The dems are following the science, man. Cmon. I am pretty sure that everyone down at the chicago school union is wearing a lab coat these days. Yeh, science. Don't leave home without it.
I live in Mass and there have been no Covid breakouts in my kids’ school. They essentially went remote The Whole month of December but didn’t go remote after February break. Some classes go remote if a student in that class tests positive but there have only been a handful of those in the district. Whatever they are doing has been working and I think they can continue to bring back more kids for fulltime in person.
Many school systems in North Carolina recently re-opened for in-person learning using a hybrid model. Most were closed down in early December when COVID overwhelmed schools to the extent that they could not find any substitute staff for the over 20% of teachers & staff who were out with COVID in many districts. Over the past couple of weeks many school districts re-opened elementary schools first then proceeded to middle and high schools. In some districts high schools were opened for the first time. The school systems learned a harsh lesson last December -- most were opened only 6 weeks or so (since late October) before having to close down. Now they are only opening if community spread is low -- meaning that the positive COVID test result rate is below 5% for the county (the county is orange or below in color code). This aligns with European and WHO standards. Fortunately most counties in North Carolina are currently yellow or orange rather than red. Most schools in North Carolina are on a hybrid model ("Plan B") - where only 1/3 or 1/2 of students are in-school each day while the others are remote that day. The other helpful measure was that since February 24th teachers were moved to the front of the line for vaccinations in North Carolina. Many districts held mass vaccination events last week and over the weekend for educators. This has made teachers feel more comfortable with going back to the classroom - even though their second dose is 3 or 4 weeks away. The Republicans in the state legislature recently passed a bill requiring that 100% of students be back in the classroom immediately. The Republican bill basically would force all schools to totally ignore all CDC guidelines about when schools should be opened and force every student (including ones whose parents want them virtual) back into the classroom. Fortunately the Governor vetoed the bill and the legislature does not appear to have the necessary votes to override.
mass was a lot more rational. Virtually everyone is hybrid except 2nd graders and younger who need the touch support as they learn to read, etc. While there was an uptick in infections in December, it was nowhere near 20percent in our district - I think 4 staff tested positive and they were at the district office. Our governor stated in December that schools were not superspreaders and from what I see, he’s right. But this is mass where everyone wears masks and social distances and there are few Covid deniers (and I live in the trump part of the state)
Massachusetts and the states in the Northeast got hit a lot earlier than North Carolina. Most likely your community spread rate was low (under 5% positive test rate) when you went back in the fall. At that time when North Carolina attempted to put kids in school in a hybrid model in October the community spread rate was rapidly rising and above 8% positive test rate in most counties. By December the community spread rate was above 10% everywhere and schools could not find available staff. Even if there is minimal spread within a school (which only seems to be true for elementary schools and not high schools) -- if a large portion of the staff are getting COVID (or their family members) either in the school or out in the community then you will not be able to staff the schools (especially when no subs step forward even when you raise the daily pay from $65 to $250). North Carolina has the approach of of working to open Pre-K to Grate 3 first. These children are the ones where in-person learning is most critical for their success. I applaud this approach of focusing on getting these younger students in school first -- especially since they are less likely to spread COVID due to the smaller viral load found in young children.
South LA parents say minorities want schools to reopen, disagree with UTLA president's remarks LOS ANGELES - Some of the Black parents in South Los Angeles are outraged after the UTLA President said earlier this week that white, wealthy parents are behind much of the pressure to reopen schools in LA. Some of the parents that FOX 11 spoke with explained that UTLA doesn't speak for them and now, they plan to hold a rally this weekend to call for their kids to return to in-person schooling. "No one can speak for us better than us," said Renee Bailey, a South LA mom. Bailey wants both of her kids back to the classrooms at LAUSD schools. She has a 5-year-old and a 14-year-old son with an intellectual disability. "He has the intellect of a three or four years old," Bailey explained. "He needs schools for the therapies. The fact that he's going on two years without his therapies, my son has regressed." Bailey says she was outraged when she heard UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz say on Monday that rich, white people are the ones pushing for schools to reopen and that Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal to give grant money to schools that reopen faster is racist. "If you condition funding on reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools that do not have the transmission rates that low-income black and brown communities do. This is a recipe for propagating structural racism," Myart-Cruz said Monday. Bailey called Myart-Cruz's remarks "horrible." "Especially from a leader," Bailey said. "Because that is a very generalized and almost racist comment in itself. As a culture, Black and brown people don’t want to be generalized. We don’t want to be stereotyped and to say reopening schools is structural racism, that’s wrong." A South LA youth football coach told FOX 11 that Myart-Cruz's remarks sounded more like "excuses." Lamar Freeman coaches the LA Rampage. He says all the parents he talks to want their kids back in class. "Our parents are dramatically upset that their kids are not in school, they want their kids in school. They want face-to-face learning," Freeman said. "They’re kids, they need some kind of structure." "You’re noticing a tangible impact on these kids that you coach?" asked FOX 11's Bill Melugin. "Huge impact," Freeman responded. "Most of my kids, before the pandemic, had 80% honor roll rate. Now, since the distance learning, it has dropped down to 20%. Most of my A and B kids are getting Ds and Cs, some Fs. They struggle because most of [their] parents are single parents, so they have to work in the morning. There’s no one to supervise their kid to make sure they’re signing on Zoom." We asked UTLA for a response to the frustration from Black parents about the comments made by the union president. A UTLA representative told FOX 11 that Pew Research polling mirrors the statements made by Myart-Cruz. "I think what we want them to know is that we have a voice and we should have a seat at the table if someone is going to choose to speak for us. Because we all have the ability to speak for ourselves," Bailey said. Bailey adds, at the end of the day, it's the poor, minority communities that end up suffering the most from shuttered schools. "It’s almost like minority families want the schools to reopen more than anyone else, and the reason why I say that is education, for us, our culture, is a stairway out of poverty, so every day that our kids aren’t in school, that’s just a day closer to poverty for them," Bailey said. "Whoever is in charge... let's get these kids back in school!" Freeman said. The parents' rally for reopening schools will be held on Saturday, March 13 at Ted Watkins Park at 11 a.m. Below is a copy of the flyer:
The head of the UTLA sounded like a compelte ass..I saw her interview (snippets) and what a stupid thing to say......this is an example of a union with their head so far up their ass
Completely agree. This is why I continue to say it is all about the union. It is not all about the union - everywhere. But where opening is a contention, it is almost exclusively a union issue.
At this late stage of the year, if a child has not had in person school or a hybrid... what is the point? A part time, hybrid model which is suggested (with no actual date being set yet) ... will likely be more disruptive than useful for actual learning. In my opinion with respect to California... Newsom has failed, the Democrats who run CA have failed and the teachers who support their Union have failed our children massively. On top of that our "non-data driven Covid" response with the shutdowns and lockdowns have also failed as a whole.