This statement by a student was published anonymously at Reddit. He wanted to explain what is happening in his school in regards to COVID. The situation, as he puts it, is “beyond control.” There are many absences, students as well as teachers. There is very little learning going on. The writer makes clear that he hates remote learning, but given the conditions in the school, he thinks remote learning is preferable to no learning.
The article has created quite a buzz. It has thus far received more than 5,000 comments, mostly from other students, reporting on their schools, but also from teachers. Meanwhile, the new Mayor, Eric Adams, assures the public that all is well.
The statement begins like this:
I’d like to preface this by stating that remote learning was absolutely detrimental to the mental health of myself, my friends, and my peers at school. Despite this, the present conditions within schools necessitates a temporary return to remote learning; if not because of public health, then because of learning loss.
A story of my day:
– I arrived at school and promptly went to Study Hall. I knew that some of my teachers would be absent because they had announced it on Google Classroom earlier in the day. At our school there is a board in front of the auditorium with the list of teachers and seating sections for students within study hall: today there were 14 absent teachers 1st period. There are 11 seatable sections within the auditorium … THREE CLASSES sat on the stage. Study hall has become a super spreader event — I’ll get to this in a moment.
– Second period I had another absent teacher. More of the same from 1st period. It was around this time that 25% of kids, including myself, realized that there were no rules being enforced outside of attendance at the start of the period, and that cutting class was ridiculously easy. We left — there was functionally no learning occurring within study hall, and health conditions were safer outside of the auditorium. It was well beyond max capacity.
Open the link and read the rest.
Some schools are managing very well with in-person learning. Others are not. Schools cannot make up for “learning loss” if there is no instruction going on.
An important point to bear in mind. For everyone, this is an unprecedented time. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. None of us has lived through one before. No one knows what will happen a week or a month or six months from now. We follow the science, protect health and life as best we can, don’t take risks, and hope it ends soon. Odds are COVID will become less virulent, manageable with vaccines, and fade into the long list of diseases from which we must protect ourselves. Maybe next winter, the doctors will remind us to get a flu shot and a COVID shot. Meanwhile, we do the best we can.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The US is coming closer and closer to imploding…
Yes, we’ve gone from a nation seeking mediocrity as it’s highest level of expression to the edge of the precipice. We are in very big trouble USA is done.
Striving for mediocrity?
I thought we were striving for something considerably lower: Idiocracy.
If the response to covid19 is any indication, we have definitely achieved it.
Would love to see you connect with Erin Burnett on cnn. She bashed ctu and quoted Michael Bloomberg around proficiency rare and that kids need to be in schools.
I sent a comment stating that she should never quote Bloomberg when it comes to public schools and she needs to do her homework. Educate her, Diane.
Bloomberg’s quote was about a 60 to now 80% proficiency deficit. Always questionable but questions have to be raised to who took the test last year and how numbers are off.
Thanks, Stef.
Burnett is an NYC public school parent.
“I’d see the entire city of Newark unemployed before I allowed one single teacher’s aide to die needlessly,” -John Abeigon, the Newark Teachers Union president
The tensions are a distinctly unwelcome development for Democrats, who fear an election backlash from parents concerned about risks and child care.
The fear of teachers, parents, and students is not partisan and should not be politicized.
The NYT reporters always politicized this. Every single article written in the so-called “liberal” newspaper these days reports in a way that accepts the right wing narrative as the gospel truth, and expresses “concern” about how this is going to hurt the Democrats. Over and over again about how this is going to hurt the Democrats. What is accepted as “fact” is the right wing framing that the Democrats are entirely to blame for every crisis (when the truth is that the Republicans’ lies create these crises).
Those outrageously biased reporters idiotically believe their articles are “fair and balanced” because they get quotes from both Democrats and Republicans about whether the inept response of the Democrats to the COVID crisis will do a lot of damage politically or not.
The NYT stenographers never write analyses like “How much will the Republicans’ inept response that caused so many deaths hurt their re-election chances?” Every story is framed so that Democrats are blamed and the “fair and balanced” reporting is about how much their terrible response will affect their political chances.
It should be opposite. If the media was constantly posting about whether voters would blame the Republicans for their actions is causing one million COVID deaths, the entire narrative and what gets filtered down to voters would be different.
One doesn’t read articles about whether the extraordinary number of deaths that Ron DeSantis caused in Florida will hurt his political chances. Because that framing is not allowed.
NYCPSP, you are right.
” If the media was constantly posting about whether voters would blame the Republicans for their actions is causing one million COVID deaths,….. the extraordinary number of deaths that Ron DeSantis caused in Florida will hurt his political chances.”
NYCPSP, I understand and agree in spirit with what you’re saying, HOWEVER, these two concerns are not newsworthy when 80%+ of republicans believe don’t believe and don’t care and desantis is on of their “leaders”.
I hope you are correct about the Florida death rate hurting DeSantis’ chances. Where I live in North Florida about 80% of the people here believe DeSantis can walk on water. He also has over $50 million in his war chest compared to about $3 million for Charlie Crist. Even if DeSantis takes Florida again, we have to make sure he does not become President. He would like to destroy the federal government with the exception of the military. He is another biased, opportunistic liar.
Same here in Southern Flor-uh-duah, RT! DeSantis is golden.
Just went to the grocery story yesterday, I think I was the only customer in the place wearing a mask, and it was very, very busy.
Death rates from covid by state are given here: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/
As of January 3, the worst state is Mississippi with 351 per 100,000 and the best is Vermont with 75 per 100,000. Florida, with 291 per 100,000 is tied with Michigan and lower than New York, New Jersey, or Massachusetts. Given that Florida’s population has the fifth oldest median age of any state, it is hard to say that there have been an extraordinary number of deaths there.
DeSatanist vs Crist?
Now there’s a race I look forward to seeing.
And when you are Crist, you don’t need no stinking cash cuz you actually CAN walk on water.
SDP,
What a great catch!!
DeSatan vs. Crist in Florida!!
What will evangelical voters do?
TE: The elderly were the first to get vaccinated. And they stay indoors instead of going to crowded beaches and bars like the young people.Flor-uh-duh
https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/map/florida
Teaching Economist:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/80-percent-of-floridians-could-be-infected-in-covid-surge-report/ar-AASzCyh?ocid=msedgntp
Bob,
The elderly in Massachusetts were also vaccinated first, yet the death rate in Massachusetts was higher than Florida. If the death rate in Florida was extraordinary, how would you characterize the higher death rate in Massachusetts?
TE is using a source that is totally upfront that they only count COVID deaths that the state and local officials provide.
The most correct way to look at the huge toll that DeSantis’ terrible response to covid caused is to look at the huge number of excess deaths in Florida during the pandemic.
TE would likely say that he believes that Florida hospitals and doctors become so crummy because of DeSantis’ terrible response to the virus that lots and lots more people died of other illnesses that they never died of before.
I also believe that it is ridiculous to compare two states when most of the deaths in one state happened at the beginning before anyone understood how to treat this, and most of the deaths in the other state happened when a Governor had the power to lessen it and chose not to INTENTIONALLY.
NYCPSP,
I can not help but note that you have no source for your claim. You would likely say, like Trump supporters, that the empirical claims of others are fake news. You probably also believe that the death rate from Covid-19 is vastly exaggerated in New York, New Jersey, and the rest of the northeast because of the party affiliation of the governor. No doubt you think that the only right policy is that followed in China, where a hand full of cases results in millions being confined to their homes.
^^^It is very interesting to look at excess death rates of various states.
In New York City, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, which TE cites as having a higher death rate than Florida, the excess deaths spike very high during April – July 2020 and then are almost the same as in other years, with almost negligible increases during the times when other states spiked.
Meanwhile Florida had a similar spike in summer 2020 (more understandable early on), but then also had their very biggest spike ever in death rates from August through October of 2021, after vaccines and a lot more knowledge of the disease.
Maybe TE’s theory is that it wasn’t COVID that killed so many people in Florida at a time when people weren’t dying in such high numbers, but that doctors in Florida hospitals were so busy giving special care to privileged COVID patients that they neglected to give decent care to so many other patients that suddenly a huge number of patients just dropped dead of other causes compared to other years. I don’t think that makes Florida look good — but I think DeSantis should certainly run a campaign of “come to Florida, you won’t die of COVID, you’ll die of something else.”
Teachingeconomist
I would hate to have had you teaching Economics to my kids.
The only thing wrong with your position is everything .
Start with when did the infections occur in the North East . You want to compare metro NYC to where. The bodies were pilling up in the refrigerator trucks within days of the lock down. The reason infections started spreading in late January . Up to 2 million NYC residents who were infected by the virus started dropping dead within days of the first case being found on March 2nd. .I might add that, that Westchester Lawyer sat in a regular Hospital room for 5 days with double pneumonia before they figured out he had Covid.
What is the population density of Metro NYC and its suburbs.Compared to Floriduh.
What affect did mass transit have in spreading the virus. Ever ride a NYC Subway train at rush hour. It’s a Petri dish!
More important than population density is household density in the communities most affected.
You want to compare multi generational families living in the same Household or building in Corona , Woodside, Jersey City or Borough Park to Grandma and or Grandpa living alone in Boca in a gated community with the Kids and Grand kids locked up a 1000 miles away.
What was the weather in the North East in January – March .
What treatments or protocols were available at the very beginning when Metro NYC was struck . The first even slightly effective treatment dexamethasone arriving in June of 2020. followed by Remdesivir and Monoclonal antibodies . None available in NY when the vast majority of deaths occurred.
How about we compare NY to Florida From December 2020 the second surge or better yet from the end of March 2021 when Vaccines became widely available, to the present.
And we wont even go into the quality of statistics in Florida. From conducting 1/2 the testing that NY does to fraudulent death counts.
DeSantis is a mass murderer.
TE,
When there is a huge spike in excess deaths in a state during a spike in COVID rates, I don’t know why you think all those additional residents suddenly dying when they weren’t dying at those high rates before COVID would be comforted because Ron DeSantis says they didn’t die from COVID. At best, you could theorize that a lot of excess deaths in Florida but not in Massachusetts or NYC or NJ, isn’t because all those additiional Floridians died of COVID but because DeSantis’ bad COVID policies means Floridians’ death rate from all diseases has spiked, thanks to DeSantis’ mishandling of the pandemic and letting hospitals become overburdened. Not exactly comforting.
Especially when states like NY and Mass and NJ didn’t have huge spikes in death rates from other diseases but Florida did.
Diane
Evangelicals will choose Satan over Christ every time.
Lock him Up!
When Jesus comes again
They’ll lock him up in chains
Cuz Jesus ain’t no friend;
He criticizes gains
Teachingeconomist
Again what is your time frame for deaths in Massachusetts vs Florida. If you are talking total deaths since the beginning of the Pandemic and trying to correlate that number to deaths after PPE ,vaccines and treatments became available you are being disingenuous at best.
Joel,
I look forward to you posting your regression analysis of death rates across the states. Please be sure to include the code (I work mostly in R, but I could puzzle my way through most software packages) and a link to your data.
Thanks
NYPSP,
It would be extremely helpful if you linked to the estimates of excess deaths that support your claims about Florida. A quick internet search found this news report from November of last year:https://www.abc15.com/news/coronavirus/arizona-has-3rd-highest-excess-death-rate-in-the-country-abc15-analyzes
Unfortunately the news report only listed estimated excess death rates for the worst 10 states.Florida was not among those 10. If folks are interested, the worst 10 in order are Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, California, and New Jersey
Bob,
My best guess is that 80% of people in every state will have been infected by a Covid-19 variant eventually. The public health folks at my university are talking less and less about a pandemic. Covid-19 infections will be endemic in the United States along with the rest of the world.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
Check out WHEN states experienced excess deaths and how high it was in Florida when other states with higher vaccination rates and Governors not pushing lies about how people should go out and act “normal” and who cares if hospitals are struggling because we need ‘freedom’.
The critical issue at this point is not whether SARSCOV2 will “eventually” become endemic or even whether most people will “Eventually” get infected with it. (To say that those will happen “eventually” is not even a particularly profound prediction, since that is what has happened with many coronaviruses , eg the ones that cause the common cold)
The critical issue is that hospitalizations be kept below (preferably well below) the maximum number that can be handled by the health care system at any time so that it does not collapse!
The article “Hospitals are in Serious Trouble” was already linked to but it’s worth linking to again
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-hospital-strain-health-care-workers/621193/
That’s precisely why it is important to get as many people as possible vaccinated because even if they get covid, it reduces the severity of the disease and hence chance that they will end up in the hospital.
And that’s also why it is STILL critical for people to wear masks (preferably N95) in public places (particularly indoors,), not only because a large fraction of the population is still UNvaccinated but because vaccination does not preclude infection and subsequent spreading of the virus, possibly to those who are not vaccinated and who might therefore end up in the hospital.
This is really VERY simple, but the comments by some make it clear that they STILL don’t get it.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
What is wrong with that picture?
Teachers have to be out on the streets in their free time protesting for N95 masks for students, teachers and other school staff.
Its absurd.
As is the choice of the photo for the article, since there is only a need for N95 masked students and staff in schools IF (and only if) the schools are open.
But logic is obviously not a strong suit of the person who chose the photo.
Nor is it a strong suit of the folks who demand that schools remain open but complain (even asking “are you out of your mind?”) when someone calls for mask mandates regardless of vaccination status — despite the fact that vaccination is only partially effective (at best) against infection and transmission.
Wall Street , paraphrasing the ‘92 Clinton campaign mantra: “it’s the childcare, stupid!”
This post made me sad for the children involved. This student is describing schools as warehouses to store children for the sake of a mayor able to save face for his tough politically motivated proclamation. Teachers can not be in school if they are sick. There is a substitute shortage nearly everywhere, including substitute nurses.
Decisions should be made on a school by school….. community by community basis. Proclamations that “schools must stay open” …. are just not helpful because they are not in touch with the reality of what is happening in each community.
I hope what we are learning during this pandemic helps to rethink to the infrastructure of schools.
It comes back to smaller school communities…. smaller class sizes….. more space inside schools…….outdoor learning areas……….more money towards hiring more staff who actually work with children – as opposed to siphoning to administration, consultants and too much tech….. and giveaways to charters. Also necessary are schedules that support healthy staff (not overloading schedules and expecting teachers to plan on the weekend).
Burning out and demoralizing staff does staff does not play out well during a pandemic.
If all of the thing above are in place in a community and school community…. then it’s easier to mitigate the effects of a spreading illness.
Instead, we shortchange classrooms and children…… and make bold political statements.
** Burning out and demoralizing staff does not play out well during a pandemic.
Click on the link to read the student’s description of school life.
Sent from iPatty
>
If it is impossible to staff a particular school because teachers are forced to quarantine because of positive test results, then disruptions to in-person learning (formerly known as “school”) are unavoidable and understandable. These disruptions should be very short-lived, though. We cannot return to the days (and months, and for some, years) when schools are closed because we believe they’re not safe. Schools should be among the lasts thing to shut down, not the first.
Austin Texas Teachers Report
“Classes resumed for the Austin Independent School District on Wednesday, Jan. 5. District officials said for that FIRST day back, they got 384 requests for substitute teachers, and for Thursday, it received 293 substitute requests.”
Meanwhile, read Ed Yong’s very good piece at The Atlantic on our hospitals dealing with Omicron.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/01/omicron-mild-hospital-strain-health-care-workers/621193/
Thank you for that link from The Atlantic. I see parallels. I pray that it’s a wake up call to how we make decisions regarding, invest in and the way we spend $$ in both of these sectors (education and health).
The NYC student’s reddit post has led to an interesting discussion among NYC public school parents.
I find that despite the privileged hypocrites citing their supposed concern for the most economically disadvantaged children who need in-person learning the most, those less affluent parents are often the ones most concerned with sending their child to school in-person. While the affluent parents who know they will be first in line for healthcare are often the ones whining that their schools need to be open no matter what.
Economically disadvantaged kids more frequently live in small spaces with a single bathroom, sharing their homes with grandparents or other vulnerable relatives.
I haven’t heard school opening advocates like Emily Oster who profess to care about more vulnerable public school students offering to lift a finger to sacrifice so the more vulnerable families get medical care for any illness before privileged families like hers do if hospitals are strained as they are RIGHT NOW.
Like the writer of the reddit piece, I also prefer in-person learning, just like almost every parent and teacher does.
Unlike some overprivileged folks like Oster, I have some sympathy for the vulnerable families who always pay the highest price when the health care system gets strained.
Am I willing to keep my kid from getting healthcare in a medical crisis so more at-risk families can? Of course not. But I am certainly willing to sacrifice in-person learning – even if I prefer it – so that those already hard choices of how to ration medical care are not even more difficult.
Any privileged person demanding school re-openings in times of huge strain on hospitals should be made to promise that their own children will forego all medical treatment until the hospitals are no longer critically crowded with covid patients. No doubt those privileged parents like Oster will say “I would never take that chance with my child’s life”. But she has no qualms about misusing data to demand that the families who are far behind her own family in line for medical care take that chance.
That Atlantic article posted above by kathyirwin1 is excellent. Thank you.
The only way Emily Oster could be any further afield of economics is if she went to another planet.
Maybe she will do us all a favor and volunteer for Elon Musk’s maiden voyage to Mars. She could be the maiden, even though having children probably technically disqualifies her.
Unless she is like Jesus’ mother, Mary.
Somehow, the claim wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Hail Emily, full of yourself, the Lard is with thee; blessed art thou among economists and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Covid Dashboard. Holy Emily, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our covid death
Amen.
That’s your penance. Repeat it ten times before we each night.
Before you go to bed each night
So this is all the misogyny I’ve been missing!?
The proper term is actually “miseconomistic” (also spelled miseconomystic) and gender is irrelevant.
Economistic: Critical of economists who weigh in on subjects that are far afield from their own field of economics. (In this case, critical of econodemiologists, aka crapidemiologists, but it also applies to economists like Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Eric Hanushek, William Sanders and others who have weighed in on the subject of teacher evaluation with their pseudoscientific VAMology)
Hope that helps.
“The proper term is actually “miseconomistic” (also spelled miseconomystic) and gender is irrelevant.
Miseconomistic: critical of economists (male and female alike) who weigh in on matters that are far afield from their own area.
In this case, critical of econodemiologists (aka crapidemiologists)
I and others have been just as critical of male economists weighing in on education matters: Raj Chetty Eric Hanushek, John Friedman, William Sanders, et al.
If you don’t know that, you are either new to this blog or haven’t paid very close attention.
Prior to Covid, I would walk my at risk youth to the cafeteria (we could not be out during the comprehensive school’s break) to the cafeteria. More and more days the cafeteria was filled with students at the tables. I asked the cafeteria workers, “What’s going on? PE classes in here for testing or something?” They said, “No subs. And they expect us to watch them.” There were kids just playing on their phones and whatnot. I said, “Do parents know their kids are at school just ‘messing around?” The students are right, there is a lot of “nothing” going on, but it all “looks good on paper.” I can’t imagine what’s really going on now.
“and they expect us to watch them” — seven words which say so much about the national response to this pandemic
So do tell, with 2642 dead Americans yesterday; why is there not a Mandate for full vaccination to attend Public schools or teach in them. With boosters for 12-17yerolds
Why is there not a national mask mandate for Public schools. We can mandate standards by using Federal Dollars as a bludgeon but not masks and vaccines. Of course we would probably need a bit more sleep apnea at the SCOTUS.
Good morning Joel, Diane and everyone,
I’m all for mandating vaccinations for everyone in schools – students and staff. I’m all for masks in schools, too. But they must be the proper masks and worn properly. You don’t know how many times a day I tell students, “Pull your mask up” and “Put your mask on.” If students refuse to wear their masks in class, I send them to the office and I don’t let them return to my room. It’s getting harder and harder to deal with this every day, and I’m really at the end of my rope. I’m sick of being ignored by teenagers. They should be sent home if they refuse to wear a mask. Discipline in schools I know of is breaking down due to lack of staff and the will to enforce rules. It’s pretty bad and very demoralizing. What will happen when people no longer go into this profession for so many reasons now? I know of so many teachers now who are retiring, leaving the job, preparing for other careers, etc. They’ve had it. Keep bashing teachers and you will have no one to teach your children.
The people you see in public with their dick noses making their masks intentionally useless are the ones who will cheer on and participate in enforcing the violent repression needed to maintain the fascist state in a few years. You can see their hate and contempt for others in their eyes.
GregB
Absolutely .
At least your state REQUIRES masks. My state (Utah) has made it illegal to mandate them, unless required by the county health department (for only 30 days), and that can be overturned by the county commission. At the moment, the two more liberal counties in Utah, Salt Lake County and Summit County (Park City) are requiring them. The rest of us? I counted only six teachers wearing masks at the last faculty meeting (50 adults), and maybe only 3-4 kids per class wear them. I am double masking these day and am fully vaccinated and boosted, but I know a lot of teachers and students aren’t.
And get this–a crazy parents’ group in Utah is ENCOURAGING parents NOT to get their kids tested so that kids can still come to school. We’ve had several kids who were waiting on test results come to school and then have to leave because they tested positive, kids come to school when someone in their household is positive, and other kids come 3 days after a positive test with no masks. All perfectly legal in Utah.
Utah has a population of about 3 million. We had almost 10.000 cases yesterday and it is estimated that we will have 12,000 cases PER DAY by the end of the month. We have no subs so we are having to give up a bunch of our prep periods to sub. Teachers look like zombies. It’s not sustainable.
What is wrong with the “leaders” in Utah?
Seriously. Are they brain dead?
I was considering taking a ski trip to Utah this winter, but after reading what you report, I am going to pass.
Utah sounds dangerous — but I’m not sure which is more dangerous, the virus or the ignorance.
I’ll probably go to Vermont instead.
Though the skiing is not as good, the state leaders have a clue and have managed the covid situation admirably.
I don’t think students are capable of wearing masks “properly” for long periods of time. I don’t even think adults are. I’ve never been in a group setting where everyone is wearing masks that are secure, without big gaps, and without adjusting them or taking them of and on every few minutes (more like every 10 seconds). So it’s not surprising to me that we haven’t seen significant differences in Covid rates between schools with and without mask mandates.
I wear an N95 whenever I leave my home. At the end of this month, I hope to spend a few days in Puerto Rico. I will wear a mask for at least six hours, from the time I leave home until I close the hotel door.
Sorry Flerp. I’m not buying it. Surgeons and hospital workers wear masks for hours on end. Some students wear their masks at least through the 40 minutes of my class. They don’t whine and they don’t complain. They wear it. And if they don’t, out of my classroom they go. It’s the only way I’m going to stay in this profession while covid is raging. I’m not taking a chance on getting sick because kids don’t want to wear their masks. I stay away from adult staff who don’t want to wear their masks, too.
omg the daily case count in Utah is staggering. That averages to 333/100k. I looked at the maps for the contiguous states. The only one that looks same or worse is AZ, although CO is pretty bad. ID, WY, NV all considerably better. Keeping fingers crossed for health of you and yours, TOW.
“I don’t think…”
Can’t disagree with that.
Mamie, what is there to “buy”? You described how students are behaving. That’s how they’re behaving. It doesn’t matter if some surgeons can wear masks properly. Most people don’t. I see evidence of that every day, over and over. This is the world as it is, not as it should be.
Flerp
Actually you are not altogether wrong about masks. Part of the reason that CDC guidance did not initially endorse masks was the failure of untrained people to properly use them in laboratory experiments designed to test their effectiveness. Including the tendency to touch the mask and then scratch your nose under the mask .
That said there are millions of Americans from healthcare workers to
Construction workers working around asbestos and silicates who do wear them successfully reducing illness .
But Laboratory studies do not tell us how an actual virus or a particular virus will transmit in a real life study .
“The researchers found that after controlling for other factors, countries with cultural norms or policies that supported mask-wearing saw weekly per capita coronavirus mortality increase 16% during outbreaks, compared with a 62% weekly increase in countries without mask-wearing norms. ”
https://theconversation.com/evidence-shows-that-yes-masks-prevent-covid-19-and-surgical-masks-are-the-way-to-go-167963
Omicron may change that recommendation to an KN or N95.
“As the facts change”. !!!!!
A parent actually said I was “bullying” her child by constantly asking him to pull up his mask. Later the kid was out with COVID.
Well, there’s freedom and all that, doncha know?
Joel, the Supreme Court seems likely to knock down Biden’s mandate for private employers with more than 100 employees—per OSHA regulation. Public health doesn’t matter. Deaths don’t matter.
Don’t get John Awbrey started.
There might not be any stopping him!
Yeah, Jon Awbrey has the misfortune of being a professional logician and able to think clearly and carefully.
A veritable curse it must be.
dianeravitch
Sadly true.
I’m so sick of the schizo reporting going on. I swear the paper had a column on the surge, and the column next to it talks about how mild this variant is for those fully vaccinated and nothing to worry about, things are good. WTF?
I’m sick of stories about schools that talk only about kids and “learning loss” from distance learning. Yes, kids tend to have an easier time of COVID, but last I checked, kids aren’t islands unto themselves. Adults work in schools. Kids live with other people. What about all of them?
And as for “learning loss,” does anyone think learning is going on when teachers are out sick, no subs, and kids are herded into the gym or watched over by National Guardsmen, as mentioned in this piece? That’s called CHILDCARE. (And childcare, or the lack of it is another topic, but it seems it’s the #1 job of schools.)
Most of my absent students do not make up the missed work, they don’t log onto Google Classroom, they don’t email me, and yet, I thought they barely get sick. And I’ve noticed that there are students who are now often absent, so it can’t be COVID. Maybe they’re just used to not going to school? And yet, school must go on, even if 1/4-1/3 of the class is missing.
I’m not advocating a return to DL, but can we at least have real conversations? Can’t the public take our concerns seriously? Teachers are up there with used car salesmen now, which I think is all about breaking up unions.
So sick of everything. I can retire in two years when I turn 60, since I have 30 years under my belt now. I may even leave at the end of the first semester instead of waiting until May/June. Stick a fork in me…
why is there not a Mandate for full vaccination to attend public schools or teach in them. With boosters for 12-17-year-olds
Exactly
The Supreme Court is “convening” remotely to hear oral arguments and decide whether they will “allow” (in their infinite wisdom about public health) Biden’s workplace vaccine mandate to stand, a mandate which would help protect workers who do not have the luxury of working remotely the way the Supreme Court Justuses do.
Here’s an interesting question? Is it actually legal for the Supreme Court to hear arguments and make decisions “remotely”? (outside the Supreme Court chamber)
The Constitution doesn’t specify how the Supreme Court is to convene and the only law that I found that deals with the specifics of Supreme Court sessions that seemed relevant was this fairly vague one
What does the terminology “at the seat of government” mean specifically?
The definition I found for the latter is this
“The building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority”.
While that would probably include remote convening of the justices, it would presumably also mean they would all at least have to be physically within Washington DC when they heard the oral arguments over the internet.
Has the latter been true for all the cases the Supreme Court has heard remotely? Has one or more Justices ever “convened” remotely from outside DC?
Would the lawyers presenting the oral arguments also have to be physically present within DC at the time of their oral presentations to the court?
If so, have they been physically present within DC in all cases?
Is there any law governing the Supreme Court that further specifies this issue by saying something to the effect of “the justices will convene in the Supreme Court chamber to hear oral arguments”?
Of course. It would make no difference because the Supreme Court Is the final arbiter and would undoubtedly decide in their own favor (as all good autocrats do) but it would nonetheless be ironic if they have violated the law in any case.
SCOTUS: “Remote for me, but not for thee!”
SCOTUS is captive to the corporate class the deep-pocketed, dark money funders of the Federalist Society.
That’s why they are called Justuses.
Doof. Just us. And the American way.
By the way, even though the decision would be assured from the start, I’d love to see the Supreme Court considering the above case of whether it is legal for them to convene remotely. I’m sure it would be very entertaining.
The Supreme Court is currently considering the legality of the OSHA mandate requiring private employers (with 100 or more employees) to insist their employees be vaccinated. Sonia Sotomayor is participating remotely, possibly because Justice Gorsuch flouts all COVID precautions. Lawyers for private employers are also remote because they have COVID. Observers expect the conservative-dominated Court to strike down the mandate.
Especially if they were doing it remotely.
Which raises another interesting question:
If the Supreme Court convened remotely to consider the issue of whether remotely convening was legal AND, at the end, decided that remotely convening was NOT legal, would their decision be valid?
It would certainly appear not.
If convening remotely is not legal, then presumably any decision the Supreme Court made remotely would be null and void, so they could never validly decide remotely that convening remotely was illegal.
A interesting (albeit highly unlikely) conundrum.
hmm SDP I sense you are a mathematician
I’ve taken a lot of math but wouldn’t call myself a mathematician (no degree at least)
But I do like logic (and don’t like illogic) and taught high school math.
I used to give out logic puzzles for extra credit.
Some of them (eg, by Raymond Smullyan) were very hard, but I did have students who figured many of them out (that was back before the internet, when students couldn’t cheat and simply look up the answers)
Some students became absolutely obsessed with the puzzles — sometimes probably even to the detriment of their regular work.
The Supreme Court “met” remotely for a good part of 2020 and much of 2021 and I found at least one instance of a justice (Byer) who “met” remotely from outside DC (from Cambridge, MA) for over a year, which would seem to be a violation of the law that I quoted above.
“The Supreme Court shall hold at the seat of government a term of court commencing on the first Monday in October of each year and may hold such adjourned or special terms as may be necessary.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 869.)”
The “seat of government” is in Washington DC which obviously does not include Cambridge,MA.
And there may be other instances involving Bryer or others as well.
It may seem a minor issue and mean nothing practically speaking.
But violating the law is violating the law.
And of all organizations, the Supreme Court should certainly not be doing so.
If they actually violated the law, what would that mean about the decisions they made while doing so? Would they be considered null and void?
I wonder if anyone has actually looked into this issue.
“Matt Barnum
matt_barnum
·Jan 7
Charter schools were generally less likely to offer in-person instruction than district schools last year.”
So everything these people told us about teachers unions and closing schools was nonsense.
Ed reform and ed reformers are not a reliable source of information. They spin everything so it’s anti-public school. It doesn’t matter what happens in schools- these people will all climb aboard any and all bandwagons that bashes public schools- lockstep- there are never, ever any dissenters.
They are professional, full time, paid public school CRITICS and that’s all they are. Maybe we need 15 ed reform orgs and thousands of paid adults to act as public school critics- I don’t know- but the one and only contribution of this “movement”.
Imagine if the ed reform “movement” had actually sincerely set out to assist public schools in the pandemic instead of spending all their time being interviewed in newspapers and appearing on cable tv and pennning editorials bashing public schools?
Imagine if they hadn’t have considered the pandemic a golden (political) opportunity to promote and market the privatized systems they prefer and instead had simply quietly offered real, practical assistance to public schools?
You can’t imagine that, because it would never happen and none of us have ever seen it.
It’s just so typical that this “movement” has decided an Ivy League economist who has never gone near a public school should be directing public school covid policy for every public school in the country. It’s exactly what I would expect to come out of an echo chamber, and it’s exactly what they delivered.
The vast majority of public school teachers have an undergraduate degree that includes an Education major as well as an academic major. Often, if one is unable to get a job directly following university study, one may choose to substitute to “get one’s foot in the door” so to speak, hoping that a regular job comes along. With all the teacher bashing, required testing, and the pandemic on top of it, it is no wonder that there is a substitute shortage and a teacher shortage these days. Who in their right minds would choose a profession where there is no respect, no appreciation, low pay, and terrible working conditions, when one can, with the same degree, get a job elsewhere for more money, more respect, greater appreciation, and not have to take home tons of papers to correct, lessons to plan, parents to call, etc. I retired from public school teaching 19 years ago after 38 years, then taught pre-service secondary and elementary teachers for an additional 13 years. In the years since I have seen the respect and appreciation for the profession go downhill so very quickly mostly due to the inaccurate reporting of “the problems with our schools” and “it’s the teachers” when the reality is that neither of those is true. People seem to want a band aid approach to education and a quick fix – this won’t work as readers of this blog know well. I agree that in these pandemic times that teachers should have been put in the category of front line workers in terms of safety and vaccinations and that students should be required to be masked and distanced (and vaccinated when eligible) so we can keep students in the classroom. The term “learning loss” means nothing to me – take the student where he/she is in the continuum of learning and keep them moving forward. Yes, this takes time, people, and money, but students today are our future…surely our future is worth the investment.
Beautifully said, Ms. Osberg!!!
Agreed, Bob.
Agreed, John
I haven’t had the flu or flu shot for decades, but I may be getting a flu shot soon because of “flurona”. The Washington Post reported three days ago:
“Many people around the world kicked off 2022 by searching for more information about ‘flurona,’ after Israel reported that two young pregnant women had tested positive for both the coronavirus and the flu.
“Doctors have long been concerned about the potential impact of a ‘twindemic’ — with influenza cases rising as covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm hospitals — and called on people to get flu shots and coronavirus vaccinations. On the other hand, ‘flurona’ refers to when one person has both respiratory infections at the same time — which health officials say is a possibility as cases of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus surge this winter across the world.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/05/flurona-coronavirus-flu-symptoms/
Just wait till flurona hits Fluronida.
All flurona will break loose.
And DeSatanist will undoubtedly celebrate every infection.
I used to have in my rec room one of those stupid flapping fish plaques that sang, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” I would love to see an ad featuring a montage of this fish singing and Deinsanetis talking about Covid.
All the better if Deinsantis were pictured in Lederhosen, like the Munchkin leaders of the Lollipop Guild. That’s Ledership!
DeSatanist Cheer
We’re really number 1
In covid and flurona
It may sound kinda dumb
But die is what we’re gonna
“Die is what we wanna”
Would be better
Even better if DeSatanist were in an orange jump suit on his way to prison for all the unnecessary death he has caused.
I guess this would work at a jazz funeral as well.
Oh, my, Greg. What a joyful noise!
I wonder how Death Sentence can be so anti-vax when his wife is a cancer patient. Nothing seems to get in the way of his personal ambition.
Lloyd, you really should get your flu shot each year. Influenza can kill, especially if you are older.
I keep forgetting mine!
Flerp!!! Nooooo!!!!!
I agree. I didn’t get it regularly until five years ago and am embarrassed that I (was too lazy to) waited. Every oncologist I know says the same thing as Bob: the older you are, the more important it is get an annual flu shot. Some immunity is always better than no immunity, to paraphrase Dr. Fauci.
“Some injected bleach is always better than no injected bleach”, to paraphrase Donald Trump.
After the first 3 yrs as a traveling enrichment teacher to various regional PreK’s—when I got sick a lot— I didn’t get flu again over the subsequent 17 yrs (and few colds for that matter). Stopped taking flu shots. Apparently my work was an amazing immune-system booster. Covid put the kibosh on traveling among PreK populations, and hey I was well beyond retirement age anyway. Now I never miss my flu shot 😉
This reminds me. As my fans here know, my son goes to a private high school. So far there have been no disruptions at school — no teachers coming down with Covid, no significant number of students out sick, no disruptions to schedules. But, if there were a sudden staffing shortage caused by staff quarantines, the school could instantly pivot to remote. That’s not because the school has significantly more resources than a school like Bronx Science. It’s because the school is autonomous and its administration is solely responsible for setting its policies. It can move quickly when necessary and it can do things that make sense for itself. The NYC DOE is a behemoth. 1 million students. 1800 schools. All managed by a central administration that talks to intermediate administrative layers that interface with school administrations. It’s unmanageable and I think it would be better if it broke apart into separate districts (which themselves would still be enormous).
A private school is autonomous, which means that they can set any policy they want and parents who can’t handle that policy are shown the door. They have primarily affluent parents and rarely have 34 students in a class. They can require vaccinations of all students and faculty.
Bronx Science, in your scenario, would only be allowed to accept students that live in that district, since there would no longer exist any central administration to manage that process.
Private schools don’t have significantly more resources? Really?
So what private school in NYC costs $18,000 a year and accepts any student who walks through the door, and keeps students regardless how much they struggle academically?
I am more amazed that private schools have tuition that is 2 and 3 times that amount, only accept students who prove themselves to be academically ready, counsel out students they assumed were academically ready but who aren’t, and then you find out that an extraordinary number of parents are still hiring private tutors to tutor their kids! You probably think I’m making that all up and no private school parent would ever hire a private tutor, but you’ll be shocked to know that it really does happen! Not sure what the high tuition is spent on, when private school teachers also have the advantage of class sizes that are half the size of public schools. Maybe it’s spent on administrators?
I very much agree, Flerp. Bigger districts = bigger problems. That particular issue— the inability to pivot when circumstances require—is obvious when comparing big-city districts to small ones. I see the same thing in the gigunda districts covered by WaPo. For some reason VA has traditionally had county-level districts; the counties near DC are so densely-populated it makes for a schdistrs ranging from 84k to 178k students! NJ is the opposite with its multiple fiefdoms. We too are cheek-by-jowl megalopolis, but each town runs its own district. The ones in my area (40min train ride from NYC) range from 3k-6.5k students.
bethree5,
“each town runs its own district” = more segregation, no?
I find it interesting that a high school in NYC that is only half white is considered “segregated”. Meanwhile, in affluent suburbs, there are schools with extraordinarily tiny populations of non-white or Asian students.
https://www.njpp.org/publications/report/separate-and-unequal-racial-and-ethnic-segregation-and-the-case-for-school-funding-reparations-in-new-jersey/
^”It is no accident that New Jersey’s Black and Hispanic/Latinx students are enrolled in school districts with lower tax capacity: racist practices such as “redlining” and “block busting” have created segregated communities with artificially lower property values.[3] These practices cannot be simply dismissed as sins of the past: the generational wealth taken from the residents of these communities has profound effects on school funding today.”
I have no doubt that it would be much easier for some school districts in NYC — primarily the ones that have disproportioantely affluent students — to have their own rules and be “flexible” to meet the needs of the more affluent students. Certainly more affluent pblic schools would remain open, and if the fewer less affluent students who attend don’t like it, well too bad. But there is a lot to be said for a big system that deals with the needs of all students.
Thank you for this link, nycpsp! I will be reading it at length soon. I answer you way down below to get margin space.
I cannot help but think how differently our country’s schools might be dealing with the omicron outbreak if mandated standardized testing had been canceled in 2022 by the U.S. Department of Education. If ridiculously meaningless student data were not being monetized during an exploding pandemic, I can’t help but think decisions would be more considerate of facts on the ground. Right now, trying to keep all the schools open is like trying to keep an invasion of Russia going in the middle of winter. When your army is running out of what it needs to fight the war, it’s time to retreat.
There must be weekly PCR testing, a system to maintain isolation of positive cases and quarantining of close contacts, and free medical masks for everyone entering campus at every door with requirements to wear them or leave. We don’t all have what we need to take care of students’ needs. Time to retreat and live to fight another day. We can do that if the Gates Foundation isn’t putting its data-driven finger on Secretary Cardona’s scale.
Great article. Right now, my classes are about half-full; the schoolyard is like a ghost town. My opinion is that the collective “we” have completely normalized sickness, and that because omicron “isn’t that bad”, we shouldn’t be reacting this way. Before Covid, if you were to tell someone about Bug X, I don’t care what it is, and that it’s very contagious, and it feels like the flu, but we need everyone to show up to work and school, do you really think that a sane person would just step into all that? Of course not. But now, the baseline is that, well, it doesn’t kill you as much and you probably won’t have to be hospitalized. Get to work. So says the parents that are safely working from home.
It’s not at all clear what “omicron isn’t that bad” is supposed to mean.
It’s still early to be proclaiming how bad it is or how bad it might get.
Simply basing conclusions on outcomes of other countries that have different demographics is a fool’s game.
As an actual statistician ( as opposed, say, to the typical economist statustician, who is all about Twitter status) has pointed out,
https://tamino.wordpress.com/2022/01/02/happy-new-year-crappy-start/
deaths lag infections by several weeks and it is still early to be drawing conclusions.
But the nitwits will draw them nonetheless. Because that’s what nitwits do.
And yes. I know you are not among them😀
Great comment. And so true.
Wow, what’s up with Erin Burnett? Seems she’s spouting more craziness as time goes on. The last time I watched her (which, I admit, was quite some time ago, & for these very reasons),*, she was making some snarky remarks & rudely cutting off her guests, who were in the midst of making some good points.
IMO, she can go the way of the awful Chris Matthews: out on her a$$.
*Actually, I can’t even watch the news talk programs anymore (limit myself to the local news & nightly world news, & read 2 daily papers & local online news), even though I still respect Lawrence O’Donnell & like Chris Hayes.
Just too, too much bad news out there, & talking it to death & back (esp. w/politicians) is beyond depressing.
Burnett is touting the corporate lines as directed.
The MSM – both print and broadcast – continue to simultaneously report on record high number of cases and the need to fully re-open in-person schools.
You’d think more people would see through this …
Hats off to that student for an incredible piece of writing. And, the comments on that subreddit are illuminating, too.
I’m late to this conversation here -as usual. ( post #89 I guess)
I was out and about yesterday (Saturday) including a stop by my school. We had a snow day Friday and I have final exam projects to grade including community service work (lockers painted…each one illustrating a famous book.)
Who knows if I’ll get sick or the school will be closed or I won’t be able to get my grades done…. or answer #4, “All of the above”.
Weird thing is, the State of New York has never tested me or my students for COVID. Yet, back during the nutcase days of Common Core, we were all being tested every which way to Sunday. My God, kindergarten kids were being given a standardized exam the first time they walked in a classroom.
There was a lot of hubbub back in those “build it while we fly it”, “Race to the Top” days. The tension was so thick it condensed on the walls and went oozing down the stairs.
Now it’s a virus floating around….lots of tiny virus…sneaky, deadly and invisible.
Yesterday the hallways were quiet except for the murmur of a coach and some students practicing softball down in the gym -a faint sign of a more hopeful spring?
It was a far cry from March 17, 2020 when teachers were given a chance to get in (and out) of the empty school with whatever stuff we needed before the building was officially shut down at high noon. Those minutes leading up that deadline reminded me of a science fiction movie when the spaceship is programed to blow up. A klaxon wailing in my mind, an ominous voice booming: “T-minus three minutes until self destruct mode engaged.”
That day I tossed some textbooks out the front door to bring to students stuck at home and grabbed the plants in my classroom and made it out with a few minutes to spare.
Now, in 2022, those moments back in March 2020 seem so….quaint, naive and even innocent.
Trump was bad, really bad. And, the pandemic was like a huge car crash happening all around us.
But what are they now?
Who would’ve thought Trump’s followers would try to sack the Capitol? And that we’d be learning about Greek letters of the alphabet in such a pandemicy way?
Trump’s out but will he ever be truly gone -just like this horrible plague?
Meanwhile, winter is most definitely here in the Northeast.
Take care, all!
You are right, John
In addition to being very thoughtful, the piece is very well written.
And hopefully, the pandemic will be over by the time they reach omega.
Otherwise they might have to start naming variants after fraternities and sororities with multiple Greek letters (especially the ones who have killed pledges through basing) .Or use an entirely different alphabet,
They did seem to skip many of the letters, however. Eta, theta, iota, kappa and xi
Of course they skipped “xi” for obvious reasons because it’s the name of the Chinese premier and that might have been a bit of a, shall we say, ” touchy” subject.
And maybe I just didnt hear about the former variants?
And, now there’s a story about a hybrid “deltacron” variant.
Yeah, it’s like frat row.
And instead of quarantine we’ll get “double secret probation.”
Ha ha ha .
I was also thinking about Animal House when I wrote my comment.
On a much more serious note, despite the pandemic, lots of people in lots of places (Florida, Texas, NyCity) are still regularly having toga parties.
Delta-cron (apologies to Tanya Tucker)
Delta Cron
What’s that crown that you have on?
Could it be a protein coat from bats gone by?
And did I hear you say, you were infecting me here today
To send me to that mansion in the sky?
That one made me laugh. Thanks. It was a busy weekend.
Oh my God, I’m still laughing. I just read that to my wife.
Did you sing it to her?
You probably won’t see this comment but, no, she was singing it actually, I sent her the lyrics.
I almost chocked on the toothpaste later on when I thought about it again…
A truly good laugh.
There is talk of NYC public school students walking out of school on Tuesday to protest not having remote alternatives to in-person school when COVID cases are high.
Organized by “students,” of course.
I have stated this before and will write it up this year. We had twenty years since school Principals were asked if they had plans for events that would shutter schools. Which would require teaching and learning off-campus. Also, their District and State Chief education officer were provided a copy of the survey. Plus multiple surveys have been sent out since.
So interesting that the Chicago Public Schools’
classrooms as shown on the news stories (they show at least 3-4, & they’re the same on every channel: I’ve checked) are all gleaming: squeaky-clean & shining. (Undoubtedly, these are the only schools CPS will allow media to run pictures of/allow media in.) Other schools, of course, are not properly clean enough for children to be in in these pandemic times (& weren’t before Covid, either). You know, “other people’s children” can go to dirty schools either way.
Just recently, the Chicago ☀️-Times reported that the fired head of CPS cleaning supervision (can’t recall his exact title & can’t find the paper) was given $29,000 upon leaving. Just this fall, parents in some schools were going in w/their own supplies, cleaning the schools themselves. There had been droppings, roaches & filth in the schools.
Now, bargaining w/CTU to keep schools open during Omicron, CPS told the union that there would be better air filtration, & so safe to stay open. How so? By opening windows in 10 degree weather? (Windows probably frozen shut, anyway.) Saying, time & again, school s are the “safest place to be” now. (Yeah…they should read the NYC student’s letter.)
Also, it used to be in such frigid days (Chicago area has been having temps in single digits–& below, given wind-chill factor) that schools would be closed due to the weather. & Tlthen, this, “Kids & COVID: Suburban Docs See More Severe Symptoms”: “Advocate Children’s Hospital locations in Park Ridge & Oak Lawn have had up to 38 kids admitted w/the virus this week, a figure that has tripled over the past month, Advocate Aurora Health leaders said… about a quarter of the infected youngsters have required intensive care… despite the common misconception that kids are less prone to severe cases, they’ve always been vulnerable–esp. those under 5 who aren’t yet eligible for vaccines…about 94% of Advocate’s pediatric COVID-19 patients have been unvaccinated, & many come from households where no one was vaccinated.” (Chicago ☀️-Times, Friday, 1/7/22)
&, in further news to make Chicagoans 🤮: same paper–“Arne Duncan Cracks Door Open to 2023 Race for Mayor vs. Lightfoot.” This is a Page 2, full page story (w/a quarter page COLOR picture of an earnest, shirtsleeved Duncan) written by City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman (a long time & highly respected Chicago reporter).
Wish I could give you links for both articles, but you can look them up.
“N95 for me, but not for thee!”
“This is so grotesque,” said epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves. “Members of Congress (and White House staff) have full access to good masks (and I bet tests too!). The little people—meaning the rest of us—are on our own.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/01/10/what-about-general-public-members-congress-get-kn95-masks-amid-omicron-wave
Reply to nycpsp 1/9 at 4:49 & 4:52pm– I agree, calling a 50% white/black NYC school “segregated” is absurd. Bean-counters gone nuts. The product of having one gigunda district the size of 20 large schdistrs and implying changes can be made to reflect overall demographics w/o regard to distance, transportation, nbhds, etc.
When you say ‘each town runs their own district’ = ‘more segregation’: sure, but that correlates to res segregation, not to who runs what. Baker points out Newark vs adjoining Millburn, but most such dichotomies are far further apart geographically & schdistrs can’t be desegregated by drawing lines differently without extensive transportation issues. Our transp is mostly bus, & not that direct or frequent, &tangled with incredible traffic; we do not have the efficient pubtransp of a NYC.
NJ is still a bit of a mystery to me even after 28 yrs, but here’s info on my local area. [Central/ North]. The residential segregation is fierce. The only equivalent I’ve seen is in parts of LI. The town/ schdistr borders were established a century ago & don’t change. A realtor once explained the towns were wildly different from the start: blue-collar factory towns, Prot towns, Cath towns, Jewish towns complete with racial/ ethnic divisions. Plus long history of little fiefdoms: even today towns have to have their backs to the wall before they share schools et al municipal services.
The line of towns I’m in run NE to SW between Newark (281k pop, mostly black) and Plainfield (50k pop, mostly black). The 5 towns in between are 20k-30k pop: at each end 50% white, in-between mostly-white. So, the next town from me is 50% black: a perpendicular street a line of demarcation. School-wise there is no diff from the nearest towns NE: excellent schdistr, virtually same grad/ achievement stats, great programs etc tho income level is 23% less. Per-pupil expenditure is same $14k. (Newark spends nearly double that at $26k.)
But that’s a tiny bubble of NJ. The funding disparities are there as noted in Baker’s opening about Newark vs Millburn. They are blunted by the Abbott “Robin Hood” funding established decades ago—are you familiar? REtaxes are swept up and redistributed to poor districts. E.g., my district gets 4% state aid, Newark gets 80%. Somehow Millburn is so fab wealthy they can spend $31k per pupil! If you drove thro there you’d get the picture. All late-‘20’s-era mansions on generous plots. Here’s another anomaly: Plainfield NJ, an Abbott district like Newark, spends only $15k per pupil– far lower median income than nearby towns: something wrong there. (No surprise they’re being inundated with charters.) So the Abbott funding clearly doesn’t work seamlessly; I look forward to learning more from the Baker report.
bethree5,
I always appreciate reading your thoughtful and enlightening replies to me. They are incredibly well-informed and even if sometimes I have a different opinion in the end, you always make a perfectly reasonable argument for why you have your opinion. That’s all that I ask from a discussion! (As you probably know, what I don’t like is people throwing out insults or snide remarks instead of making good arguments addressing what I am saying the way you do.) Thank you so much.
I can understand your description of NJ more than you know! de facto segregation versus de jure segregation. The north has long had de facto segregation helped by discrimination. And unfortunately what you sometimes see is that a town’s public schools may not reflect its racial diversity if there is a lot of white flight into non-public schools, although I don’t know if that’s an issue in NJ.
But the same thing happens in NYC, with zoned neighborhood schools merely reflecting the demographics of the students zoned for them. I do think the fact that such a school in NYC is part of a much larger system makes a difference in how to address this. It seems as if NJ doesn’t even have a chance to change things so isn’t trying. I do know about the efforts at “Robin Hood” funding which I remember thinking was an excellent idea when it started. But again, in NYC that isn’t as relevant because there is only one system and more funding can be directed to the higher needs schools. Just like integration efforts aren’t stopped by a school district’s border. If NYC breaks up into smaller districts, that is all going have to be litigated and figured out, obviously. I agree with you that flexibility is nice if you live in an affluent district, but maybe not particularly helpful if you live in a small district with a high concentration of poverty.
I am not sure it is fair to leave open the public schools with the most affluent families while doing remote for schools with 70% and higher poverty rates. Earlier in the pandemic, I understood why de Blasio strongly resisted the pressure from some more affluent families to let their schools open in-person when COVID rates were still high. It just drives another wedge into the division between rich and poor. And I also believe that there were more efforts to make remote learning much better because all students were getting it. If only the kids in the most disadvantaged public schools were getting remote, I think it would have been easier to get away with doing a mediocre job. That shouldn’t be the case, but unfortunately it is. Maybe there is a middle ground – flexibility with oversight. But all your good points are definitely important to bring up. Thanks, again.
Thanks nycpsp, back atcha. Back in 2012 [most recent I could find], 12% of NJ K12 students attended privschs; a bit above natl ave. Schoolchoiceweek.com says “most” NJ families select traditional publics. The white flight thing here seems to be about just pulling up stakes & moving (as opposed to seeking a privsch option)—which happened on a large scale after late-‘60’s urban riots, intensifying the res seg. The typical thing is to seek a town with the best pubschsys you can afford. I know a fair number of people my age who’ve done this the way some change houses: from ‘cool’ (diverse artsy more urban) locale to top pubschsys town when eldest turns 5yo, to close-by ‘cooler’ more diverse/ interesting (& lower REtax) town when youngest hits sryr hisch. You’d think they’re depriving their kids of the culture they prefer, but luckily these towns are in fact cheek-by-jowl. My own kids found at least as many friends in the adjacent [half-white, more working-class] town. Partly because they were band musicians from a young age, but probably also because they picked up on my & hubby’s faint disdain for other professionals/ elites [oops 😉].
I hadn’t realized NYCPS could move more $$ into poorer schools. That is a terrific flexibility. If they can do that, they can let bldgs have more flexibility into closing when needed eh?
The Baker paper is excellent. Happy to see NJ compares well to CT & MA on equitable funding. With differences showing where we need to do better. Lots of excellent ideas in there. From his mouth to govr’s ear. Murphy is very interested in this stuff, nobody’s ‘giving up.’ But it will be an uphill road against NJ’ans sick of high REtaxes. As Baker says, 1st things 1st: fund the existing model.
Today I learned from an insider that two buildings in my affluent public school district (outside Albany) were without a school nurse today, and they couldn’t get replacements because of shortages.
All of our schools are also inundated with new positive cases.
There was a meeting between the district nurse and the superintendent to address it today (what to do?) but there’s no will to close the schools.
How bad do things have to be before we can go remote and slow the spread?
DIANE… why is there so much resistance against even a temporary remote school session? We have the tool of remote schooling in place-why can’t we use?
Why is the Gov, NYSED, and so many others so resistant to temporary remote schooling? Please help me understand
My uncle needs bypass surgery but hospitals are overrun, short staffed, blood supplies are low-he can’t schedule his surgery. If he has a heart attack they said they’ll give him emergency surgery.
My 15 year old caught Covid playing in HS basketball over the holiday. She was vaccinated and she was very sick.
Why can’t we go remote and allow the surge to pass? Why is that so bad? I just don’t understand. Please help me to understand.
Why is this young man’s account of the school day not a call to action?
There is deep division among parents and politicians about whether to close schools or keep them open. Some parents adamantly insist the schools go remote. Some equally adamantly insis they stay open.
In my view, the decision should be made at the school site. If meaningful instruction is impossible, the school should go remote. If the school is functioning well, it should remain in-person.
The decision should be made by those in the school, putting the best interests of students first.
I appreciate your measured response
And you’re right in a way but unfortunately local districts don’t want to take responsibility for what happens either, and in a school that means what happens to the children.
Not Hochul, not Biden, not my little district’s superintendent… no one will listen to the district nurse while she says there are insufficient nurses and overwhelming unsafe conditions. No one is Taking responsibility for what happens.
I’m not trying to make a point. I’m just trying to understand why no leader will take a stand for the kids.
Is this the best we can do?