Sunday, July 19, 2020

Schools are the Battlefield, Part Deux


I started this here on Friday evening. Read on, I'll tell you when it gets worse:

I don't know of a school district in Texas that's making its plans based on what Trump says, either.  Nor is the Texas Education Agency (TEA):

That "backlash" was not people demanding TEA bow to Trump.  The universities aren't bowing to him, either.

Meanwhile, the President continues to be as dumb as a box of rocks and as ignorant as a stump:

The next day, it got worse:

Anecdotal evidence indicates the State of Texas may be in for a wave of teacher retirements/resignations.

Every person has a story, and some of them have compelling reasons not to be exposed to covid-19.  Some physicians are sure it passes more easily from children to adults than the reverse, which is not reassuring to teachers, obviously; but explains why doctors want school to start for the sake of the kids.

The teachers?  Well, wear a mask, right?

The situation in Texas is an absolute cluster pluck.  TEA tells school districts they must do one thing; school districts, being "independent" under state law, say they will do something else.  TEA runs to get out in front of that parade.  Almost daily now TEA is issuing new "guidelines" and "requirements" that obliterate the previous "guidelines" and "requirements."  Nobody is in charge anymore.  Abbott makes pronouncements nobody really listens to, but TEA and Abbott are who parents hear (every try to get a school district on TV?), and TEA and Abbott are not communicating to the school districts, except after they issue a press release/have a press conference (Abbott relies solely on the latter.  I don't think he even tells TEA what he's thinking.).

The result is chaos.  Whatever school districts say to their parents/teachers/students, is drowned out in the noise of what Abbott/TEA just said on the 6 o'clock news.  TEA has no real control over schools, Abbott even less so, and schools are changing plans hourly as the situation gets worse and as teachers now stare down their own mortality.  Literally.  And as I say, we may face of wave of teacher retirements and refusals to enter the classroom this fall (many districts have already delayed in-class teaching for up to two months).  What's the point of working if it's a death sentence?  If enough teachers resign, then what?  Especially since we're trying to socially distance the students, it really won't take that many teachers to throw a huge spanner in the works.

The school districts were thinking about this in March, but no one else was.  Now it's suddenly the issue du jour, and everybody is thinking about it.  But nobody is talking to anybody about it; they're just talking AT people about it, from the White House on down.

If the situation could be any worse, it would only be if students began to spontaneously combust in classrooms and school buildings started burning down uncontrollably in September.  Not at I'm at all confident that won't happen.....
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