The New York Times published an article recently by Natasha Singer–one of the best reporters on education issues in the Times–about the toll that the pandemic is taking on teachers. An extraordinary number say the burden of teaching remote classes and in-person classes is not sustainable. Large numbers of teachers are planning to retire, or have retired.
All this fall, as vehement debates have raged over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction, teachers have been at the center — often vilified for challenging it, sometimes warmly praised for trying to make it work. But the debate has often missed just how thoroughly the coronavirus has upended learning in the country’s 130,000 schools, and glossed over how emotionally and physically draining pandemic teaching has become for the educators themselves.
In more than a dozen interviews, educators described the immense challenges, and exhaustion, they have faced trying to provide normal schooling for students in pandemic conditions that are anything but normal. Some recounted whiplash experiences of having their schools abruptly open and close, sometimes more than once, because of virus risks or quarantine-driven staff shortages, requiring them to repeatedly switch back and forth between in-person and online teaching.
Others described the stress of having to lead back-to-back group video lessons for remote learners, even as they continued to teach students in person in their classrooms. Some educators said their workloads had doubled.
“I have NEVER been this exhausted,” Sarah Gross, a veteran high school English teacher in New Jersey who is doing hybrid teaching this fall, said in a recent Twitter thread. She added, “This is not sustainable.”
Many teachers said they had also become impromptu social workers for their students, directing them to food banks, acting as grief counselors for those who had family members die of Covid-19, and helping pupils work through their feelings of anxiety, depression and isolation. Often, the teachers said, their concern for their students came at a cost to themselves.
“Teachers are not OK right now,” said Evin Shinn, a literacy coach at a public middle school in Seattle, noting that many teachers were putting students’ pandemic needs above their own well-being. “We have to be building in more spaces for mental health.”
Experts and teachers’ unions are warning of a looming burnout crisis among educators that could lead to a wave of retirements, undermining the fitful effort to resume normal public schooling. In a recent survey by the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union, 28 percent of educators said the coronavirus had made them more likely to leave teaching or retire early.
That weariness spanned generations. Among the poll respondents, 55 percent of veteran teachers with more than 30 years of experience said they were now considering leaving the profession. So did 20 percent of teachers with less than 10 years’ experience.
“If we keep this up, you’re going to lose an entire generation of not only students but also teachers,” said Shea Martin, an education scholar and facilitator who works with public schools on issues of equity and justice.
A pandemic teacher exodus is not hypothetical. In Minnesota, the number of teachers applying for retirement benefits increased by 35 percent this August and September compared with the same period in 2019. In Pennsylvania, the increase in retirement-benefit applications among school employees, including administrators and bus drivers, was even higher — 60 percent over the same time period.
In a survey in Indiana this fall, 72 percent of school districts said the pandemic had worsened school staffing problems.
“We’ve seen teachers start the school year and then back out because of the workload, or because of the bouncing back and forth” with school openings and closings, said Terry McDaniel, a professor of educational leadership at Indiana State University in Terre Haute who led the survey.
I have not quoted the entire article. The point is clear: This nation is facing a teacher shortage of monumental proportions because of the pandemic.
I read that one-third of the teachers in Illinois are thinking of quitting.
COVID-19 cases are spiraling out of control in Illinois and Indiana. Indiana schools had problems getting teachers before this pandemic hit.
I am SO glad that I’m retired and don’t have to put up with trying to teach at this time. Nobody signed up to be a teacher who would have to worry about inadvertently killing or hurting members of their family.
Teachers in my district put in incredibly long hours before the pandemic. One retired teacher I talked to a few years back said her kids had compared her teaching to being married to the schools. They are quiet now, at least in public, but I know the stress has got to be debilitating. They are highly paid, but I would not be surprised to see more teachers call it quits this year.
That’s exactly how I feel – and have used that analogy – married to my school and staying for the kids, although I probably should get a divorce.
When did people in power stop trusting teachers? The carrot and stick crap of high-stakes testing, micro-managment, inferior standards, etc. was already taking a toll. People going into teacher prep programs have also been in a sharp decline. Now, through in the pandemic and all that it has inflicted on teachers, students and community and we are seeing a perfect storm. I suggest our leaders honor our educators for being essential professionals providing an invaluable service to our society. Stop the incessant, costly test and punish practices. Let the professional teachers do the job they have been trained to do, honor that effort and get back to closing the gap that was being closed before NCLB especially for black students. Make sure that Title 1 funds are adequate and used for the reasons as set up originally. Make sure that the Federal Gov’t. pays its fair share of the costs of special education as lined out in the Mathias Formula. Etc, etc. If ever there was a time to LEAP in support of teachers it is now.
Its time for a creative solution to attract and retain highly qualified teachers; here’s my two cents:
How about a very significant pay raise for teachers committed to teaching in Title1 schools. And the money to support the plan would not cost school districts a single penny!
All Title 1 teachers with tenure ( or three years in RTW states) are exempted from paying federal income tax. Lost revenue could easily be skimmed from the bloated defense budget.
At this point I’m not sure that would be enough incentive. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Agreed, but without a change in the test-and-punish, micromanagement routine, no one will want this job. People function well in conditions of autonomy. No one wants to be continually micromanaged. The whole test-and-punish Deform regime ensures that few will want to stay in or enter this profession.
People stopped trusting teachers at 9:50 am on January 8th, 2002, in the auditorium of Hamilton High School in Ohio, when George W Bush signed the NCLB Act. We teachers are no more stressed out now than we were in 2009, when Michelle Rhee was sweeping teachers into the sea with her broom on the cover of Time and firing educators on national television, and Arne Duncan was making sure VAM DAMning us was the only way to get funding during a Great Recession. We’ve been attacked and attacking each other with tests and test prep for a long time. Our schools have been shuttered or are in danger of being closed. Ending high stakes standardized testing would go a long way toward rebuilding the teaching profession and giving us back some respect and peace. Even during a pandemic. Especially during a pandemic.
We’re not getting burned out. We’re getting burned.
Bravo. Exactly!!!!
“This nation is facing a teacher shortage of monumental proportions because of the pandemic.”
Because of the pandemic? Or because of a long policy of devaluing, underpaying, overworking, and mistreating teachers that was hastened and exacerbated by the pandemic?
Teachers aren’t quitting because of the pandemic any more than businesses are going out of business or people are losing their houses solely because of the pandemic. In both cases, that’s also a result of a government response to the pandemic that’s incompetent at best and actively malicious at worse. Support businesses and workers so that they can hunker down until it’s safe to go back to normal and you won’t see bankruptcy and homelessness. Let teachers teach remotely and hire additional staff so the workload’s manageable and you won’t see a teacher shortage.
This, but take in further – let’s make it about more than just teachers. Find me any worker who hasn’t been overworked, underpaid, devalued, mistreated in the past several years, especially the past several months. Find me anyone who isn’t both anxious and nearly miserable on their job yet also terrified of losing it. Ask yourself why our elected leaders (of both parties) not only allow, but encourage this state of affairs. Ask yourself why every other remotely developed country has some form of government paid universal healthcare, why citizens of nearly every other country have been paid to stay home, why nearly every other country has extensive vacation time, sick time, maternity/paternity/family care leave? What purpose does it serve for the vast majority of the country to be exhausted, anxious and overwhelmed, when so many other countries show us it doesn’t have to be that way?
I agree with you, but there are usually two levels of disrespect and neglect: the amount college-educated workers are subjected to, and the much greater amount that less skilled workers get. Teachers, despite being college-educated, tend to be disrespected like unskilled workers.
Why is this all that comes to mind? “Is this a piece of your brain?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-7fGKKg2s
Yes. The privatizer’s recipe: 1) defund education to make things fall apart 2) blame the institutions and employees, not the defunding, for subsequent problems 3) convince the citizens that private ownership is the only way to “fix” the schools
Yes, and once you go private, there is no going back.
once the personnel are gone — shattered and scattered into a million pieces — it is difficult if not impossible to put the Ming Vase back together again.
The privatizers know that very well.
Right, the pandemic is the just the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s similar to the swath of old folks living on soc sec with just a tad too much in the bank [$3250 max] to qualify for food stamps – they use the bank balance to chip away at med bills because medicare doesn’t cover all fees/ deductibles, nor all their pharma costs, they’re vision-impaired but putting off cataract surgery for the same reason – grocery prices have risen much faster in recent years than the 1.3% soc sec cola. Immediate effect of covid: the church-run soup kitchens near them have closed – they’re too far from a city food bank to trust their old junker car & failing eyesight & gas $ to get there & back – and fear going out due to covid. Perfect storm. We’re hearing from a lot of these folks on CSPAN call-in this a.m., guess they can still afford a TV, & a phone for emergencies [whee].
They’re mostly calling to say how far that $1200 stimulus congress won’t give out again would go to give them food security – would use it to pay med bills. Looks to me like a house built on sand going forward, unless govt sends out $1200 on a regular basis. Our safety net has huge holes.
Good morning Diane and everyone,
Over the summer I asked teachers what they would do when given an impossible task by “the district.” Many teachers now have an impossible task – teaching both remotely and in person. I’m hoping teachers will take this gently. Teachers are caregivers and perfectionists and rule followers (at least many I’ve known). Teachers, it’s time to set some boundaries. It’s time to do LESS. It’s time to decide what is important and what MATTERS to you. It’s time to think of some ways to make your life at school EASIER not harder. Are you working after school hours? Why? What if you let some of it go? One of the biggest things many people have to learn is how to let things go. Why are you driving yourselves into the ground? Do you want to drive yourself so hard that you won’t be able to enjoy your life and care for yourself and others anymore? If so, what is at the root of that attitude? It’s not selfish to care for yourself and set boundaries in your work life. If you don’t decide how to run your life, others will decide for you. Teachers have to overcome the attitude that they need to save the world. Teachers need to find some balance here. Nobody will do it for you and “the district” and other people will try to get as much out of you as they can. Your physical and mental health is important. Time to take control. And I say this with love.
Parents are already upset by the inadequacy of remote learning. Can’t you hear the shrieks if teachers did less? I know this is a blanket statement, but districts don’t hear the contented or understanding parents. They hear those who are not happy. And who then gets the brunt of those complaints? Teachers! The administrators who back their teachers are worthy of sainthood. I think we may need more saints.
A few of the things I’m doing to stay sane:
1. Grading students as they do work in class. Yeah! You did that worksheet and participated in class and wrote everything down??? I’m grading that! No work for me to take home.
2. I usually keep both a paper grade book and an online grade book. I’m only keeping an online grade book this year.
3. I’m not creating any NEW materials or lessons. I’m using what I already have.
4. I’m not overposting assignments online and giving more than I myself can handle. If I can’t handle the work I am posting, it’s a good bet students are having trouble as well. I am giving less work overall. I am keeping each lesson focused with no frills.
5. I have found ways to organize my work even better. I have created my own planning sheets. We have 2 days in school and two days remote and this is hard to manage. I figured out my own planning system.
6. I’m not doing work at home. I need my alone time. I need my creative time.
Once again, I will suggest Gradescope as a very useful grading tool. It works best when students use a printed form, but it still saves a great deal of time.
Yes! A few years ago my class sizes became so large that I could not maintain the intensity. I had two options: retire early or streamline my program. I didn’t retire and was pleasantly surprised at the positive response from the most serious students and their parents. The unrelenting pressures on teachers to improve test scores and up the academic workload (even in special areas) has resulted in a “boiling frog” situation. Overwhelming kids is counter productive; and less is more for both student and teachers.
It’s so much easier said than done. It all depends on the context you teach in and the district. I am glad you work in a context where you can practice “self-care” and “take control.” Please do not assume every teaching position is the same as yours or that other teachers simply are allowing themselves to be walked on and should just “work smarter not harder.” It goes deeper than that for many teachers.
Please hear this with love as well.
Hello beach teach,
I don’t assume anything. I have many teacher friends and they’re all teaching in different situations. This is what is working for me. I think I have a realistic attitude about what I can accomplish without using up every bit of my energy at my job. I’ve worked to try to make what I do at school manageable. I want to enjoy my life and I set boundaries in home and work life. I want to have time for my job, my many interests, and my family. I try not to cling to my identity as a teacher. The world will always make demands on me, and I feel it is my responsibility to question those demands and to respond to them in a way that aligns with my values and integrity. I don’t think I should just say yes to everything a boss or a friend or the collective asks me to do if it’s going to break me. How can you bring calm, peace and an environment in which to learn to your students if you don’t have those things inside yourself? If I’m stressed and burned out, that’s the energy I will bring to them. By taking care of myself, I am taking care of others. 🙂
Hi Mamie, Sounds like you have it well figured out. Glad you found a way to teach stress free in your district and context. Best 🙂
Hello Beachteach,
No, it’s certainly not stress free at school but I am finding ways to manage.
“As vehement debates have raged over whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction, teachers have been at the center — often vilified for challenging it”
Yes, vilified by people like Teachingeconomist who suggested in the comments here that teacher Steven Singer was like an antivaxxer for having the unmitigated gall to question the proclamations on school safety ( coming, as it were , from the likes of economist/crapidemiologist Emily Oster)
Personally, I bet teachers have really had it up to their proverbial Keister with such people.
Politicians rarely ask teachers what they think but regularly ask cranks and other grossly unqualified people. Why is that?
Citations would be useful. You can link to particular comments supporting your characterization of my posts by using the dates of the comments.
Are you denying you ever suggested as much?
It would appear that you have now put yourself in a bit of a pickle because no one is going to believe that you simply forgot.
Here’s your comment to Steven Singer “I have to conclude that you are no different from those that deny climate warming and those that say vaccines cause autism. Can you offer some way to distinguish what you say from vaccine deniers?”
https://dianeravitch.net/2020/10/23/anya-kamenetz-are-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated/#comment-3128135
And here’s the response I posted at the time to TEachingEconomist’s idiotic reply to Steven Singer
“It’s actually quite hilarious that Teachingeconomist, who has been a consistent booster of crank science ( VAM and the “crapidemiology” of Emily “a glass of wine a day is fine during pregnancy” Oster) is now equating a teacher’s skepticism on an issue with very limited data and considerable UNCERTAINTY with climate change denial and vaccine denial.
Does it get any more ironic than this?
Can TE offer some way to distinguish what he says from brain dead patients on life support?”
By the way, its very funny that TE asks me to provide a citation/link when I have asked HIM on more than one occasion to provide links to commentssupporting supporting claims that HE has made about what others have allegedly said … and got precisely nada.
Not that I am against citations . But it’s more than a little humorous (and hypocritical) that TE expects of others something he himself will not provide when asked.
But I guess that’s what you do when you believe you are a cut above the riffraff. You don’t need to play by the rules that you expect of others.
As he is a teacher, too, albeit a college level one, I think it has more to do with his world view than his profession. I suppose he sees himself as an economist who happens to teach rather than a teacher who teaches economics.
TE is an adjunct. His views may be influenced by his long tenure in the sphere created to make and treat college teachers as transient employees.
Yes, I know who he is and I have a feeling that his department and university might not approve of some of the comments he has made here.
And here is the irony: he actually sees himself more as a teacher who teaches econ than an economist who happens to teach.
Which makes his comments all the more strange.
Teaching was always stressful. There has always been the stress of having too many kids with too many problems and not enough of one’s self to go around. And then, to that was added the stress of micromanagement from above by idiots carrying out the Deform Test and Punish agenda. And now this, the pandemic.
Bless you, my colleagues still on the front line. Blown away, here, by what you are doing every day. Thank you.
Bob, thanks. That’s one of the nicest things I’ve heard since we went back into our school building. It’s a shot in the arm coming from you, long before I’ll probably get anywhere near a COVID vaccine needle.
Please allow me to vent the school safety issue I’ve been working on since the day I walked into my classroom in September. I’ve now got it boiled down to a relatively succinct sound bite:
New York wants teachers and students back in the classroom.
Teachers and students are told over and over again to keep our hands clean.
Meanwhile, New York State Health Department “guidance” (as of August 2020) has limited student access to hand sanitizer because the bureaucrats and lawyers are afraid kids will drink the stuff or make it into flaming bombs or slip and fall and sue the world.
Yes, you read that right.
In the middle of a freakin’ global pandemic, the bureaucrats in Albany and the people who follow their every command are afraid students will get drunk off hand sanitizer.
I was embarrassed to tell my 12th graders this fact.
Hand sanitizer use at school now has to be supervised by an adult. And, because of that change I’d argue we have less of the stuff around now than before the pandemic.
And, it’s not just my school, which truth be told has been doing a pretty damn good job keeping me and my students safe. (For example, I’d call our nurse a hero.) This is happening in schools throughout our county and probably all across the state.
It is crazy. I’ve been thinking of reading the book “Catch-22” because I’m living that idea right now.
A high ranking health department official admitted to me that New York State’s school hand sanitizer guidance is a “ridiculous” policy.
But nobody seems to be able or willing to do anything about it.
I’ve appealed it all over the place. I sent the story last week to “The New York Times”. (Haven’t heard back from them yet.) Wrote to the governor (nothing there, too.) Etc…etc…
Call it inertia, call it things falling apart, call it people who feel powerless and afraid. I love the people I work with so I can’t blame them one moment.
And, yeah, it’s only hand sanitizer. But if something this basic can’t be provided to students, what else isn’t being done?
P.S. Of course, hand washing with good ‘ole soap and water is the best alternative but what kid has time to always do that -what with bells ringing and 3 minutes passing time between class? I’m washing the desks as soon as the students leave. Sometimes I just dip my hands in the cleaning solution.
Thanks, all, for listening to my rant.
Freaking insane, John! When I was teaching, I always had hand sanitizer on my desk. I must not have noticed the hand sanitizer bombs. LOL. Or the drinking it. Pretty unobservant of me!
What you need for the bureaucrats is brain sanitizer (assuming they have one to sanitize) to kill all the stupid.
SomeDAM Poet: OH IS THAT a GOOD thought!! I’ve had so many rotten administrators that it’s impossible to count that high.
Rant all you want. If you don’t you will explode or drive your loved ones bats. You have to spread “the wealth.”
I used to keep a big bottle of hand sanitizer by the door. Kids who weren’t in my class would slip in and take a squirt. I can assure you the kids were not drinking it. Half the faucets in the bathrooms didn’t work, and the rest had the pressure turned so low you would think they were just leaking. it was not unusual for the soap dispensers to be empty. See I can still work up a rant, and I have been out of teaching for almost ten years!
Thank you Bob 🙂
I have a compatriot who has the Covid really bad. I am afraid she will try to go back to work too early to try to salvage the semester. She is too dedicated, and there is no one who will tell her to take care of herself.
My hard-headed intention is to go one more year. I can make comprise when I need to, but others I know will not, to their own detriment. When I first started to teach, many of my peers were women who were teaching even though they did not need the money. They just loved the kids and felt good about what they did. Not much of that now. There is a lot of attrition now, though. Go figure.
Hang in there, Roy. I’m in the “about a year to go” club, too, probably. I do want to see this pandemic through to the end and be there when the students can get back to really living. 13 weeks into this school year and we’re still going. Some people said we’d never last more than a month.
Please do not let “checking off a box” be part of your decision-making. If you have other reasons, fine, but seeing through the year is not a good metric.
A wise colleague of mine used to say that retiring from teaching is always a very unique decision. For me, it’d be like bringing a freight train to a full stop. I knew of another teacher, though, who suddenly inherited a heap of money and bolted out the door. (She left her personal belongings in the classroom including worn out slippers!) I have a lot of stuff in that school, ha, ha. And, it’s not seeing through a year as much as seeing through this particular class of students. Thanks for the thought.
John, I personally think your staying for your students is quite admirable.
Which is not to say that I blame any teacher who leaves because they fear for the health and safety of themselves and their family.
Unfortunately teachers have been put in an extremely difficult situation.
To be honest, I also have school work I should be doing right now….papers to grade, a film that I need to film so I can film it in class and put the clip on my YouTube channel (Yup, it’s complicated even to me…and I’m creating this crazy, pandemic inspired lesson, ha, ha..)
Plus all the other sundry chores I should be doing in my 170-year-old house. (Weekly check of the mousetraps in the basement is at the bottom of my list.)
I don’t look at much on the internet. This blog is one of my must-go stops and a favorite place to vent and, yes, procrastinate. Thanks to Diane and all of you for that.
And, now, in the immortal words of Bruce Wayne, “To the Batcave….”
Listened to an excellent interview with Dr. Fauci today, Roy. Your colleague should NOT go back to work until she is 100% sure and has had vaccine. Nor should you. https://www.myelomacrowd.org/fauci-article/
“Teachers have to overcome the attitude that they need to save the world.” NO!
Do they need balance, YES. And , they need to know it’s ok to find balance and use many of the strategies cited above.
MORE THAN EVER – We need these millions of teachers who are on a mission. The millions of teachers with empathy. Teachers who know the conditions of families and their students and many with the fear of what is going on behind closed doors. Teachers who want to innovate to overcome the incredible challenge of virtual teaching.
Some will work themselves past their limits and will continue to do so until we (in the schools) tell them it’s ok to have balance. They need administrators and districts that “get it” and respect what they are going through. They need tools to handle the stress, support groups, and time to breathe.
They need to be able to say “this student, family, problem is bigger than me – I can’t take care of this part AND I need someone to hand it off to.” (sorry about that preposition).
Teacher do NOT want to let go teaching, kids, and working hard.
I disagree it’s burnout. Burnout is a rut, too long doing the same thing. The fire in the belly has gone out and needs something new to rekindle it.
It’s not burnout. It’s pressure and stress because they are the OPPOSITE OF BURNED OUT. They are as fired up and motivated than ever – but too many do not have the tools, the back up, support (groups), and assurances of safe and healthy buildings if they go there so they can fulfill their mission.
MORE THAN EVER – WE NEED TEACHERS WHO DO WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD! But not feeling like they are doing it alone or actually doing it alone and without what they need to fulfill they high bar they have set for themselves.
Great last paragraph! We need great teachers that love to teach. We need to value our teachers and give them the respect and pay that professionals deserve.
Very well said.
Hello Wait, What?
Have you ever heard of this story? I think about it a lot. 🙂
There was a great drought where [Richard] Wilhelm lived; for months there had not been a drop of rain and the situation became catastrophic. The Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss-sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result.
Finally the Chinese said, ‘We will fetch the rain-maker.’ And from another province a dried up old man appeared. The only thing he asked for was a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days.
On the fourth day the clouds gathered and there was a great snow-storm at the time of the year when no snow was expected, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumours about the wonderful rain-maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it.
In true European fashion he said: ‘They call you the rain-maker; will you tell me how you made the snow?’
And the little Chinese said: ‘I did not make the snow; I am not responsible.’
‘But what have you done these three days?’
‘Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order; they are not as they should be by the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country.
So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao and then naturally the rain came.’”
“This nation is facing a teacher shortage of monumental proportions because of the pandemic.”
Well then, time for that vaunted free market to start working. Shortage of labor, in this case teachers, should mean higher salaries, better working conditions to attract said teachers, better benefits, etc. . . . Isn’t that how the free market works, eh, teaching economist?
Wait, what do you say? There is no free market? Blasphemous! Of course there is. I “flew” to it on google earth a few years back. It’s right here: 13, 33 14.99 North and 29 29 42.44 West. Pretty hard to drive to there, though.
The free market has a workaround for that–just reduce the requirements to teach; and then more people will have the necessary “credentials.” Of course if quality matters to you, you can buy a better education if you make enough.
Actually, their workaround is not really a workaround but the central goal all along:to eliminate teachers and replace them with Pearsonalized Learning
And the beat(ing) goes on…
A little off-track, but speaking of compensation: IL wasn’t able to pass a graduated tax amendment (& we’ll have to wait TWO years to try again) due to the efforts & scare tactics of the millionaires & billionaires here, warning people that “Springfield will have the authority to raise your taxes!”
Well, guess what? This week, both local & Chicago newspapers have started printing notices for school district property tax increases, & that was just about every school district in the area. Surely, there were be more to come. Again, the burden put on the middle class and low income residents. .
In IL, at least, teachers aren’t gonna see any great pay/benefits increase anytime soon…
retiredbutmissthekids: You may remember that i was furious when my financial advisor, whose has an office and lives in Illinois, told his clients on a Zoom lecture to vote against the tax increase.
Well, now he can rejoice. He won’t have to pay more in taxes but property taxes will go up and sales tax probably will also rise. This hurts the middle class and the poor.
Grrrr.
Some filthy rich hedge fund manager put $50 million into TV ads to frighten people to vote against their own best interests.
Oh, shoot. I just wrote you a long answer, but left the site to do some research for the answer! Anyway yes, I remember–it was written here &/or on Fred Klonsky’s Blog, & someone told you you needed a new financial advisor!
Anyway, that “filthy rich hedge fund advisor,” Ken Griffin (wealth estimated at $13 billion, & soon to be moving–w/his business, Citadel {because he’s “heartbroken” that Chicago didn’t get Amazon}–to NYC, where he’s paid the highest price in history for any U.S. property: $238 million for a Manhattan penthouse. He is also set to buy a Hamptons Compound worth at least $100 million. Not to mention his properties in London ($122 m) & Palm Beach ($93.9 m). &, according to a business site, he’s been on a “real estate purchase spree,” so may not yet be done.
So, why does he care about Illinois’ taxing process…he’s not even going to be living/doing business here (bet he sells his pricey Chicago property & makes a killing). I guess he wanted to “protect” his uber rich IL buddies.
I might invest in a piece of real estate myself. The addition of a vomitorium. You’re all invited to come use it; it will have to be hugomongous.
I thought he was threatening to leave if the legislation passed. why would he move to NY? They already have a graduated income tax.
The billionaires always threaten to pick up their marbles and leave because they know it will make city officials grovel and beg them to come back in most cases.
NYCity’s response to Amazon was an anomaly and only happened because AOC had made it embarrassing and effectively untenable for officials to cave to Bezos threats.
Oh–& last but certainly not least: Gina Raimondo, R.I. guv who should’ve been tossed in the can for violation of SEC regulations, has had her name floated as Biden’s pick for Sec. of Health & Human Services. She who cut Medicaid, she who promoted charter schools & lambasted Central Falls H.S. &, well, has done SO many positive things to promote R.I. constituents’ good health & well-being, for HHS?!
She whose child attended a parochial school. She who attacked public pensions.
The politicization of Covid isn’t happening in a vacuum. The conservative religious, aligned with men like Charles Koch, are the political champions for the “liberty” of people “to die like feral dogs in the gutter”. Dioceses in N.Y. filed lawsuits against the governor’s Covid regulations and, against the NYC Dept. of Ed. in order to get the public schools’ government Covid money.
In early November, an Oregon doctor, standing next to two women who brandished crucifixes, spoke at a Trump rally against wearing masks. Btw- his medical license is under review.
P.S. Back on Nov. 20, Diane kindly posted a comment I’d sent her about New York State not being able to afford COVID testing in schools…but being able to find money to push standardized testing.
Well, turns out, New York’s most recent guidance (as of yesterday, Dec. 4, 2020) is to water down the safety requirements. Yup. the state sets high standards then finds a way to get around them. Where have we heard that before?
Headline from today’s “Buffalo New”s: “Schools no longer have to close for four days after orange zone order ”
And, get this, the reasoning from the New York State Dept of Health: “New York State recognizes that safely keeping pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools open for in-person instruction is critical to student success and parent stability.” Dec 4. 2020
“Parent stability”?
What?
Does that mean so parents can go to work? Or, so parents don’t lose it because the kids are home all day? Or both??
There it is in black and white, folks. The State of New York has admitted in writing what we’ve long suspected. Teachers are officially considered to be babysitters.
Hello John,
Yes, exactly. And I believe it’s now testing 20% of students, faculty, staff every 2 weeks instead of weekly in yellow zones. Right now, if a member of the school community gets tested for any reason, he/she has to stay out of school until test results are received. Is that still the case when you’re in a yellow zone? If so, we’re going to have many students and staff working and learning remotely while they wait for their test results.
Testing in many places/ cases is just a cruel joke and does little more than give people a false sense of security.
Even if the tests were perfectly accurate (which they are not — in many cases, not even close) AND every single person were tested, only testing every two weeks is a very INeffective way to mitigate spread when a person can be highly infectious to others just a few days after getting covid.
And of course, if only 20% are being randomly tested every two weeks, it is likely that even more infected individuals are being missed.
In many places, officials appear to be making up (and changing) the testing rules as they go along. The whole thing appears to be a gigantic train wreck.
From today’s Buffalo News: “Now, schools in orange zones would need to test 20% of students and staff each month, while schools in red zones must test 30% each month. The testing, which can be performed on- or off-site, must be evenly distributed throughout the month.”
From an article Monday in the same paper: “The previous plan called for orange zone schools to reopen only after testing all students and staff who attend school in person. Then, 25% of them had to be tested each week – a logistical and financial nightmare for districts. Protocol was similar for the even more restrictive “red zone” designation, which much of Erie County could be tagged with in the near future.”
So, IF I get this right…. instead of testing all the teachers and kids in order to reopen in an “orange zone” , well, no one is tested because the school ain’t closing. Then instead of testing 25% of the school each week, it’s 20% each month.
Talk about scaling things back. A week to a month!
Of course, how many people really understand this mess? People are so confused. I was mentioning Gov. Cuomo’s new “winter plan” and no one seemed to know what the hell I was talking about. And, I can’t blame them. I can barely keep up with planning for the next day with students in my classroom. (Hence, here I am trying to piece this together on a Saturday night.)
Take care!
John it’s quite clear to anyone paying any attention at all that the ever changing testing protocols are not being driven by science and logic but be convenience.
And this is what people are basing decisions about school safety and closure on?
With a virus that is raging in many places, this is a recipe for disaster.
Parent stability?
Ha ha ha
How about Lithium pills?
I hear those work well to keep bipolar parents on an even keel.
Teachers are apparently the new Lithium.
So, ask your doctor about….me?
And, well, I do have many side effects, as my wife would readily attest.
(I just made the mistake of asking her for a list and it was a bit sobering.)
Ha ha ha
They will soon be advertising Teachzac on TV for bipolar disorder.
As long as folks simultaneousl take an antipsychotic , since Teachzac can cause psychosis.
I like that, Teachzac.
And, here I am, only using lots of coffee!
Have a great one.
Poetry- and Prose-zac
Poetry- and Prosezac
Even out the day
Level parents, that’s a fact
Make them go away*
The real reason for the protocol changes
John: required school attendance followed child labor laws
Good point, Roy. Good point. How many students are working long hours during the day now that schools are remote or on hybrid schedules.
Hmmmm…
Is anyone studying that phenomenon??
True, John! I’ve heard that kids are working during the day instead of doing schoolwork. I sometimes wonder if this will be the new way of education. Namely, that students will be able to do school online. High schoolers, that is.
Neil, who started teaching in 1989 (at the high school and district where I was teaching – we started a chess club together for students at the school soon followed by an environmental club that included taking students on weekend hikes.), soon after graduating from college. He sent an e-mail this week that said he didn’t know if he could make it to 60 and retire. Retiring at 60 was his goal. He has a few years left to reach that age, but with the demands and stress caused by the pandemic, he doesn’t think he will make it. He said he might have to retire early, so he will still be alive to enjoy whatever retirement offers.
There is never any money to help average or poor people. Unfortunately, now we are in a pandemic with 8 out of 10 families not getting enough food. Many will lose their homes…and Congress GOP’ers don’t care. How long was that $1,200 supposed to last?
Most stimulus money goes to the wealthy or corporations that don’t need more. Whatever happened to getting medical care for everyone? No money for that.
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Sanders announces opposition to $908 billion coronavirus relief package as lawmakers scramble for deal
Dec. 4, 2020
…Sanders said he would vote against the $908 billion relief framework that has attracted a flurry of interest from Democrats and Republicans since it was introduced earlier this week. Sanders said he would consider backing it only if it is “significantly” revised. That package, broadly embraced this week by both senior congressional Democrats and more than a half-dozen Republican senators, leaves out some priorities among liberals such as another round of $1,200 stimulus payments.
Led by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), among other centrist lawmakers, the legislative push aims to break months of gridlock in Congress over providing a boost to an economy facing what could prove its most dire stretch of the pandemic.
“Given the enormous economic desperation facing working families in this country today, I will not be able to support the recently announced Manchin-Romney COVID proposal unless it is significantly improved,” Sanders said in a statement, citing the inclusion of a “liability shield” intended to insulate firms from coronavirus-related lawsuits. Sanders added of the absence of stimulus checks in the bill: “Tens of millions of Americans living in desperation today would receive absolutely no financial help from this proposal. That is not acceptable.”
Sanders’s opposition shows the tightrope negotiators are trying to walk as they seek to cobble together a bipartisan coalition with enough votes to pass the measure into law.
The pressure against the deal comes as the bipartisan group worked to turn a one-page outline of an agreement into legislative text that could be signed into law. The U.S. economy also showed signs of slowing down in a jobs report released Friday, with November representing the slowest month for job growth since the spring, and health officials issued stark warnings about a spike in coronavirus cases. Meanwhile, the stock market remained at record levels, suggesting that the inequality issues facing the United States economy are only getting worse…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/12/04/bernie-sanders-stimulus-bill/
OR try this site:
Sanders Will Oppose $908B COVID Relief Bill, Must Be ‘Significantly Improved’
https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/66588-sanders-will-oppose-908b-covid-relief-bill-must-be-significantly-improved
I disagree with Senator Sanders on this one. People are in great need. Pass what can be passed now and go for more when Biden is president
That sounds reasonable. Think of the difference if Bernie had been president vs. the Orange Brain-Compromised Con-One.
Carol,
It breaks my heart to say so, but I don’t think that Bernie would have beaten Trump. The Trump campaign threw all their anti-Red, “radical leftist” garbage at Biden, and it didn’t stick. It would have clung to Bernie, and he would have been unrelentingly Red baited. The reality is that the country is more conservative than we wish.
Diane: I agree with your assessment.
I was asked if I was a Marxist who hated the U.S. by a Trump lover.
I still have my “Bernie for President” sticker on the back window of my car. So far, my car has been spit upon 6 times while in my condo garage. The first four times most of the spit was around my Bernie sticker. [I’ve had the police out four times and have given copies of the police reports to our condo board.]
Trump lovers are such ‘kind, gentle, democracy loving people.
What’s interesting is that nobody gets scolded for calling somebody a communist or Marxist ahole. Imagine what would happen if a leading politician was called a Catholic or Baptist ahole.
Mate
Thanks for posing your observation. It gets at the heart of the matter and elucidates Democratic losses.
If what you described occurred, we could expect religious tribalists to express fervent outrage, an emotion they don’t expend when their hierarchy attacks women’s and gay rights, an emotion they don’t expend when some of their clergy attack Biden and, an emotion they don’t expend as they witness wealth concentration reaching unsustainable levels.
We could expect Catholic Vote and Catholic League to get media space for their false claims of bias against all Catholics. We could expect right wing media funded by the Koch network to further the message, while dredging up JFK in 1960 (a Catholic who would be appalled at his religion, clubbing with the conscience-lacking GOP and rich libertarians).
A concluding observation about inconvenient truths- in another posted comment thread, a commenter wrote a diatribe against “racist” union workers who had turned Staten Island from blue to red. But, the commenter had no interest in delving deeper to ask about the following statistics, Staten Island has a higher percentage of Italian Americans than any other county in the U.S. and there are at least 4 times as many white Catholics living in Staten Island than any other borough.
Dr. Birx is finally fed up with Trump.
……………………………..
Dr. Deborah Birx: Trump’s COVID ‘Myths’ are Undermining Public Health Response
Updated Dec. 06, 2020
“I hear community members parroting back those situations, parroting back that masks don’t work, parroting back that we should work towards herd immunity,” Dr. Birx said on Sunday.
White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx pointedly took aim at outgoing President Donald Trump for hindering the public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, complaining on Sunday that his flouting of guidelines and embrace of “myths” influences the public.
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pushed Dr. Birx for a direct response on whether she believed large swatches of the population were following the president’s lead as he publicly ignores mitigation recommendations and spouts disinformation about the virus…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dr-deborah-birx-says-trumps-covid-myths-are-undermining-public-health-response?source=email&via=desktop
“to reopen schools for in-person instruction”
I have two close friends in Hungary who are teachers. Both report that when they opened schools, 20% of the teachers got sick with Covid. I say, 20% is a way too high percentage. Before they open schools here, let’s hear reliable stats about infection rates among teachers from countries which opened schools.
…and what their safety protocols looked like.
Máté Wierdl: “Before they open schools here, let’s hear reliable stats about infection rates among teachers from countries which opened schools.”
I think a lot depends upon the leader of the country and upon that country’s economic status. Bolsonaro in Brazil is no better than Trump. India is having problems because of intense poverty and overcrowding. New Zealand has a good leader who closed down the country early. Israel opened schools too early and had to close down again.
I’d say there are too many variables to find out what caused infection rates in other countries and how that affects schools.
Scientists now know what works to slow down the spread. It is a matter of that knowledge being believed and followed. Schools don’t have the necessary money to do what is right and Trump has too many followers who still deny that wearing masks makes a difference.
Not only the teachers are burned out but students also aren’t doing well. they are having trouble comprehending the assignments and time after school With teachers to clarify what is expected of them . My niece in California ; teaches high school English 5 periods a day on line , than individual meets with students who have questions and need help. She works unti as late as 9:00 pm!
This seems to be how Massachusetts is ‘solving’ its teacher shortage in high needs areas. Wow. Get a license in one year while teaching. No prior education coursework or experience necessary.
I wonder what a competitive salary with benefits is? Hope it’s better than what Indiana gives.
…………………………………
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Our program provides Residents with a pathway—beginning with an intensive summer pre-practicum experience and ending with state licensure in English as a Second Language (PreK-6 or 5-12), Moderate Disabilities (PreK-6 or 5-12), or Middle School Mathematics (5-8)—to a career in education.
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What will these gun-toting MAGAts do when Biden gets confirmed? This is frightening when people are afraid for their lives and their children.
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Armed Trumpists Surround Michigan Secretary of State’s Home Screaming ‘Stop the Steal’
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Published
Dec. 07, 2020
5:33AM ET
Armed Trump supporters demanding that the president’s election loss is overturned gathered outside Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home this weekend to shout obscenities at her and her 4-year-old son, she said in a statement. Benson wrote that she and her boy were decorating the house and watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas Saturday night when dozens of protesters arrived outside. “The demands made outside my home were unambiguous, loud, and threatening,” she wrote. “They targeted me in my role as Michigan’s Chief Election Officer.” The Detroit Free Press reported that part of the protest was livestreamed and showed some of the demonstrators kitted out in Trump merchandise. The group can be heard chanting “Stop the steal” and “We want an audit.” The group dispersed with no arrests when police arrived at the scene.
Read it at Detroit Free Press
So many inequalities for how we support students have greatly impacted teachers. May they receive all the support and love they need during this time