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1) This is actually not true. A lot of school systems have been working on how to proceed.
2) The problem is that there's politics involved. Families who want things that aren't possible.
3) Especially when a pandemic is raging and the federal government isn't handling anything. https://twitter.com/NedStanley/status/1280130699878469633
2) The problem is that there's politics involved. Families who want things that aren't possible.
3) Especially when a pandemic is raging and the federal government isn't handling anything. https://twitter.com/NedStanley/status/1280130699878469633
The reality is that the data is inconclusive on whether or not kids are infected at lower or higher levels. Primarily because we haven't done enough testing. There's also the fact that kids are vectors and schools are labor intensive. @NedStanley
A third of all teachers in the U.S. are over 50 and at high risk of infection and death. Even the younger teachers could easily get sick and die from a highly communicable disease. That's before we talk about school staff, many of whom are Black and Latino. @NedStanley
They folks may have slightly better insurance than many parents. But they face the same issues of medical apartheid that all Black and Brown folks face. So yeah, problems.
Districts and charters can buy PPE on their own. But that's expensive and not always available. @NedStanley
Districts and charters can buy PPE on their own. But that's expensive and not always available. @NedStanley
Acquiring such PPE isn't necessary a priority of states. Massachusetts, for example, didn't even centralize PPE acquisition in its proposed reopening plan (which also ignores such issues as transportation, which is the weak link in this entire thing). @NedStanley
In places such as DC and New York City, kids get to school on public transportation. Subway and bus systems are particular hot spots in spreading COVID. In the suburbs, there's the matter of low income families who may not be able to get to school. Because buses. @NedStanley
Even if we address those hurdles, there's still the reality that the very things that make in-person learning work are the things that will be upended because of masks and social distancing. A point @ConorPWilliams and I have made over the last week. @NedStanley
Even if all of those hurdles are overcome, school systems have one issue they cannot address: Dealing with the pandemic. That's beyond schools and, to be honest, beyond states. That's a federal job and last I checked, the Trump regime is doing nothing. @NedStanley
No expansion of testing. No promotion of masks and mitigation. No assisting states with testing and tracing. No assistance to districts and charters on virtual learning systems. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
This is a national disaster. National help is needed. @NedStanley
This is a national disaster. National help is needed. @NedStanley
There are many reform folks and others who get this. Yet at the same time, there are others who don't realize that 'can-do' spirit is meaningless in a situation that requires the work of the very federal government to which we pay taxes and whose leaders we elect. @NedStanley
School systems have to do their best and do better. But let's not ever forget that this is not their fault. They are literally planning for a new school year and feeding kids who are starving and dealing with governments who are absent without leave. @NedStanley
At a certain point, reform folks need to stop the usual blame schools things and look to Washington. And do something more. How about them apples, as the Bostonians say? @NedStanley
And this as well. Until we get the pandemic under control - which will require federal action - schools are only going to operate virtually, and will struggle to even do that. https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1280133950405517312
