"School's out for-ever!"

I really just want to engage this much, at least:

3. Schools, I was in an interesting hour and half plus discussion of alumni acquaintances and friends, including professors, doctors, teachers and lots of parents. At the college level, the students want to go back but no one really thinks they will socially distance and behave as needed (to quote a British police officer the night after they reopened all the pubs, "It's crystal clear that drunk people can't social distance). It's hard to believe the hodge-podge efforts of the colleges will work. Harvard just announced they will test all the students every 3 days. Yale is going to have adult dorm monitors. Many schools are going to all singles in their dorms, but as was pointed out all this will do in many cases is force students into more crowded off campus housing. These are the "best" efforts of schools with unlimited resources, it's hard to believe the rest can do even these. I think this all collapses when the first student ends up in the ICU and parents are frantically pulling their children back home. All of this of course ignores the employees that will be exposed due to the behaviour of the students. For K-12, it's a lot harder question. Those parents and schools with more means can do remote learning. It will be sub-par, but at a minimum it mostly avoids going backwards. For poorer students and communities, it's in person or nothing in a lot of cases. As one teacher pointed out, NYC lost 100 teachers to the coronavirus. It's a serious risk to staff. All the choices have substantial negatives. If we were a functioning society we would be focussed on how to make this work instead of dumping the problems on the local schools with no support. Just a simple example, to reduce exposure on buses, there will be limit of 11 students a run. How do you get all the kids to school on time with such small runs? Who pays for all the extra driver time, fuel, buses wear and tear? Do you need an extra monitor on the bus to be sure the rules are followed? These are the problems just to get them to school! The general atmosphere was one of despair at the question.

First, there's an ancillary issue:

“I want the best education possible, and I really don't think that I can get that online. I can't get that from a screen.”

Faced with online classes and altered campus life, students are questioning if college is still worth what they're paying. https://t.co/eaMCIuV9Kj

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) July 6, 2020

I haven't seen enrollment numbers for my school yet.  I have two fall classes scheduled with no one enrolled for them yet, but that's not unusual for July.  Even though enrollment for fall starts in March, it's common not to see much enrollment until August.  Still, I wonder how many of our students can afford tuition, meager though it is.  Most of them would be in the categories unemployed right now.

Second, as the comments above indicate, it's a patchwork quilt of responses.  Even in Texas, the two largest state universities are going their own ways.  Texas A&M will put 50% of their classes on-line, UT Austin will put on 33% of theirs on-line.  I did graduage work at UT-Austin, I'm trying to imagine doing that "virtually."  Kinda hard to envision.  But doing it in the classroom, around a big table?  Thanks, no thanks.

And this is exactly right:  "I think this all collapses when the first student ends up in the ICU and parents are frantically pulling their children back home."  Some of the wealthiest schools, as mentioned above, shut down abruptly last spring.  Do they think the situation is better now, or everyone can maintain a 6 foot safe zone at all times under all circumstances?  Besides:

The W.H.O. is resisting mounting evidence of what many scientists have said for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, and can infect people. https://t.co/ODA3B12er3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 6, 2020

Yeah, I don't want to be in a classroom as a student OR a teacher.

Which brings us to public schools:  I've read anecdotal evidence of teachers retiring early rather than risk their health.  I sympathize.

It's a serious risk to staff. All the choices have substantial negatives. If we were a functioning society we would be focussed on how to make this work instead of dumping the problems on the local schools with no support. Just a simple example, to reduce exposure on buses, there will be limit of 11 students a run. How do you get all the kids to school on time with such small runs? Who pays for all the extra driver time, fuel, buses wear and tear? Do you need an extra monitor on the bus to be sure the rules are followed? These are the problems just to get them to school! The general atmosphere was one of despair at the question.

We've been dumping problems on local schools without support for decades.  Texas imposed new test requirements on schools, which meant personnel to receive the testing materials, make sure they were properly distributed and handled, make sure they were returned, and make sure they were forwarded to the proper facilities for assessment.  What, you think those tests walk themselves into the classroom, collet themselves, grade themselves, and report the grades?  This is why people complain that schools have "too many administrators."  The Lovely Wife works in school admin, don't get me started.  And now Texas, in its wisdom, has cut property taxes, which means schools have to cut property tax rates, and Texas also, in its wisdom, allocates state fund based on class attendance.  You can work that one out for yourselves.  Shit is hurtling into the fan.  Cows are coming home by the millions.  Chickens are coming home to roost from all over, and we don't have a henhouse large enough. Hell, we barely have a henhouse at all.

I've got a big picture of reducing students on the busses to 11 per run.  By the time you've delivered all the kids, you're taking them back home, and it's midnight.  I'm dead serious.  And how many adults do you put on the bus to be sure they keep their distance from each other?  Yeah, that idea is worthless.

And Trump wants schools to start "in the fall!"  Schools in Texas start as early as mid-August.  It's just over a month away now.  School administrators across Texas (all I can speak for) have been working on these problems since March.  If the school superintendent of our school district could work 24/7, she still wouldn't get all the issues ironed out in time.  And what will Trump add to the conversation?  A tweet?  A demand he can't possibly enforce and isn't empowered to request anyway?  A temper tantrum?  The man is so out of his depth he honestly thinks he's saved lives in the coronavirus crisis.  He should be in a rubber room, not pretending to be the POTUS.

And there's always the fndamental issue to the economy:  no school, nobody goes back to work.  Or they do, and we have to prosecute for child neglect and child endangerment.

All the problems of our society stand exposed to the world now.  Funny, I was watching "Grantchester" on PBS Sunday night.  It opened with an Oxford student running naked through the town screaming that the "aliens" were coming.  Turned out he'd been overdosed with LSD.  But that metaphor sticks with me.  I think to the world now America is the naked guy running through the streets screaming that the aliens are coming.  Our shortcomings are fully exposed, we're running in a blind panic, we don't really know what we're afraid of, and we have no clue how to cope with it.

Or maybe that's just Trump, and the rest of us aren't quite that hopeless.