Public and private schools in nine New York City hotspot ZIP codes, all in Brooklyn and Queens, will switch to all-remote learning Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday, taking a more immediate approach to curb the city's biggest virus problem in months than the one its mayor had proposed a day earlier.
While the governor did not move to reimpose restrictions on nonessential businesses and indoor dining as Mayor Bill de Blasio had proposed, the mayor said Monday, after Cuomo's briefing, that the city would move ahead with that as planned Wednesday morning unless the state says otherwise. It's not clear if he also planned to still suspend indoor dining in 12 watchlist ZIP codes, also in Brooklyn and Queens, that have yet to hit a certain seven-day positivity threshold.
I thought it was "follow the science." What science says that people in restaurants and the like are a lower rusk group than children in schools? And again, the parents with the fewest resources are gonna eat shit, once again.
And that’s exactly what happened last week, when Hizzoner asked the state to close schools, both public and private, in ZIP codes with slightly elevated COVID-19 positive rates, starting Wednesday. Cuomo, who takes a sadist’s pleasure in putting the mayor in his place, responded by ordering schools closed Tuesday.
Cuomo also introduced a very complicated color-coding system for neighborhood closures that mostly aligned with the mayor’s ZIP codes. Schools in the red and orange zones would be closed for 14 days, while the yellows could remain open if they hadn’t been closed earlier. Or something. It’s all insanely convoluted.
It does seem like Cuomo gets off by smacking down de Blasio, whenever he's given a chance to do so.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday his children have returned to in-person learning under a "phased-in approach" as many schools across the state remain shuttered due to Covid-19 — including nearly all public schools in Sacramento County where the governor lives.
[snip]
The Newsom children's return to school reinforces concerns from lawmakers that families who can afford private schools have a jumpstart, further widening the achievement gap. CTA this summer criticized the governor for allowing private schools to seek waivers to reopen — which nearly all private schools did.
The admission that his own children are back in classrooms could ramp up pressure on Newsom to do more to reopen schools. As each day goes by with low-income public school children struggling with distance learning, expect Newsom's personal situation to become a high-profile example of the educational inequities during coronavirus.
I find it strange that Democrats are the party that harp about income equality the most but seem so eager to flaunt it.
Newsome's kids in school. Pelosi's dual $20k freezers stuffed with gourmet ice cream while she refuses to sign stimulus that would aid millions. Lori Lightfoot using police to ban protestors from her block. Maxine Waters mansion OUTSIDE the district she represents. The list just goes on and on.
A report from Ofsted, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills, says some kids have fallen back in basic skills – and some who were greatly impacted have even forgotten how to use a fork and knife.
Ofsted made visits to 900 schools and early childcare providers in September and October, according to a press release from the U.K. government department. It found there are three "broad groups" of children, according to chief inspector, Amanda Spielman.
One is the "hardest hit" group of young kids. This group has suffered from time out of school and has gone backwards on words and numbers. This group has also reverted to diapers after being potty-trained or lost "basic skills" such as using a knife and fork.
The majority of children are in the middle group and "have slipped back in their learning to varying degrees since schools were closed to most children and movement restricted." According to Spielman, the "lost learning is unarguable, but it is hard to assess."
A third group is comprised of children who had positive experiences during schools closures. These kids aren't necessarily from well-off backgrounds, but do have supportive families. They might have benefited from more quality time with their families and felt a sense of togetherness with their parents.
In a bruising setback to the city’s recovery, the country’s largest school system will shut down in-person learning temporarily Thursday as the city hit a 7-day, 3 percent positivity rate for the coronavirus — a level of infection not seen for months in a city that was once the national epicenter of the pandemic.
[snip]
Restaurants and in-person retail remain open under state-mandated restrictions.
This is going over like a lead balloon among parents, I'm told.
Fyi, my daughter is still going to school here in Miami. Every once and a while, I'll get a call from the school telling me that they had a reported case, have notified any children or teachers who were in close proximity to the infected child, and have re-sanitized the school over night. I honestly don't know if this approach is ideal or even effective, but there's been very little complaining and the kids are enjoying school (and learning), though there is still a remote option available for those who want it.
Things turned tense when Cuomo was pressed by a reporter about news that the New York City public school system – the largest in the US – would likely close on Thursday due to rising infections.
Cuomo, who seemed unaware of the news, berated the reporter, who asked him to clarify whether or not New York parents should expect to send their kids to class on Thursday. “Let’s try not to be obnoxious and offensive in your tone,” he told the Wall Street Journal reporter Jimmy Vielkind.
Covid-19 cases are spiking across the US, with deaths surpassing a quarter-million on Wednesday and hospitals throughout the country once again overwhelmed by patients.
Cuomo declined to clarify whether the state would override city orders shutting down classrooms, and when the New York Times’ Jesse McKinley, who followed up, said “I think Jimmy’s correct in asking that question. I don’t think it’s obnoxious at all,” Cuomo retorted: “Well, I don’t really care what you think.”
Also, this is hysterical:
Cuomo really DOES sound like Al Pacino doing Cuomo!
But the well-placed source said that behind the scenes, the mayor’s top health advisors have been advising him for weeks that the threshold the city is using is flawed and could unnecessarily sideline students.
“Senior city health officials have expressed to the mayor and his administration their disagreement and concern with using the 3% threshold to close schools in the city, given that schools themselves are not at 3% and that transmission in schools is not as big a concern as it is in other settings like bars and restaurants,” the source said.
So, there's a Cato guy I follow--Corey DeAngelis--on twitter. He's big on school choice, on limiting federal involvement in education, and he has a lot of exchanges with people, since he tends to actually debate points and not fling insults. He was involved with the Chicago Teacher's Union when the latter tossed out a tweet it has since deleted. Luckily, there are many copies:
So hysterically uninformed, but then teachers' unions ceased being about the kids a long time ago. If there's any policy that's racist, it's that of keeping schools shuttered for the benefit of teachers (who are still getting paid), even as other businesses are allowed to open, because the people most hurt by such a policy are lower income students and in inner cities, that means minority students.
Faced with lawsuits because of lack of reliable internet access in homeless shelters, de Blasio goes on and on about how he's working to "redistribute wealth" via the school system:
'I like to say very bluntly our mission is to redistribute wealth,' de Blasio declared. 'A lot of people bristle at that phrase and that is in fact the phrase we need to use.'
He continued: We have been doing this work for seven years to more equitably redistribute resources throughout our school system.
'That means Pre-K for all, 3-K for all, advanced placement courses in every high school, including those that never had a single one. It means changing school funding formulas.'
'There are so many things that we have tried to do to profoundly rebalance the equation. Community schools, focusing on schools that need the most in communities that have not been invested in.'
De Blasio stressed that his efforts were aimed at 'closing the COVID achievement gap' for under resourced students, coming from predominantly 'Black communities, Latino communities and Asian communities.'
'It is time to start using every tool at our disposal to address inequality and improve the education of all children,' he stated.
His remarks come just weeks after homeless families and legal advocates sued New York City on Tuesday, claiming a gap in reliable Internet service to 27 homeless shelters where thousands of students were struggling with remote schooling during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court a month after Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wi-Fi would be installed in all shelters with school-aged children.
It is a staggering display of self-importance and utter ignorance, imo.
I'm not a New Yorker (obviously), but I can't remember a worse mayor in recent memory than de Blasio. He's a complete failure on pretty much every level.
The school board member actually frames the issue as a choice between having an educated child and having a dead child. And wrongly claims that proponents of opening schools thing all CDC info is "bunk."
At this point in time, I think it's fair to say that teachers' unions and various school boards throughout the country who are successfully preventing in-person learning for elementary schools are absolutely fucking over a generation of middle to low income kids. They won't be held back for a year, because that would overwhelm classrooms. So they'll be pushed along, allowed to go to the next grade, where many will struggle mightily and likely struggle for the rest of their years in school.
Chicago Public School teachers and staff were set to return to in-person learning Monday, but over the weekend, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to continue remote learning.
The Chicago Teachers Union members voted Sunday to authorize all rank-and-file educators in Chicago Public Schools to conduct remote work only.
With 86% voter participation, 71% voted in favor of continued remote work starting Monday, Jan. 25, according to a CTU statement. This is also the first day the Board of Education requires educators in kindergarten through 8th grade to appear in person.
If you read through the article, it does actually make the point that minority students--really, it's lower incomer students--are getting the shaft because of this, as they are falling behind students with more resources. But that point is being consistently undersold in the media and among the political class, because they don't want to disagree with the teachers' unions, because they want to hold on to the narrative that teachers are heroes as a matter of course.