School-Opening Extortion

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Smoove_B
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Smoove_B »

All that stuff is great and what other countries are doing is impressive. However the single fact remains here in 'Merica -- if your community/state is experiencing community spread, opening schools is madness. If it's under control and not spreading, it can likely be done with risk-managements strategies. But given this virus spread is so varied by state and sometimes by county, trying to come up with a unified plan or guidance is madness. We're pretty much all tribal now, fighting for our individual survival. It's beyond depressing.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Uruguay: A+ for safety
Analysts credit Uruguay’s well-organized and efficient public health system and Uruguyans’ strong faith in government for its success stopping the coronavirus. The progressive South American country of 3.4 million has the region’s lowest rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths, and it never shut down its economy entirely.

Uruguay was one of the Western Hemisphere’s first countries to send its students back to school, using a staged approach.

In late April, Uruguay reopened schools in rural areas, where the student population is small. In early June, it brought vulnerable student groups, which were struggling to access online learning, and high school seniors back into classrooms. Then all students in non-urban areas went back to classrooms.

Finally, on June 29, 256,000 students in the capital of Montevideo returned to school. An alternating schedule of in-person and virtual instruction reduces the number of students in classrooms at one time.

Uruguay is notable for residents’ consistent and early adoption of measures like social distancing and masks. Its successful pandemic response comes despite its proximity to hard-hit Brazil, where schools remain closed.
Hmmm... I'd like to know about Uruguay's top to bottom handling.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Fortunately my daughter has determined to go with home schooling for my 2 grandkids ~kindergarten age. One factor she stated which I hadn't considered is that she didn't like the idea of her kids experiencing a mask-wearing socially distanced environment with fear of interacting with other children.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Jaymann wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:46 pm One factor she stated which I hadn't considered is that she didn't like the idea of her kids experiencing a mask-wearing socially distanced environment with fear of interacting with other children.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm I am not in favor of opening schools just for the sake of doing so or for political optics. Two of my sisters are school teachers, one in NJ the other in Staten Island so I have a personal stake in wanting to see teachers and students remain safe. Having said that, I am a little confused by a couple of lines from the original post;

• Support for our communities and families, including canceling rents and mortgages, a moratorium on evictions/foreclosures, providing direct cash assistance to those not able to work or who are unemployed, and other critical social needs

While I applaud the altruistic and communal sentiment how does canceling rent, mortgages, evictions and foreclosures or providing direct cash assistance (not even sure how that would work) ensure student and worker safety within the school?
I'm not privy to Unions politics but from a teacher perspective. The mad rush to reopen schools is largely an economic one. Particularly, think of the poor kids. If you alleviate the financial stress of the community, you mitigate the mad rush back to school.
Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm• Moratorium on new charter or voucher programs and standardized testing

Similar question, what does standardized testing have to do with COVID?
Lots of funding, evaluations and jobs are tied to testing. Politicians are notorious for creating roadblacks to testing success, then pointing at teachers and saying "look they suck!" Like cutting funding when schools do poorly on testing during covid.
Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm• Massive infusion of federal money to support the reopening funded by taxing billionaires and Wall Street”

Lastly, again I am all for an infusion of federal money in to the school systems, something that has been needed long before COVID but are they seriously demanding a special taxation on the wealthy to facilitate this?

Reading through the article I agree with many of the sentiments but it feels like they (the teachers union) are shooting themselves in the foot with some of the demands. Unless I am missing something which is more than possible.
This one's a little more straight liberal talking point. It's them saying if you funded infrastructure with a percentage off people who can afford it you might have infrastructure that works and is more resilient to emergencies.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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The comments on Spires article are on point. If we had universal testing/contact-tracing and all of us had access to N95 masks we would be in a totally different world right now. But no, my wife and I invest a fair amount of money in difficult to source DIY materials to make inferior masks to what costs fifty cents to make an N95 mask. In the WW II museum in NOLA there is an amazing exhibit (the Arsenal of Democracy) about how quickly we ramped up production for the war and it likely was the key factor for our victory. We have the ability as a nation to make it a priority to do rapid testing, tracing and provide N95 masks to all over the course of a year and sadly we don't appear to have the fortitude to do what we did for WW II this time for COVID. Women were donating their stockings for the war effort, in the current environment we can't even get people to wear their damn masks. I am not optimistic about fall/winter at all.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Enough wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:57 pm The comments on Spires article are on point. If we had universal testing/contact-tracing and all of us had access to N95 masks we would be in a totally different world right now. But no, my wife and I invest a fair amount of money in difficult to source DIY materials to make inferior masks to what costs fifty cents to make an N95 mask. In the WW II museum in NOLA there is an amazing exhibit (the Arsenal of Democracy) about how quickly we ramped up production for the war and it likely was the key factor for our victory. We have the ability as a nation to make it a priority to do rapid testing, tracing and provide N95 masks to all over the course of a year and sadly we don't appear to have the fortitude to do what we did for WW II this time for COVID. Women were donating their stockings for the war effort, in the current environment we can't even get people to wear their damn masks. I am not optimistic about fall/winter at all.
N95s are not really a broad based solution. Before we use them at work, we have to be fit tested for them to be sure they seal properly and go through a medical evaluation to be sure we can handle the added breathing strain. Additionally, they are extremely uncomfortable to be in for extended periods of time and can lead to rashes and chapping of the covered skin. Giving them to the general populace would likely not lead to the outcomes we are looking for.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Smoove_B »

Exactly! PPE is last resort strategy. After you've gone through administrative and engineering controls to reduce risk, you then consider PPE as a final way to help protect a worker because you have no other choice. And that's the thing - we do have another choice here but for various reasons, it's not being selected.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Enough »

stessier wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:17 pm
Enough wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:57 pm The comments on Spires article are on point. If we had universal testing/contact-tracing and all of us had access to N95 masks we would be in a totally different world right now. But no, my wife and I invest a fair amount of money in difficult to source DIY materials to make inferior masks to what costs fifty cents to make an N95 mask. In the WW II museum in NOLA there is an amazing exhibit (the Arsenal of Democracy) about how quickly we ramped up production for the war and it likely was the key factor for our victory. We have the ability as a nation to make it a priority to do rapid testing, tracing and provide N95 masks to all over the course of a year and sadly we don't appear to have the fortitude to do what we did for WW II this time for COVID. Women were donating their stockings for the war effort, in the current environment we can't even get people to wear their damn masks. I am not optimistic about fall/winter at all.
N95s are not really a broad based solution. Before we use them at work, we have to be fit tested for them to be sure they seal properly and go through a medical evaluation to be sure we can handle the added breathing strain. Additionally, they are extremely uncomfortable to be in for extended periods of time and can lead to rashes and chapping of the covered skin. Giving them to the general populace would likely not lead to the outcomes we are looking for.
Fair enough, but there should still be a huge supply of them by now for essential workers and it's crazy that we don't provide appropriate masks, testing and tracing for all. The Arsenal of Democracy still needs to show up.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Little Raven »

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:57 pmYou think they won't cry out for the teachers to do the same...
Well, at least one nurse expects it.
I’m a Nurse in New York. Teachers Should Do Their Jobs, Just Like I Did. - Schools are essential to the functioning of our society, and that makes teachers essential workers.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Smoove_B wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:40 pm All that stuff is great and what other countries are doing is impressive. However the single fact remains here in 'Merica -- if your community/state is experiencing community spread, opening schools is madness. If it's under control and not spreading, it can likely be done with risk-managements strategies. But given this virus spread is so varied by state and sometimes by county, trying to come up with a unified plan or guidance is madness. We're pretty much all tribal now, fighting for our individual survival. It's beyond depressing.
Indeed, that's why greater local educational choice and flexibility ought to be foremost in our approach to reopening schools. However, we also cannot focus upon the threats posed by COVID-19 to the exclusion of all else, because remote learning has thus far failed American students and the numerous adverse consequences of indefinite school closures cannot be ignored:
UNESCO.org wrote:Adverse consequences of school closures

School closures carry high social and economic costs for people across communities. Their impact however is particularly severe for the most vulnerable and marginalized boys and girls and their families. The resulting disruptions exacerbate already existing disparities within the education system but also in other aspects of their lives. These include:
  • Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools close, children and youth are deprived opportunities for growth and development. The disadvantages are disproportionate for under-privileged learners who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school.
  • Poor nutrition: Many children and youth rely on free or discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy nutrition. When schools close, nutrition is compromised.
  • Confusion and stress for teachers: When schools close, especially unexpectedly and for unknown durations, teachers are often unsure of their obligations and how to maintain connections with students to support learning. Transitions to distance learning platforms tend to be messy and frustrating, even in the best circumstances. In many contexts, school closures lead to furloughs or seperations for teachers.
  • Parents unprepared for distance and home schooling: When schools close, parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to perform this task. This is especially true for parents with limited education and resources.
  • Challenges creating, maintaining, and improving distance learning: Demand for distance learning skyrockets when schools close and often overwhelms existing portals to remote education. Moving learning from classrooms to homes at scale and in a hurry presents enormous challenges, both human and technical.
  • Gaps in childcare: In the absence of alternative options, working parents often leave children alone when schools close and this can lead to risky behaviours, including increased influence of peer pressure and substance abuse.
  • High economic costs: Working parents are more likely to miss work when schools close in order to take care of their children. This results in wage loss and tend to negatively impact productivity.
  • Unintended strain on health-care systems: Health-care workers with children cannot easily attend work because of childcare obligations that result from school closures. This means that many medical professionals are not at the facilities where they are most needed during a health crisis.
  • Increased pressure on schools and school systems that remain open: Localized school closures place burdens on schools as governments and parents alike redirect children to schools that remain open.
  • Rise in dropout rates: It is a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after closures. This is especially true of protracted closures and when economic shocks place pressure on children to work and generate income for financially distressed families.
  • Increased exposure to violence and exploitation: When schools shut down, early marriages increase, more children are recruited into militias, sexual exploitation of girls and young women rises, teenage pregnancies become more common, and child labour grows.
  • Social isolation: Schools are hubs of social activity and human interaction. When schools close, many children and youth miss out of on social contact that is essential to learning and development.
  • Challenges measuring and validating learning: Calendared assessments, notably high-stakes examinations that determine admission or advancement to new education levels and institutions, are thrown into disarry when schools close. Strategies to postpone, skip or adminsiter examinations at a distance raise serious concerns about fairness, especialy when access to learning becomes variable. Disruptions to assessments results in stress for students and their families and can trigger disengagement.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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This is really simple. If you can't keep covid-19 under control outside of schools, you don't open more disease vectors.

Anything else is bullshit.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools close, children and youth are deprived opportunities for growth and development. The disadvantages are disproportionate for under-privileged learners who tend to have fewer educational opportunities beyond school.
True, and yet when opening schools at full during community spread exacerbates the problem those schools will be more closed.
Poor nutrition: Many children and youth rely on free or discounted meals provided at schools for food and healthy nutrition. When schools close, nutrition is compromised.
True, and yet every district I'm aware of providing those meals whether the school is open or not.
Confusion and stress for teachers: When schools close, especially unexpectedly and for unknown durations, teachers are often unsure of their obligations and how to maintain connections with students to support learning. Transitions to distance learning platforms tend to be messy and frustrating, even in the best circumstances. In many contexts, school closures lead to furloughs or seperations for teachers.
nonsense. The current debate is FAR more stressfull. The furloughs suck, but no more than any other industry.
Parents unprepared for distance and home schooling: When schools close, parents are often asked to facilitate the learning of children at home and can struggle to perform this task. This is especially true for parents with limited education and resources.
Definitely sucks. Another reason why exacerbating the problem will likely make it worse not better.
Challenges creating, maintaining, and improving distance learning: Demand for distance learning skyrockets when schools close and often overwhelms existing portals to remote education. Moving learning from classrooms to homes at scale and in a hurry presents enormous challenges, both human and technical.
That's not a reason not to do it.
Gaps in childcare: In the absence of alternative options, working parents often leave children alone when schools close and this can lead to risky behaviours, including increased influence of peer pressure and substance abuse.
High economic costs: Working parents are more likely to miss work when schools close in order to take care of their children. This results in wage loss and tend to negatively impact productivity.
Yes
Unintended strain on health-care systems: Health-care workers with children cannot easily attend work because of childcare obligations that result from school closures. This means that many medical professionals are not at the facilities where they are most needed during a health crisis.
As opposed to say overwhelmed ventilators from greatly increased community spread?
Increased pressure on schools and school systems that remain open: Localized school closures place burdens on schools as governments and parents alike redirect children to schools that remain open.
As opposed to everyone else in the country?
Rise in dropout rates: It is a challenge to ensure children and youth return and stay in school when schools reopen after closures. This is especially true of protracted closures and when economic shocks place pressure on children to work and generate income for financially distressed families.
Likely true, but mom going into the hospital for a month or a sibling developing chronic respiratory issues is likely to do similar. It already does in the best of times.
Increased exposure to violence and exploitation: When schools shut down, early marriages increase, more children are recruited into militias, sexual exploitation of girls and young women rises, teenage pregnancies become more common, and child labour grows.
This is IMO the worst aspect of the situation and I have no pithy comment that downplays the severity of the problem.
Social isolation: Schools are hubs of social activity and human interaction. When schools close, many children and youth miss out of on social contact that is essential to learning and development.
Meh, everyone feels isolated and stressed. It's hardest on the most vulnerable. Which really sucks. Again, opening in the wrong way is going to result in it being even worse.
Challenges measuring and validating learning: Calendared assessments, notably high-stakes examinations that determine admission or advancement to new education levels and institutions, are thrown into disarray when schools close. Strategies to postpone, skip or adminsiter examinations at a distance raise serious concerns about fairness, especially when access to learning becomes variable. Disruptions to assessments results in stress for students and their families and can trigger disengagement.
Nonsense. Standardized testing was never really about fairness or best educational practices. I would really like to see the study suggesting not having to take a test is more stressful than the need to do well on a test.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Combustible Lemur »

noxiousdog wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:43 pm This is really simple. If you can't keep covid-19 under control outside of schools, you don't open more disease vectors.

Anything else is bullshit.
This.
I'm all about doing what is achievable with intelligent risk. My major concern is making things worse because ...PATRIOTISM!
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Little Raven wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:17 pm
I’m a Nurse in New York. Teachers Should Do Their Jobs, Just Like I Did. - Schools are essential to the functioning of our society, and that makes teachers essential workers.
Yeah, I linked it on the last page - and I didn't even see it before I wrote those comments. :D It's a really crazy piece.
Last edited by Smoove_B on Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:49 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Anonymous Bosch wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:18 pm Indeed, that's why greater local educational choice and flexibility ought to be foremost in our approach to reopening schools. However, we also cannot focus upon the threats posed by COVID-19 to the exclusion of all else, because remote learning has thus far failed American students and the numerous adverse consequences of indefinite school closures cannot be ignored:
I think that literally no one is arguing that keeping schools closed is ideal.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Enough wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:42 pm It's unfortunate that the rest of the our school opening discussions are now separate from the thread as there have been some great posts in the main COVID RP thread. In my experience, AB is one of the better posters on OO and is kind and thoughtful. However, calling teacher's using advocacy for COVID as extortion is a mighty stretch for the marketplace of ideas working as designed with what amounts to likely one of the highest at risk essential worker categories fighting for adequate workplace protections needed to provide safe instruction to millions and millions of members of our next generation of Americans.
One of my close friends is a school teacher in Texas. She has MS, so her immune system is already out of whack and she takes medicine to suppress it so it doesn't attack her more. She has been told she must report to school or lose her job. She is going back with all of the protections she can muster because she cannot afford to be jobless. But her will and finances are up to date as she and her doctor agree that being around exposed kids is extremely risky given her issues. I know opening schools is not a black and while issue and there are valid reasons both for in person and distance learning. But turning completely understandable fear of death into some sort of partisan attack on the freedoms of our country is just bullshit of the highest order.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Smoove_B »

Yeah, I mentioned it before - my SIL is a teacher deep in the heart of Trumpistan, PA. She also has Lupus (no really, it's Lupus) and was told her district is going full-day, 5 days a week in person. Not sure what she's going to do at this point.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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LordMortis wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:45 pm
Uruguay: A+ for safety
Analysts credit Uruguay’s well-organized and efficient public health system and Uruguyans’ strong faith in government for its success stopping the coronavirus. The progressive South American country of 3.4 million has the region’s lowest rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths, and it never shut down its economy entirely.

Uruguay was one of the Western Hemisphere’s first countries to send its students back to school, using a staged approach.

In late April, Uruguay reopened schools in rural areas, where the student population is small. In early June, it brought vulnerable student groups, which were struggling to access online learning, and high school seniors back into classrooms. Then all students in non-urban areas went back to classrooms.

Finally, on June 29, 256,000 students in the capital of Montevideo returned to school. An alternating schedule of in-person and virtual instruction reduces the number of students in classrooms at one time.

Uruguay is notable for residents’ consistent and early adoption of measures like social distancing and masks. Its successful pandemic response comes despite its proximity to hard-hit Brazil, where schools remain closed.
Hmmm... I'd like to know about Uruguay's top to bottom handling.
If only we had a well organized and efficient public health system, a national plan to both contain the pandemic and open schools in a rational and thoughtful way, and widespread adoption of social distancing and masks, rather than the opposite of all of those.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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gbasden wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:08 pmIf only we had a well organized and efficient public health system, a national plan to both contain the pandemic and open schools in a rational and thoughtful way, and widespread adoption of social distancing and masks, rather than the opposite of all of those.
That's the other issue, no? Not only are you rolling the dice with your health to keep your job, you're rolling the dice on going bankrupt because you got sick at your job.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Enough »

Fretmute wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:52 pm
gbasden wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 5:08 pmIf only we had a well organized and efficient public health system, a national plan to both contain the pandemic and open schools in a rational and thoughtful way, and widespread adoption of social distancing and masks, rather than the opposite of all of those.
That's the other issue, no? Not only are you rolling the dice with your health to keep your job, you're rolling the dice on going bankrupt because you got sick at your job.
And many will roll the dice on sending sick kids to school to keep said jobs.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by malchior »

Combustible Lemur wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:45 pm
noxiousdog wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:43 pm This is really simple. If you can't keep covid-19 under control outside of schools, you don't open more disease vectors.

Anything else is bullshit.
This.
I'm all about doing what is achievable with intelligent risk. My major concern is making things worse because ...PATRIOTISM!
I agree but intelligent risk is impossible when we have an orange faced sociopath running the nation. Anyone who can stop him seems to be cool with him murdering the populace through neglect.
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School-Opening Extortion

Post by Isgrimnur »

Remote learning has thus far failed American students? It can’t be because it was thrown together at the last minute in an ad hoc manner by every district and state trying to do it with no expertise, could it?

You want more local control of education? This is what that looks like.
It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Combustible Lemur »

malchior wrote:
Combustible Lemur wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:45 pm
noxiousdog wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:43 pm This is really simple. If you can't keep covid-19 under control outside of schools, you don't open more disease vectors.

Anything else is bullshit.
This.
I'm all about doing what is achievable with intelligent risk. My major concern is making things worse because ...PATRIOTISM!
I agree but intelligent risk is impossible when we have an orange faced sociopath running the nation. Anyone who can stop him seems to be cool with him murdering the populace through neglect.
Indeed

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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm

Reading through the article I agree with many of the sentiments but it feels like they (the teachers union) are shooting themselves in the foot with some of the demands. Unless I am missing something which is more than possible.
Given the extreme lean of the article, my first thought is not to come to any conclusions without a fact-check of those claims. Is the author hyperbolically rephrasing the requests?
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

Post by Kraken »

Combustible Lemur wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:45 pm
noxiousdog wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:43 pm This is really simple. If you can't keep covid-19 under control outside of schools, you don't open more disease vectors.

Anything else is bullshit.
This.
I'm all about doing what is achievable with intelligent risk. My major concern is making things worse because ...PATRIOTISM!
It seems that simple to me, too, but I'm not a parent. I'm glad I don't have a horse in this race but wish I wasn't in the stands, unable to leave.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Blackhawk wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:07 pm
Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm

Reading through the article I agree with many of the sentiments but it feels like they (the teachers union) are shooting themselves in the foot with some of the demands. Unless I am missing something which is more than possible.
Given the extreme lean of the article, my first thought is not to come to any conclusions without a fact-check of those claims. Is the author hyperbolically rephrasing the requests?
No, they're not; here's the full list of demands straight from the horse's mouth, i.e. the official National Day of Resistance web site for the relevant alliance of teachers unions and such:
DemandSafeSchools.org wrote:Demands
  • No reopening until the scientific data supports it
  • Police-free schools
  • All schools must be supported to function as community schools with adequate numbers of counselors and nurses and community/parent outreach workers
  • Safe conditions including lower class sizes, PPE, cleaning, testing, and other key protocols
  • Equitable access to online learning
  • Support for our communities and families, including canceling rents and mortgages, a moratorium on evictions/foreclosures, providing direct cash assistance to those not able to work or who are unemployed, and other critical social needs
  • Moratorium on new charter or voucher programs and standardized testing
  • Massive infusion of federal money to support the reopening funded by taxing billionaires and Wall Street
  • Equitable access to online learning
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Anonymous Bosch wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:12 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:07 pm
Tao wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:24 pm

Reading through the article I agree with many of the sentiments but it feels like they (the teachers union) are shooting themselves in the foot with some of the demands. Unless I am missing something which is more than possible.
Given the extreme lean of the article, my first thought is not to come to any conclusions without a fact-check of those claims. Is the author hyperbolically rephrasing the requests?
Here's the full list of demands straight from the horse's mouth, i.e. the official National Day of Resistance web site for the relevant alliance of teachers unions and such:
DemandSafeSchools.org wrote:Demands
  • No reopening until the scientific data supports it
  • Police-free schools
  • All schools must be supported to function as community schools with adequate numbers of counselors and nurses and community/parent outreach workers
  • Safe conditions including lower class sizes, PPE, cleaning, testing, and other key protocols Equitable access to online learning
  • Support for our communities and families, including canceling rents and mortgages, a moratorium on evictions/foreclosures, providing direct cash assistance to those not able to work or who are unemployed, and other critical social needs
  • Moratorium on new charter or voucher programs and standardized testing
  • Massive infusion of federal money to support the reopening funded by taxing billionaires and Wall Street
  • Equitable access to online learning
Could it be a political entity will go for "it all" in their advocacy work to come in with a strong bargaining position? I don't think they in any reality won't teach again until the billionaires are taxed and all of their demands are met. The majority of their talking points above are not that radical. We've discussed in the other thread iirc for e.g. that standardized tests don't make a hell of a lot of sense this year, incentivizing charters right now with broken school budgets could be fraught and we all want safety backed by science. Co-mingling Black Lives Matter/criminal justice/social justice desired actions is par for the course in the marketplace of ideas in a democracy. They are not holding a gun against our heads, it's actually sort of the opposite it seems to me. If we can't get the teachers safety (and it seems your other article agrees that we currently cannot do that) then who are we to criticize for safety strikes? That's how you define extortion in your head?
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Ah, there's where my reading comprehension failed me:
Anonymous Bosch wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 10:21 am Last week Randi Weingarten, leader of the powerful American Federation of Teachers, declared support for “safety strikes” if local unions deem insufficient the steps their school districts are taking to mitigate Covid-19. And on Monday an alliance of teachers unions and progressive groups sponsored what they called a “national day of resistance” around the country listing their demands before returning to the classroom. They include:
It starts by citing an established national organization, then slides right into the discussion about a much smaller group. I thought they were talking about a significant slice of unions as opposed to a political group which includes a few unions.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Lots of local action on schools tonight. The school district has moved to all online instruction through the first quarter at least (Oct 16) after originally planning a week late start. It will impact our working parents hardcore but is also likely the right decision for the community. Meanwhile, our uni, CSU, has an icky story in the local paper out about how the athletic department is covering up things and supressing players from reporting COVID symptoms and other unsundry activities, will not be surprised if this story goes national.

CSU football players and university athletic department staff say coaches have told players not to report COVID-19 symptoms, threatened players with reduced playing time if they quarantine and claim CSU is altering contact tracing reports to keep players practicing.

And they say those actions by the athletic administration is putting their health at risk in return for monetary gain the school would receive if fall sports are played.

Football players said they would like to play this season but don’t believe there should be a season given the spike in positive cases on the team in the past two weeks and the threat of more once Colorado State's full student body comes to campus later this month.
"I believe there is a cover-up going on at CSU,'' said a current football player who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. "But they could only cover it up so long and now that we have so many cases across athletics, they can’t cover it up anymore. It’s not about the health and safety of the players but about just trying to make money off the players.''

Said an athletic department staff member: "There are some red flags in the athletic department but the common denominator with this administration is to protect the coaches before the student-athletes and that makes them feel more like cattle than student-athletes.''
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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This is peripheral to the topic, but being a non-sports person watching how schools from elementary through college handle sports is like being an atheist watching how fundamentalist religions handle social issues.

After about the third time a meaningful class got permanently canceled in my kids' school due to budgetary reasons while the school football team got shiny new equipment really made me question the sanity of everyone involved. And the kinds of responses I got when I questioned their priorities! Well, let's just say it fit in with my first comparison.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Enough wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:26 pm Meanwhile, our uni, CSU, has an icky story in the local paper out about how the athletic department is covering up things and supressing players from reporting COVID symptoms and other unsundry activities, will not be surprised if this story goes national.
FWIW, there's a number of players and staff who are vigorously disputing that story.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Chicago Public Schools have officially gone to full remote for at least the first semester.

Glad we already ordered our Chromebooks and they've shipped!
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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Skinypupy wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 10:46 am
Enough wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:26 pm Meanwhile, our uni, CSU, has an icky story in the local paper out about how the athletic department is covering up things and supressing players from reporting COVID symptoms and other unsundry activities, will not be surprised if this story goes national.
FWIW, there's a number of players and staff who are vigorously disputing that story.
Indeed and that was starting to peculate on twitter when I posted. I imagine it's possible both could be true as well or there being a playing time advantage to players advancing a positive story. The president's office is doing an independent investigation. Keep in mind that we just had a pro-level stadium built on campus for $220 million for a non-P5 school that hangs it's football laurels on Sunny Lubick's teams that reached mid-tier bowl games back in the 1990s and one that has pretty much bombed since. Athletics has a reputation of being above the law as it were, but continue to cost the school big money. We were sold the stadium with a build it and they will come sort of philosophy, oh and that it would be built until donations were raised for half the cost (they waived this requirement when donations were low heh). The idea was that having such a shiny stadium would attract top fball talent and also attract lucrative out of state students choosing to come to CSU after being wowed by our most awesome stadium. And not surprisingly there is no data to show that is happening. I am a big Rams fan and go to games occasionally but I fear portions of this story could be true and if so I suspect heads will roll.
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Re: School-Opening Extortion

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I've got a big soft spot for CSU. Partly because I grew up watching Utah and CSU have some epic WAC and Mountain West battles (I just twitched when you mentioned Lubick :lol:), and partly because I spent an entire summer up in Ft. Collins doing nothing but drinking beer by the pool.

It was glorious.
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