There were 950 coronavirus cases at Texas child care locations on June 30. That’s up from 576 cases on June 23. There were just 59 cases in mid-May.https://t.co/hp0j0DhFfT— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) July 1, 2020
Schools in Texas open as early as August 17th. School districts are trying to work out plans what will keep students safe and ensure they get an education. Most students lost 2 months of their spring semester, meaning they have been out of school almost 6 months before classes start again. That's a dramatic loss in learning, and means a great deal of remedial work has to be done. However:
The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that students be “physically present” in schools, saying that the educational advantages outweigh health risks. The academy says it thinks 3 feet of social distancing is sufficient for classrooms and stated that "the relative impact of physical distancing among children is likely small based on current evidence and certainly difficult to implement."
But guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that day care center providers consider a minimum of 6 feet of social distancing and dismiss students and most staff for two to five days if they have a confirmed coronavirus case so public health authorities can assess the situation.
How the hell do you keep students even 3 feet away from each other all day? Make them wear elaborate hoop skirts extending 3 feet out in all directions? I'm quite serious here: what's the mechanism imagined? And what about this?
dismiss students and most staff for two to five days if they have a confirmed coronavirus case so public health authorities can assess the situation.
Seriously? Shut down school for up to 5 days every time a student shows up positive? How many days will schools actually be open at that rate?
There's also the simple problem of teachers who won't return to their classrooms, because their health is impaired (or a family member's) and they can't run the risk of illness, or even death (Dan Patrick's idiotic exhortations not withstanding*).
More than likely, school in the fall will look like this:
1.Brace yourself, parents: Here’s our national look at the likely school situation for fall. Many kids will be in physical school less than half time. Remote learning will continue. Adverse impact on parents and economy will be profound. With @elizashapiro https://t.co/qeur2EVRg7— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) June 26, 2020
But if a school has to close every time a case is found there, what of families with children in two different schools (high school v. middle school, say)? One closes, the other doesn't; then what? Wish it all just goes away?
The YMCA, and NYC's Department of Education, have been caring for tens of thousands of children of frontline workers during the pandemic. Neither has had any confirmed coronavirus clusters or outbreaks. Here's how. ⬇️ https://t.co/1WiyQEagi6— NPR (@NPR) June 29, 2020
Whatever worked in NYC is obviously not working in Texas. And how long will it be until the information from New York is understood in all the school districts of Texas? Longer than six weeks, I'd warrant.
And there's the simple matter of: if schools don't open, the economy doesn't open.
People who think this won't affect the November election are living in la-la land.
People who think this won't affect the November election are living in la-la land.
*Yes, I would prefer Dan Patrick be exiled to a desert island for the rest of his days. He's not fit to live among other people.
The pandemic is only increasing the yawning educational gap between the haves and the have nots. This all anecdotal from friends and acquaintances. In some poor urban districts(Philadelphia for example), very few of the students were going to be able to remote learn. The families lacked computers, internet access, etc. The decision was to offer no remote learning because it would be unfair to leave the majority of students even further behind. The district our two children still of school age attend is in relatively wealthy community (by fly over country standards, not be coastal standards) and is resource rich. The vast majority of students had access to computers, remember you need one for each child at home, and internet services. The school gave laptops to the few students that lacked them and the local internet provider gave free access for the remainder of the school year in those cases. The majority of students also had at least one parent that could be home. The online instruction wasn't great given the need to create it in a matter of days, but the students at least didn't fall back. In the middle was a neighboring school system of a much more middle class and lower class community. They set up on-line learning, but somewhere between a quarter to a third of the students never logged on even once after in person classes ended. A friend that is a music teacher planned an online sing-a-long to end the year. Of a student body of 300, 6 attended. If learning is all remote come the fall, we await the decision of NY governor Cuomo later this summer, it's hard to believe that there won't be similar results. Resource rich families and schools will have the hardware and time to devote to their children continuing to learn, even if at a slower pace. Some middle class families will keep up, many will fall behind because they lack computers, internet and a parent able to devote significant school time hours to keeping their children engaged. The poor will be basically abandoned. Who is going to give them computers, internet, (housing and food, a substantial portion of our upstate inner city students are both significantly food and housing insecure.) Who helps the student when the parents are working, of often the single parent is working?
ReplyDeleteOur national response has been to worry about when bars and golf courses will reopen. It's a total failure of government and society bereft of values.