News

Good News: Biden Says Schools ‘Must’ Stay Open. Bad News: Many Won’t.

The words and actions of President Joe Biden in his Tuesday afternoon big omicron talk and barky minipress conference will seem almost soothing for those of you who have been advocating, since the summer 2020, to keep public K-12 schools in operation, given the “low risk of severe outcomes for kids from coronavirus infected is high, and the risks that kids are out of school” (a quote by Joseph G. Allen of Harvard Health). New York Times.

Biden stated at six minutes into his speech that we know “a lot more” today than back in March 2020.

Last year, for example, we felt that the only way you could keep your children safe and secure was to shut down our schools. We know more today and have the resources to maintain those schools open. You can now get vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11. This is a new tool that we haven’t had until recently. We don’t need to close schools due to COVID-19 today. Students can now take the COVID-19 test if they have a positive result. If not, the school will close and quarantine them. Our K-12 schools can be kept open and that is exactly what should we do.

So far so good. Around minute 20, the president expanded upon this point.

“The science is simple and overwhelming. COVID-19 is a serious threat to schoolchildren. We have the answers. Schools in grades K-12 should have this policy. Open. This safety can be increased if the school requires that all teachers and staff are vaccinated. [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]He has suggested, even masking. I got Congress to pass billions of dollars in school improvements—ventilation and social distancing. With COVID-19, school should be more secure than ever. And just Friday, the CDC issued test-to-stay guidelines….COVID-19 is scary, but the science is clear: Children are as safe in school as they are anyplace, assuming the appropriate precautions have been taken. They’ve been already funded.

However, despite the $197 billion in federal COVID funding and more over 21 months, a growing number of K-12 public schools are closing. At most, in small spurts. Why? Why?

The reality is, however, that the rapid rise in positive cases, particularly throughout the Northeastern and Midwest, puts strain on schools that have not yet found a way of converting money into emergency staffing and student testing.

Burbio, a school-tracking website, provides an extensive weekly analysis of trends in school closings. This weekend’s report shows that there has been an increase in disruptions starting in December 20th and continuing into January. Details:

From December 20th to January 14th, the virtual school district of Prince George’s County in Maryland, which has over 200 schools will remain open. According to the release, educators, administrators and supporting staff will need to be capable of delivering in-person instruction in conditions that promote their personal health as well as the welfare of the school communities.

Virtual learning will take place in Hamtramck’s public schools for one week after New Years. The Superintendent writes, “Out of an abundance, we’re implementing the week of virtual learning after the break’s ending.”

Dover Middle School in Pennsylvania switched to virtual learning on December 17, 2017. The note states that the Dover Area Middle School, PA, has switched to virtual learning after consulting with an Epidemiologist at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. This was due to a dramatic increase in COVID-19 and subsequent quarantining.

At my eighth-grader’s school here in omicron-surging Brooklyn, the last few days before Christmas break have been a confusing mess—a classmate/friend found out late Thursday she’d tested positive; a whole bunch of kids (including ours) stayed home Friday to take tests; those PCR screens during this crazy testing surge took forever to come back (ours arrived…Tuesday afternoon!Students and teachers have struggled to communicate with each other, communications have been poor, and on Tuesday, we were sent this note.

There have been increases in staff and student cases. The greatest effect has been felt by adults. We want you to know that all classes are covered by school staff, but we must also be honest and say that there is an increase in the number of affected staff by this COVID wave.”

A virus that has claimed the lives of more than 800,000. Americans is a complex logistical and psychological problem. Positive testing waves are not necessary. People should have empathy for those trying to figure it out. However, the impact of the pandemic on policies regarding school openness and policy has changed dramatically since fall 2020. This is not due to relative viral devastation, but rather political factors.

Democratic-controlled (and teachers union-influenced) states and cities have been the most closed (and most likely to include masking mandates); Republican-controlled polities have been more open and less masked. Private schools have always been opener than their government-run counterparts.

It is possible to assume that this pattern may reaffirm during the omicron spike. Blue states are more likely to have teacher and student vaccine mandates. They also tend to experience larger labor shortages. Unions use more scale. The places where Joe Biden was elected will likely be most successful, even though it sounds absurd. NotRespect the President’s dream that K-12 schools be Open.”

New YorkerJessica Winter’s Monday article gives an insight into both power dynamics and chaotic atmospheres in New York City’s public schools.

“Staffing shortages at some schools have compounded the problems faced by overtaxed teachers….[high school English teacher Alex]Driver stated that it was worsened by an agreement the United Federation of Teachers (the labor union representing most New York public school teachers) reached with the city during its negotiations for the mandate to vacate schools. The deal gave teachers who refused the vaccine up to a year to change their minds—meaning that principals can’t yet make permanent hires to replace them. ‘The U.F.T. Driver stated that the U.F.T. used its bargaining power to get anti-vaxxer educators instead of better testing and safer standards.

D.O.E. A spokesperson for D.O.E. told me there are no large staffing shortages. A second D.O.E. One spokesperson stated that the supply of teachers in the area was similar to previous school year’s. (The D.O.E. The D.O.E. didn’t respond to additional follow up questions on staff vacancies, substitute numbers. However, multiple principals and teachers told me these numbers were not in line with the reality. Jake Jacobs is an Art teacher at Bronx’s middle school. He is currently missing five special-ed educators, one science teacher, as well as one language teacher. He said that ‘we haven’t had one sub throughout the year’. The school sends in subs daily, but nobody answers. M. was the principal of Brooklyn’s middle school. He had lost two teachers in part of fall. M. said she kept a file of people who had been vetted, and were interested in joining our school’s staff, but they did not respond to her calls. M. also reported that there was no substitutes. She stated that she didn’t know where or who these substitutes were, but it’s not happening.

All of this is in line with the eighth-grade reports my daughter submitted. In fact, it’s not surprising that “M.” used to be her principal. It is difficult to run schools in the midst of a pandemic. It’s a task that public schools in big cities have managed to avoid families.

NPR last week produced a well-researched report about how the 2021–22 public school year—prior to omicron, mind you—failed to produce the enrollment bounce-back many expected after the 2020-21 COVID wipeout year. The contrary is true:

We compiled the most recent headcount data directly form more than 600 districts across 23 states and Washington, D.C., as well as statewide data for Alabama, Georgia, and Massachusetts. It was surprising that even larger districts have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels. Many are experiencing a second consecutive year of declining numbers. It is especially true for the country’s biggest systems.

New York City schools saw an enrollment drop of around 38,000 students in the last school year. Another 13,000 were added this year.

Los Angeles’ student population fell by nearly 17,000 last year and almost 9,000 in this year.

Chicago Public Schools saw a drop in enrollment of 14,000 students last year and an additional 10,000 this year.

So on.

This overlaps with the large-city population declines that occurred during the pandemic. According to the Census Bureau, the nation’s overall population declined between July 1, 2020, July 1, 2021, with Democrat-controlled California, New York and Illinois (with 367,000 and 352,000 and 122,000 respectively), while Republican Florida, Texas and Arizona saw the largest gains (221,000-170,000 and 93,000, respectively). In percentage terms, the loss-leader was D.C., also run by Democrats (-2.9 percent), followed by New York (-1.6 percent) and Illinois (-0.9 percent); the top gainers were, again, Republican-controlled: Idaho (+2.9 percent), Utah (+1.7 percent) and Montana (+1.7 percent).

These trends are exacerbated by a variety of factors. But I have been hypothesizing since April that many families would physically uproot from heavily closed big-city school districts between the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years, because “this spring is the first time millions of parents will have truly been able to make a premeditated, non-panicky decision about the best schooling options for their kids.”

New York PostKarol Markowicz is a Brooklyn-raised columnist who self-describes herself as a “New York supremacist”. She shared her feelings with children in the school district and announced that she had decided to leave New York for Florida earlier this month. “They took away my school during the pandemic. Not enough New Yorkers cared.”

Markowicz explained to Nancy Rommelmann, on December 16th with the omicron bearing on the city: “I cannot answer definitively they will not close schools.” [in New York], right? But in Florida, if you asked me tomorrow—Florida has a massive outbreak, are they closing schools? They aren’t closing any schools, I can assure you. This goes a long ways.” Markowicz, the subject of an imminently coming article. Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie podcast interview.)

Allen, in his New York TimesOpinion-editorial, which emphasizes “remarkably consistent”, weekly COVID hospitalization rates for school-age kids of one in 100 throughout all stages of the pandemic.

He writes, “We’re coming up to two years of disruption in school.” For those in second grade, this is their only experience of school. They have been taught to read behind masks and plexiglass, and they don’t see any teachers. This is completely unacceptable, unsafe and fear-based. These measures may be tempting for some districts due to the Omicron surge, but that is not the right thing.

Biden is credited for making clear statements supporting keeping schools open. Will his voters be listening?