Parents of Brooklyn’s public elementary school, where I took my 6-year old daughter from this fall, were informed Sunday evening at 6:40. email that Monday’s classes—the first after winter break—would not be taking place in person after all.
P.S. 58 Principal Katie Dello Stritto wrote. This closure has been made possible by many factors. Many of our employees have either tested positive for Covid or are currently awaiting results. Additionally, many staff members have been home caring for Covid-positive relatives. The rest of the staff will not report to school tomorrow.
The last sentence was particularly important to parents because it suggested what might have been. It is really going on here—the teachers, like many throughout the country, staged a January 3 sick-out. They emailed their parents, “We demand the city and our union stop the spread of the disease,” they wrote.
UPDATE: Teachers apparently emailed parents their list of demands for the city & union to “stop the spread,” including:
* testing-to-return for all students & staff
* universal weekly testing
* “Real ventiliation fixes”
* “Short-term transition to remote learning when needed”— Matt Welch (@MattWelch) January 3, 2022
What is the omicron version? There are reasonsJacob Sullum describes an “explosion” of COVID-19-related cases. These, even though they are relatively mild in their individual impacts, can put tremendous strain on systems that have large groups of people, including some who were not vaccinated, in the same area. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while teachers are required in many areas to get vaccinated and have had the vaccine available for over a year, just 15% of children between 5 and 11 years old were fully vaccinated. The good news here is that children under 5 years old are still relatively immune to COVID disease, just as healthy adults with a vaccine.
As schools face labor shortages and COVID testing capacities remain inadequate due to government missteps the omicron spike presents a serious logistical challenge that should be respected. So far, it’s public schools in Democratic states and cities that—as has been true throughout the pandemic—have been unable to meet the challenge of staying open here in Month 22.
Schools are not open this week in Detroit; Milwaukee; Cleveland; West Chicago; Illinois; Prince George’s County; Maryland; approximately one-third New Jersey (Newark Camden, Camden Jersey City North Bergen City Union City and others). On Tuesday, the Chicago Teachers Union will vote on striking and could be voting as early as Wednesday. Overall, closures on Monday smashed through previous records for the 2021–22 school year:
Some cases of shutdowns are happening despite repeated appeals by Democratic elected officials, appointees and members of the Democratic Party including President Joe Biden or Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to stay-the hell-open. Cardona stated on Fox News Sunday that the goal was full-time in-person learning for students. pointing toFor K-12 COVID relief, the Federal Government has allocated $130 Billion. They’ve had enough.
Lori Lightfoot of Chicago made similar remarks Monday. “What we have learned from this pandemic is that schools are the safest place for students to be: we have spent over $100 million to put mitigations in place, most…staff members are vaccinated, and we generally see little transmission in school settings,” Lightfoot said in a statement. We should be focusing on keeping children safe in schools where they can thrive and learn.
All the talk about opening American schools is not enough to alter the fact that American school governance is localized and heavily influenced by teachers unions in Democratic Party strongholds. Although the Biden administration might be tough on the issue, $130 billion has already been spent. If fully-vaccinated teachers are afraid of entering schools with students who have not received their vaccines, some systems also have shallow pools of substitute teachers.
Randi Weingarten is President of American Federation of Teachers. In between proving her fake credentials as champion of reopening and/or casually hinting at that, Republicans are latent fascistsShe has continued to make her “normal” appearances.everyone wants schools open in person…but” statements, “closely monitoring“The situation in New York City where AFT-affiliated Union tried but failed to convince Eric Adams, the new mayor to postpone the return to school.
Adams was emphaticMonday’s protest against the union resistance was a joint effort. In a speech outside an elementary school in Bronx, the mayor declared that “the safest place is a building for our children” and “we are going to keep all our schools open.” Adams stated that physical school closings and hybrid scheduling from March 2020 through June 2021 “traumatized parents who did not have childcare.” Remote learning was terrible for those in poverty. Conclusion: We are not trying to send a confusing message about what’s going to be happening every day. What’s happening every day? I will tell you. “We are keeping our eyes open.”
The mayor was so firm in his rebuke, that the principal of our local elementary school was immediately brought under control. Dello Stritto wrote to parents Monday evening, thanking them for their continued support. I am writing to let you know that the school will be open on Monday and available to all students. To support our students, we will have full staff including substitute teachers and staff from central.
New York City is the country’s largest school district. Adams, a Democrat who has been openly critical of big-city progressivism and New York City as a whole, will have many people watching to see if he can control unions and keep schools open. It is The New York PostNate Silver loves him. wildly premature predictionsHowever, he is not likely to run for president. One of his three NYC high school students did not report Monday and New York City remains at the epicenter or close to the epicenter.
There are still 3,000 public school districts that are closed in the five boroughs, but private schools like the one our son attended remain open. Los Angeles’ teachers union is particularly strong and Los Angeles will vote Tuesday in Chicago. This will make it a crucial moment.
It is not difficult to keep a large, crowded building functioning during an epidemic. But, especially with the surprising November win by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, there’s a question that millions of parents have: Will Democrats be able to keep schools open?