Noted education scholar Andy Hargreaves questions the alternatives that are likely to follow the end of the pandemic: Will government impose deep cuts and austerity, or will they recognize the importance of funding better education for all students?
He poses the choice in this abstract of his paper:
One looming possibility is an onrush of austerity, deep cuts to public education, financial hardship for the working and middle classes, and a range of private sector, including online answers to public problems in education, leading to more inequity, and an even wider digital divide. The pandemic, it is argued, is already being used as a strategy to bring about educational privatization by stealth by mismanaging return-to-school strategies and by overselling the effectiveness of online and private school alternatives. The alternative is public education investment to pursue prosperity and better quality of life for everyone. This will reduce inequality instead of increasing it, close the digital divide that COVID-19 has exposed, and encourage balanced technology use to enhance good teaching rather than hybrid or blended technology delivery that may increasingly replace such teaching.
If anything, the pandemic has highlighted the deficiencies of online learning. I don’t think the average parent is going to seriously consider one of those online schools for their children. Many will also rethink home schooling which, if done properly, is a full time job. While private schools might get a boost, the cost is a factor which most families can’t afford. As an educator, I also question the quality of instruction especially in the higher grades (especially the STEM coursework) since I know that not all the teachers are certified.
Wise words from Andy Hargreaves. Here is the US, attention is focused, as it should be, on the direction signal of Biden’s nominee for the next Secretary of Education. Important to keep an eye on and influence. Necessary, but insufficient. We need to engage with people–parents, educators and others to image and fight for our hopes and dreams for America’s children.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/3/1999755/-Education-Hopes-and-Dreams
There will be austerity, no doubt about it.
Totalmente de acuerdo.
Led by the neo-liberal Biden.
I think it’s more of a state and local issue. I don’t see Congress stepping up to fund state and local education budgets for years on end. Economies will need to recover and it’s going to be a really long haul.
Mitch McConnell is adamantly opposed to helping cities and states, because Democrats live in cities. He is willing to cancel his demand to protest businesses from any liability if Democrats will abandon cities and states. The Democrats said no.
I agree, FLERP. The underpinnings for prosperity recommended by Hargreaves could [in our dreams] begin with federal vision and action. Meanwhile most states are already facing huge revenue losses, and do not have the option of printing money. We will see big cuts shortly, & not necessarily because of ill-conceived libertarian ideology.
We’re already seeing those state and local cuts in my state. It is going to be a long time before the economy is anywhere near what it could be, not only in terms of justice and equity issues, but in providing for employment, salaries, tax revenues, etc. . . . Especially with so many Rethugs in control of state houses/governorships. Strap in and enjoy the ride, courtesy of those who don’t give a damn about the commons and social good!
FLERP: For quite a while now, I’ve read your comments on this blog, and you are a smart fellow. So, I have a question that I wonder whether you can answer, given your legal expertise. Is there anything to be done about the fact that we have two legal systems in the United States, one for the rich and another, with vastly different outcomes, for the poor? A vexing issue for which I have no solutions.
Make that two different systems–one for the rich and the other for everyone else. It would be interesting to know the number of people who have pleaded guilty to a lesser charge just because they couldn’t afford the cost to fight flawed charges. The poor are obviously the most likely to suffer, but many people above the poverty line do not have the means to wage an adequate defense.
I don’t think the justice system is biased. But it suffers from the problem of money. It’s permissible to hire attorneys and pay them well, and the quality of representation often depends on how much you can pay. I see no solution to that issue.
That’s just talking about outcomes within the legal system. Why people get involved with the legal system is another, much more complicated question that involves all kinds of variables.
People with money hire the best lawyers, hire the best doctors, get the best medical care, buy the best houses, live in the safest neighborhoods. The great equalizer was supposed to be the public schools. But it is not because of residential segregation by race and income.
Inequities happen in the health field as well. Giuliani got the same injection Trump did and now he’s better. Other people don’t have access and either suffer or die.
New York City and New York State are facing staggering budget deficits, “tax the billionaires” is a popular political slogan, the legal problems will take years to resolve, w/o substantial fed dollars, we’re facing drastic cuts, including layoffs, unpopular tax increases and employee benefit reductions… the only answer is a rapidly recovering economy …surviving the next few years is the challenge
The federal government has left the states to weather the pandemic virtually on their own. If they had stepped up and done their job it would have saved the states hundreds of millions. So we all have been required to essentially push our states to the brink of insolvency because of the federal government’s inaction. At what point do we demand something back?
Teacher raises slated to be a part of this year’s budget in Tennessee, were put on hold. Meanwhile money poured into the “rainy day” fund of which the trump republicans are so proud. When do they think it is going to rain? This is a flood.
Did they suspend testing to save money? No.
Did they use some of that fund to hire more nurses? No.
Did they put air purification systems in poorly ventilated classrooms? No.
Do they care? No.
You’ve made excellent points.
Conservative religion prevails in Tennessee’s capitol. They want control of kids’ educations.
Austerity is too close to the word Austerlitz. Both are associated with a certain kind of fanaticism.
Austerity as we are at the beginning stages of another semi-regular capitalistic economic system meltdown, otherwise known as a depression. Yep, Debbie Downer here! Just call them as I see them.
& you are right (though not right wing!) as usual, Duane.
In ILL-Annoy, an attempt to pass a graduated tax amendment failed, mostly because one or more billionaires spent millions on a “No Tax Hike” campaign of disinformation (my explanation & ranting were on an earlier post). All the new & desperately needed revenue the passage would have created is gone. So…”No Tax Hike?” As I’d written, before, just about every local school district has been posting notice of an impending property tax hike.
So, I think like the “naughty” kid who sang, “I’m gettin’ nuttin’ for Christmas, Mommy & Daddy are mad; I’m gettin’ nuttin’ for Christmas, ’cause I ain’t been nuttin’ but bad.”
So let’s get Madigan out and maybe next time around the votes will be there to pass a graduated tax. People complain about high property taxes and then insure a property tax hike with a refusal to consider a graduated income tax. I truly believe that Madigan’s suspected corruption played a huge role. Griffin really played up the distrust of politicians in his campaign to defeat the change.
Over 3,000 deaths a day now, more than from the Twin Towers. And this new careful study from Korea indicating that one can become infected indoors within 5 minutes from 20 feet away: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-09/five-minutes-from-20-feet-away-south-korean-study-shows-perils-of-indoor-dining-for-covid-19
Opening our schools during an airborne pandemic was insane. One wonders whether, had Trump not been president, the CDC would have said so, flat out, months ago.
From the story:
KJ Seung, an infectious disease expert and chief of strategy and policy for the nonprofit Partners in Health’s Massachusetts COVID response, said the study was a reminder of the risk of indoor transmission as many nations hunker down for the winter. The official definition of a “close contact” — 15 minutes, within six feet — isn’t foolproof.
In his work on Massachusetts’ contact tracing program, he said, business owners and school administrators have fixated on the “close contact” standard, thinking just 14 minutes of exposure, or spending hours in the same room at a distance farther than six feet, is safe.
“There’s a real misconception about this in the public,” said Seung, who was not involved in the South Korea study. “They’re thinking, if I’m not a close contact, I will magically be protected.”
Exactly. Magical thinking.
That was a scary article.
Governor Cuomo is listening to the experts. He closed the restaurants in the Buffalo area and the schools. There was a big backlash and since the medical professionals said that kids were safer at school than at home, my grandson goes “back” to school next week. When I say “back” to school, his district hadn’t really started in-school yet for grades two and up. He’s been learning virtually. Now he’ll be involved in a hybrid model being online Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and in-school of Thursday and Friday. Cohort A is in class Monday and Tuesday and everyone is online on Wednesdays while they clean the building. There’s a third group who are remote only, There are about seven students in each group. I wonder how he will do independently since we have been assisting him throughout, especially with the technology, Luckily it’s hard to muck up second grade,
There is a caveat – 20% of the school has to be tested each month and if there are more than 9 infected individuals the school will close. Of course, in the past, some schools in the area that were already open had to shut down for awhile when too many of their teachers were either infected or in quarantine and there wasn’t enough personnel left to run the school.
Hopefully my grandson won’t bring the virus home and infect us all.
Adding to this nightmare is what is now being called “long covid”: lingering, serious symptoms after recovery from the disease. So, that’s on top of the death toll: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/theres-no-longterm-plan-for-long-covid/
Don’t worry, I herd immunity is working just great in Sweden and there is no reason it won’t work here as well.
SomeDAM, get your terminology right! That’s “herd mentality.” LOL
Just give it some time to work its magic
My last comment was a quote from Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, Tegnell, of course.
I posted this on another thread. It shows the upward air flow due to heating by the body and head. Any virus carrying droplets exhaled, coughed or sneezed can get trapped in the flow and as the air subsequently cools, come down some distance away .
The amount of unscientific crap (dining out is fine as long as you are six feet away) that is being propagated even by people who should know better is just mind boggling.
Exactly what I’ve thought from the beginning of this, SomeDAM. Thank you for expressing it so eloquently.
That video is such a great response, SomeDAM. It reminds me of Feynman, the O-ring, and the glass of ice water.
The human thermal plume is a very interesting phenomenon that few people are aware of.
A fellow at AeronVironment (founder Paul McCreadys son) actually made a mini glider that is kept aloft by air heated by and rising above his hand overhead.
Kids can make their own gliders that do the same thing.
When the kids are using the slanted board, it’s a different effect (they are pushing the air up), but when he has just his hands or head underneath it’s the thermal plume that keeps it aloft.
speduktr: I 100% agree with you about getting M2 gone, & I agree that his tenure, in large part, helped the failure to pass Fair Tax, insofar as advertisements about people not trusting S’field politicians: mostly about M2 & his sycophants.
His expiration date is long past due.
Something’s(one’s) rotten in Springfield!
Where are the clowns?
Calling Rogoff and Reinhart
They didn’t learn their lesson?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_in_a_Time_of_Debt
The section called “Methodological Flaws” is particularly interesting.
Ha ha ha.
Send in the clowns.