding sources and programs that bring some students to the hotels–a group a week–to make sure they can get out, be supervised safely, rework the curriculum, have master teachers work to mentor college students and work with other teachers and administrators who are less at risk? Why can’t we think about how to use literature, history, science, and incorporate walks in the wilderness with meals provided? We could pay empty, unused places rent that are currently going out of business; we could create a hiring boomlet.
Why can’t we turn parts of Central Park into teaching venues, especially when we could turn it into a hospital? Why can’t we enlist people to work with teachers so that instead of student’s working remotely, in isolated situations, that teachers can communicate virtually with their surrogates? Why can’t we start to think about how we can do something rather than list excuses why we can’t?
And if policymakers balk and are obstructive, let’s lay out some solutions and present them to the public, let’s vote on them, let’s do something goddammit. Let’s make policymakers respond to them and have it make or break their careers. I don’t have the answers. But I’m pretty sure We do. Whining, denying reality, finding excuses to continue the status quo, which we know is leading us to straight down the road to more catastrophe and likely the end of the world in one way or another, is not the answer. For years I’ve read on this blog and other places that teachers can be part of the solution to many of our societal ills. If you can’t prove it now, you never will.
Greg B
That is very Bobby Kennedy. “Ask not…”
Your list of “Why can’t we…?” is refreshing starting with the “Why can’t we…” instead “We can’t” and “We won’t” and “That won’t work.”
As for the guys in charge, they skipped private school the day the taught the Preamble (if they taught it at all)
Huh? This is just more la-la-land happy talk like Merrow’s. These facilities are empty because they’re unsafe to gather in, consequently their employees are unemployed & students not at school. Why is anyone discussing conducting K12 education in spaces unused because of covid, staffed with people at loose ends because of covid? Is K12 education God’s special activity to which physical reality does not apply?
What is so hard to understand about this? In communities where covid spread has been reduced to a trickle, everything will reopen in-person, incrementally, including K12 ed. If ample testing/ tracing/ targeted quarantining is in place, it will go forward incrementally. If not, there will be pauses, retreats, fits and starts. Until that time, K12 ed will have to do the equivalent of restaurants/ retail [remote ordering/ curbside pickup or delivery] and businesses [minimal in-person, maximum online].
All this talk of turning K12 inside-out & upside-down so as to proceed with high-risk activity just perpetuates the national delusion, spearheaded by the WH, that “bouncing back” is even on the horizon before flattening the curve and keeping it flat . We have already bounced ourselves back into March/ April rise, w/no flat in sight. Pressure the pols to get taming the virus square in its sights, priority #1.
“…would demand substantial investments from our federal government so our school district can hire more teachers.”
Are these extra teachers available? 20-25% of teachers are most likely going to quit. There was a teacher shortage before COVID-19 due to bad pay and terrible working conditions.
Where are these teachers going to come from? They don’t exist.
Pull the plug, it’s not going to happen.
Now we know why there is no money to safely open schools or continue the $600 a week extension to unemployment insurance. THE PENTAGON/MILITARY NEEDS WEAPONS!!
…………………………………………………
GOP tucks $8 billion for military weaponry in coronavirus bill
July 28, 2020, 9:23 PM CDT / Source: Associated Press
By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A new $1 trillion COVID-19 response package by Senate Republicans is supposed to give the government more weapons to battle the surging coronavirus pandemic. But GOP lawmakers have more than just the “invisible enemy” in mind.
The Republican measure includes billions for F-35 fighters, Apache helicopters and infantry carriers sought by Washington’s powerful defense lobby. Overall, the proposal stuffs $8 billion into Pentagon weapons systems built by defense contractors like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics — corporate titans that sit atop the Washington influence industry.
The bill, drafted by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would deposit $2.2 billion in Pentagon shipbuilding accounts, boost missile defense systems in California and Alaska and deliver about $1.4 billion for C-130 transport planes and F-35 fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp. Some of the F-35s could be delivered to an Air National Guard unit in Montgomery, Alabama…
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-tucks-8-billion-military-weaponry-coronavirus-bill-n1235154
9-Year-Old Girl Becomes the Youngest to Die from Coronavirus in Florida
July 23, 2020
A 9-year-old girl in Florida has died from coronavirus complications, becoming the youngest in the state to die from the virus, health officials said.
In their daily reporting of new COVID-19 cases and deaths, the Florida Department of Health said Wednesday that a 9-year-old girl was one of the fatalities, the Miami Herald reported. She lived in Putnam County, in the northeastern part of the state, and officials said that she did not contract COVID-19 from travel or a close contact with the virus, meaning it was likely from community spread.
Putnam County Health Officer Mary Garcia told CNN that she did not know if the girl had any preexisting health conditions.
RELATED: 85 Infants Tested Positive for Coronavirus in Texas: They ‘Have Not Even Had Their First Birthday Yet’
In Florida, 28,087 children have contracted COVID-19, 282 have been hospitalized for treatment and five have died as of Wednesday night, the Herald reported. Prior to the 9-year-old’s death, the youngest fatalities were in an 11-year-old boy in Miami-Dade County and an 11-year-old girl in Broward County.
The child’s death comes just after Florida’s Commissioner of the Department of Education issued an executive order requiring all schools to fully reopen in August. In response, the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday to put a halt to the “unsafe” reopening of schools.
DeSantis had incorrectly claimed in April that COVID-19 does not “threaten kids” and that there had not been a “single fatality” nationwide of anyone under 25 years old, though there had already been at least five deaths in that age group at the time.
As of July 9, 241,904 children in the U.S. have contracted COVID-19, and 66 have died, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ count of publicly available data…
https://www.health.com/syndication/9-year-old-girl-youngest-die-coronavirus-florida?utm_source=emailshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm_content=20200729
It takes a pillage. The NEA said today that teachers are writing their last wills and buying life insurance. Damn. Yes, to open schools safely it will take a publicly financed village; the way many schools are going to open is with a privately orchestrated pillage. We will witness the violence of disaster capitalism taken to scale.
I sent part of this before but didn’t have a link. So, here is the article from TIME. We are in a mess due to the lack of intelligence and action by our government…TRUMP and the GOP. Just OPEN UP and everything will be fine. What district has an extra $1.8 laying around?
……………………
As the School Year Approaches, Education May Become the Pandemic’s Latest Casualty
BY KATIE REILLY/MIDDLETOWN, CONN. AND MOLLY BALL
JULY 23, 2020 6:08 AM EDT
In recent weeks, more and more districts have announced that schools will reopen only remotely this fall. Money and time are too short to sort out the complicated logistics as the pandemic worsens in many states, spreading at rates that make in-person instruction too dangerous.
Parents and teachers overwhelmingly back the decisions, saying they are not comfortable sending kids back to classrooms under current conditions. “I’m just afraid that they’re really pushing schools to be this thing that saves us, that allows us to get the economy going again and get things back to normal,” says Megan Ake, a high school English teacher in Fenton, Mich. “I want to be done too. But I’m just so worried that we’re going to be like a giant test case.” Parents left to their own devices are struggling to find work-arounds, making informal arrangements with friends and neighbors or turning to a burgeoning array of service providers to supplement online learning, like tutors offering group instruction at $80 per hour for “pods” of families.
And so as the pandemic continues its rampant spread, children’s education is shaping up to be yet another avoidable tragedy of America’s dismal response. Without in-person schooling, the economy will remain stalled, families will lack crucial support, kids will fall further behind, and inequality will deepen. But until the virus is under control, many school districts say, there’s just no other way.
For kids already in precarious situations, the result could be an irrevocable loss. “Time is wasting for these kids. It really matters how quickly we catch them up,” says Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington. “They can fall into an academic death spiral if they can’t engage in the lessons being put in front of them. Some of them will just check out and never come back.”…
It will cost nearly $1.8 million for the average school district to buy enough masks and cleaning supplies, and to hire the custodians, nurses and additional staff to disinfect campuses and take temperatures daily, according to an analysis by the School Superintendents Association. That may be doable for a smaller suburban district like Middletown. It’s a harder lift for nearby Hartford, a poverty-stricken city where 78% of the nearly 20,000 students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. To maintain 6 ft. between children, as many as 14 students would need to be removed from each class, according to Hartford superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez. “And that’s just classroom space,” she says. “That doesn’t get into transportation and busing and all the other dynamics.”…
https://time.com/5870132/schools-coronavirus/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm-term=us_education
Meanwhile, the debate over reopening schools has become intensely politicized. U.S. President Donald Trump and many other Republicans are pressuring schools to reopen, in part because they want American life to feel as normal as possible before Election Day this November. But many Democrats say it’s too early to go back to school, and we shouldn’t put the lives of children and teachers at risk before a vaccine is ready.
Video: Trump Now Says Some Schools May Need to Delay Reopening as Coronavirus Surges
ContinueSoftening his earlier stance, President Donald Trump…
I’ll try again on the link. Geesh.
players.brightcove.net/293884104/gh5LeNtQaQ_default/index.html?videoId=6174554955001′
https://time.com/5872418/kids-children-covid-19-schools/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=20200730&et_rid=86918716&playlistVideoId=6174554955001
Trump is not softening his tone. His advisers told him to, and he pretended to. Then he tweeted a video of quack doctors hawking his favorite drug hydroxychloroquine and advising people not to wear masks or socially distance from others.
If We Reopen Schools, We Admit That Community Safety Is Not Our Priority
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout
PUBLISHED
July 30, 2020
All over the country, school districts have been utterly abandoned.
…Now, paint that picture in the confined enclosure of a full-capacity elementary school in bleak November, where the germs and viruses run wild even on the best of days.
A student says she has a stomach ache and gets sent home, but what of the other kids? COVID tests are taking days to return for those of us who are not rich or pro athletes. What if it actually was COVID affecting that kid’s stomach? Does her whole class need to be quarantined? Her teachers, too? Do they all need to be tested? The whole school? How?
If one kid with a tummy ache — faked or genuine — can create this unmanageable scenario, schools are not ready to reopen. Period, end of file.
WMUR, the local TV station here, recently posited a question to school administrators about a similar scenario: “If a student or a teacher tests positive for COVID-19, will the entire class be required to quarantine for 14 days?”
The “answer” provided is one of the more dramatic examples of bureaucratic no-speak you’re ever likely to come across:
One of the most important questions and one of the most important factors in our guidance is our schools having a robust response plan. And it’s really going to be dependent on the circumstances in the school — if a teacher quarantines, if that class quarantines. Perhaps it’s even a wing of school or maybe even a whole school.
So, we’ve asked schools to have really dynamic plans that will include working directly with Health and Human Services to give them guidance in terms of how they should respond to that when they do have to respond. We are also working with them so they can nimbly continue to offer educational opportunities both for the teachers to teach and the students to learn during that quarantine period.
Raise your hand if you find that a satisfactory “plan” weeks before the bell rings. Yeah, me neither.
I don’t blame the administrator who crafted that reply. All over the country, school districts have been utterly abandoned, denied necessary funding for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials, even as the days tick by. These people are trying to swim the rapids with their hands and feet tied behind them. That they are sinking beneath the burden is as predictable as the sunrise…
https://truthout.org/articles/my-daughter-had-a-tummy-ache-it-exposed-the-folly-of-reopening-schools/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Truthout+Share+Buttons
I said it before and I’ll say it again …
It’s not just about the schools and the children. The current pandemic has exposed a deeper principle at work — it has brought the corporate masters and their minions to the very point of articulating what they don’t often dare to say —
❝Concentrating wealth in the hands of the ruling classes presupposes an acceptable level of mortality in the ruled masses.❞
Jon Awbrey: COVID-19 is mainly killing the elderly and the poor, black and Latinos in our country. It is hitting the poor and elderly all over the world.
They are “dregs on society” and the wealthy don’t care. They just want more money. Drug companies are already making billions and nothing of value has been created for a vaccine. It’s a gold mine for the medical industry.
I wonder how many Republicans are looking at the long-term reduction in the cost of Social Security, as older people die.
In high-spread areas in Idaho, keep schools closed, start the fall semester online-only
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
JULY 30, 2020 11:39 AM , UPDATED 4 HOURS 24 MINUTES AGO
Shutting down schools this fall may seem like a tremendous imposition, but Idaho needs to play the long game here.
School board members all over the state are making the hard decision on whether to bring students back into the classroom, recognizing on the one hand the need to educate students and provide for their mental well-being, and balancing that with the need to protect public health and prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Keeping children home right now in high-spread areas is the safest choice.
What may seem like an insurmountable and unreasonable ask today will one day be recognized as a wise and necessary step during extraordinary times.
Some schools are pushing to open now, with the possibility of going online later in the fall. It’s almost as if we are expecting a disaster.
We believe it should be the other way around: Open online now, while we’re in the middle of community spread, and then bring students back later once conditions improve…
School districts in the Treasure Valley — as well as districts in other high-spread areas — should focus 100% of their attention on how to best structure distance learning and online education options.
The challenges and difficulties of providing education all online will pale in comparison to the challenges and difficulties of dealing with an outbreak if students return to school in person.
Trying to figure out distancing, requiring masks, fighting with parents who don’t believe in mask use, establishing a testing protocol, balancing schedules and coming up with game plans if there is an outbreak are all hoops that would need to be jumped through to pull off school in person. Any little outbreak could undo all of that work and, quite bluntly, could lead to unnecessary deaths.
We’ve seen even from Major League Baseball that people can set the best intentions, but it takes one sick person making others sick to throw everything off again.
Boise State University is saying it is going to have to drop the requirement for everyone to be tested before they can move into the dorms because we don’t even have enough tests available for people to pull that off. If we’re running out of tests before school even starts, without a plan for the state to obtain more, how will we test teachers and students who fall ill?…
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/editorials/article244590177.html?#storylink=cpy
Until we have fast turnaround tests they are useless anyway if people don’t quarantine from the time they get the test until they get their results. An infected person can infect a whole lot of people in the 7-10 days test results are taking. So that school age child that tests positive could have infected a large number of people both inside and outside of school who have then gone on to infect more.
Young children may carry the virus at high levels, a small study finds.
A study published on Thursday introduced an unwelcome wrinkle into the narrative about how young children are affected by the virus. Infected children have at least as much of the virus in their noses and throats as infected adults, according to the research.
Indeed, children younger than 5 may host up to 100 times as much of the virus in the upper respiratory tract as adults, the authors found.That measurement does not necessarily prove children are passing the virus to others. Still, the findings should factor into the debate over reopening schools, several experts said.
“I’ve heard lots of people saying, ‘Well, kids aren’t susceptible, kids don’t get infected.’ And this clearly shows that’s not true,” said Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The researchers analyzed samples collected with nasopharyngeal swabs from March 23 to April 27 at drive-through testing sites in Chicago and from people who came to the hospital for any reason, including symptoms of Covid-19.
They looked at swabs taken from 145 people: 46 children younger than age 5; 51 children ages 5 to 17; and 48 adults ages 18 to 65. Older children and adults had similar levels of genetic fragments of the virus, by one important measure. Children younger than 5 had significantly lower levels. Still, the upper limit of the range was comparable to that of older children and adults.
The study is not without caveats: It was small, and did not specify the participants’ race or sex, or whether they had underlying conditions. The tests looked for viral RNA, genetic pieces of the coronavirus, rather than the live virus itself. (Its genetic material is RNA, not DNA.)
Still, experts were alarmed to learn that young children may carry significant amounts of the coronavirus.
This is a problem that I hadn’t thought about. School districts may not give out information as to whether a teacher [any adult] or child has COVID-19 due to privacy issues. Nursing homes didn’t let the state know how many cases they had. How is the health department going to know exactly how many children were near an exposed person/child? Recess, lunch, changing classes, toilet?? Who keeps track of whether someone was in contact with a COVID-19 asymptomatic person?
This is one more reason NOT to send a child to school and to not put teachers back in petri dishes.
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Friday, July 31, 2020 1:00 am
Disclosing school virus cases at issue
Teachers union: Share data by building
NIKI KELLY | The Journal Gazette
INDIANAPOLIS – As more than 1 million students head back to school – many in person – coronavirus outbreaks are likely to occur.
But it is unclear whether parents and the public will be told about those cases, whether in students or staffs.
It is shaping up to be the same kind of battle seen with nursing homes earlier in the pandemic. The state initially provided only aggregate numbers of cases and deaths but reversed course to name specific facilities a few weeks ago. Some counties provided data for specific facilities, and some refused.
“It’s not if – it’s when there is an outbreak,” said Noah Smith, father of three daughters at Snider High School.
His girls are returning when school opens Aug. 13, but he is nervous and anxious.
“It would be disconcerting if people had COVID-19 at Snider and we weren’t told that,” Smith said.
The Indiana State Teachers Association agrees – and sent a letter Wednesday to Gov. Eric Holcomb asking that cases be made public at the building level.
“We think everybody in the community needs the facts and the data,” said ISTA Vice President Jennifer Smith-Margraf. “It’s the only way we can be sure that rumors aren’t spreading around.”
She said if a teacher or student has a cough and stays home a few days, rumors can spread about them having COVID-19. But if the state tracks the cases publicly on the dashboard, it can halt misinformation.
Smith-Margraf knows there are privacy concerns, “but we are talking about a global pandemic where people are being required to make difficult decisions about whether or not to keep buildings open or send their child to school.”
State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said Wednesday she is aware of the request and is in the process of investigating it further.
Federal privacy law prohibits identifying a person’s medical information specifically. And if it’s a small school, simply naming the school could lead those in the community to figuring out the person’s identity. Aggregate statewide data is an option in the beginning until more cases occur.
Guidance put out by the Indiana Department of Education says the school must notify the local health department if a case is brought to its attention – whether it’s a student or a teacher. The local health department and state contact tracers will work with the person infected to identify other students or staffers who might have been exposed.
“Due to privacy and confidentially concerns, a public announcement or notification to any other individuals is not recommended. The local health department will contact and instruct the individuals involved with the confirmed case regarding the next steps needed for the health of those individuals,” the document said.
Fort Wayne Community Schools’ Return to Learn plan said close contacts – those who were closer than 6 feet for longer than 15 minutes – will be placed in quarantine and not permitted to attend school for 14 days.
“All others in the classroom would be informed and asked to self-monitor. While we understand parents may want information anytime there is a positive case in the building, we will only notify those directly affected or those who need to take specific action,” the plan said.
FWCS Spokeswoman Krista Stockman added that the district asks parents not to spread rumors of cases or assume the district is withholding information.
“If their child has been exposed, according to the Health Department’s definitions and guidelines, parents will be notified,” she said.
East Allen County Schools spokeswoman Tamyra Kelly said the health department would be in charge of public dissemination of information, but the district “will notify parents if a case is in a particular building.”
nkelly@jg.net
Locally
Indiana recorded 970 new cases with a seven-day positivity rate for tests of 6.9%. There were 13 new deaths statewide.
Allen County had 40 new cases and two deaths, and Kosciusko County reported 20 new cases and no deaths.
Collectively, other area counties had 23 new cases.
The U.S. has such a coronavirus testing shortage that experts say we may need to revive tighter standards about who can get tested, Axios’ Caitlin Owens writes.
Why it matters: Although testing has gotten a lot better over the course of the pandemic, the pandemic has gotten worse.
That might mean that frequent testing solely to help open businesses or schools just isn’t feasible.
The U.S. is conducting more than 800,000 tests per day, on average — an enormous leap from the severe testing shortages the country experienced in the spring. But it’s still not enough to keep up with demand:
Getting results often takes longer than a week, and sometimes almost two weeks, which makes them a lot less helpful. The longer it takes to identify positive cases, the more time the virus has to spread.
Testing is useless if it takes more than a few days. How can we possibly contact trace effectively if as much as two weeks has passed to get results? Can you imagine how many people would be infected in the interim?
This is what I don’t get: Why should any test of a single subject take more than an hour?
The Common Core tests in New York are a marathon–six hours per subject. Why?
“Why should any test of a single subject take more than an hour?”
Did you just change the subject back to education?! Why are tests longer than an hour? It makes them seem more thorough and rigorous. At least that seems to be the thinking of those who buy into the test culture. The extended time accommodation that most of my special ed students got was counterproductive for a good percentage of them. They needed more time, but most often they needed it in several separate sessions. They often burned out before a testing session was over. Extra time in that session did them little good.
Trump is still blabbering the same nonsense. He doesn’t learn. GRRRR! He’s like a broken record that keeps repeating, repeating, repeating… Someone needs to set him down and speak very slowly with pictures he can understand.
…………………………………
House Democrats compare outbreak in the U.S. to the lower caseload in Europe and Asia.
Democrats on the House panel wasted little time in pointing out that the caseload is much lower in Europe and Asia than in the United States. Mr. Clyburn, the No. 3 House Democrat and chairman of the subcommittee, displayed a chart showing the disparity. Pressed to explain, Dr. Fauci said countries in those parts of the world were more aggressive about shutting down as the pandemic raged.
“When they shut down, they shut down to the tune of about 95 percent, getting their baseline down to tens or hundreds of cases a day,” Dr. Fauci said. By contrast, he said, only about 50 percent of the United States shut down, and the baseline of daily cases was much higher — as many as 20,000 new cases a day — even at its lowest. More recently, the United States has recorded as many as 70,000 new cases a day.
Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, suggested that lack of social cohesion and political leadership was to blame. To that Dr. Fauci said, “I think there was such a diversity of response in this country from different states that we really did not have a unified, bringing everything down.”
Mr. Trump, obviously watching, fired back on Twitter: “Somebody please tell Congressman Clyburn, who doesn’t have a clue, that the chart he put up indicating more CASES for the U.S. than Europe, is because we do MUCH MORE testing than any other country in the World. If we had no testing, or bad testing, we would show very few CASES..”
While Mr. Trump is correct that the United States has conducted a higher total number of tests than most European countries, the positivity rate in the United States is far higher than the rates in Europe, indicating worsening community spread across the country. Recent estimates of the true number of U.S. cases — most of which are thought to be undocumented — support the idea that the United States’ testing efforts continue to flag in the face of rising demand.
“Someone needs to set him down and speak very slowly with pictures he can understand.”
Don’t hold your breath.
per Johns Hopkins 7/31: “despite having the highest rate of tests per capita, the U.S. faces the largest outbreak in the world and new cases continue to trend upwards in many states.”
Breaking Christian News is working overtime to get kids back in school. Why? Maybe its because their Chosen One thinks that is best for the economy. Redfield has lost my respect because he let the CDC become an agency that doesn’t give accurate information to the public on medical issues.
……………………
I thought you would like this story from breakingchristiannews.com
CDC DIRECTOR: ADVOCATES FOR OPENING SCHOOLS; THREAT OF SUICIDES, DRUG OVERDOSES ‘FAR GREATER’ THAN COVID CONCERNS
Tré Goins-Phillips : Jul 31, 2020 Faithwire.com
“I’m of the point of view, and I weigh that equation as an individual that has 11 grandchildren, that the greater risk is actually to the nation to keep these schools closed.” – Dr. Robert Redfield
[Faithwire.com] Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is promoting the reopening of schools across the country, noting the serious risks associated with keeping kids out of classrooms.
During a webinar for the Buck Institute, Redfield pointed out the low risk of children spreading COVID-19 and said the spike in suicides and drug overdoses is “far greater” than the number of coronavirus-related deaths among the country’s younger population.
“It’s not risk of school openings versus public health,” he said. “It’s public health versus public health.”
Redfield added, “I’m of the point of view, and I weigh that equation as an individual that has 11 grandchildren, that the greater risk is actually to the nation to keep these schools closed.”
Earlier in July, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” he would “absolutely” be comfortable with his grandkids going back to school in-person this fall. Redfield did, though, concede he may have “some reservation” about his grandson with cystic fibrosis returning to the classroom, “depending on how he could be accommodated”…
He then shifted to acknowledging the major mental health trade-offs that have come from the lingering lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“There has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools,” Redfield explained. “We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as a background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID.”…
The ultimate goal, Redfield emphasized during the webinar, is getting children back into “face-to-face education five days a week.” He urged federal, state, and local officials to work together to accomplish that objective…
https://?ID=30855
Superteachers! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to prevent suicides, drug overdoses, and child abuse!
From Axios:
CDC: More than half of COVID-19 cases from summer camp in Georgia were kids
4 hours ago – Health
Despite mitigation efforts, a 597-person summer sleep-away camp in Georgia was responsible for a cluster of coronavirus cases in June, where more than half of the positive tests came from children under age 18, according to a case study published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Why it matters: Kids are not immune to the coronavirus. The findings accentuate the unknown factors associated with how easily children transmit the virus, and only weeks before schools are expected to reopen.
Yes, but: The camp did not require its hundreds of campers to wear masks, only staff members. Activities campers participated in were both indoor and outdoor, and “daily vigorous singing and cheering” could have contributed to transmission.
The camp followed some precautions the CDC recommends, including cohorting of attendees by cabin and disinfection procedures. Children were also required to provide a negative COVID-19 test less than 12 days before arriving at camp.
By the numbers: The median age of those who contracted the illness was 12.
https://www.axios.com/children-coronavirus-summer-camp-georgia-f1b5b119-cd8a-450a-b09a-9876d8b400a6.html?utm_campaign=organic&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=email
Who says, it’s possible to have safe face to face instruction? Time magazine writes
Given how much is still unknown about the virus and especially its long-term effects on those infected, this could be the largest-scale uncontrolled public health experiment America has ever undertaken, with students, staff, faculty, parents, and communities as the unwitting test subjects. No other nation has reopened schools and universities with the level of rampant community transmission we see in the U.S. today, or with so little coordination or guidance as to protective measures.
https://time.com/5867395/will-universities-be-next-covid-19-tinderboxes/
In Memphis, the superintendent decided to start schools almost a month late,at the end of August, and the instruction will be all remote. With this decision, he went against the mayor’s demands. He says, “sage opening of schools is a myth”
“Of course” our governor claims, reopening schools is “medically sound”
https://wreg.com/news/gov-bill-lee-calls-in-person-school-reopening-medically-sound-preferred-option/
I certainly doin’t support yet another large scale experiment with our kids. Haven’t we learned from the Common Core experiment?
Re: “sage opening of schools is a myth”
Sage Advice …
“Safe” not “Sage”
Yeah. Let’s open ALL the schools! Great move. Teachers can get rid of drug abuse, suicides, lack of food at home AND NEVER GET SICK!! Maybe this just more ‘fake news’ to make Trump look bad? /s
Exactly how is any administrator going to know who has come within close contact with an infected student for 15 minutes? He had walked the halls and been in several classes. Isn’t this a bit of wishful thinking? It is unclear whether the student infected anyone else.
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A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In
As more schools abandon plans for in-person classes, one that opened in Indiana this week had to quarantine students within hours.
Aug. 1, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ET
One of the first school districts in the country to reopen its doors during the coronavirus pandemic did not even make it a day before being forced to grapple with the issue facing every system actively trying to get students into classrooms: What happens when someone comes to school infected?
Just hours into the first day of classes on Thursday, a call from the county health department notified Greenfield Central Junior High School in Indiana that a student who had walked the halls and sat in various classrooms had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Administrators began an emergency protocol, isolating the student and ordering everyone who had come into close contact with the person, including other students, to quarantine for 14 days. It is unclear whether the student infected anyone else.
“We knew it was a when, not if,” said Harold E. Olin, superintendent of the Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation, but were “very shocked it was on Day 1.”…