Like everyone else, I was stunned by the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6. I followed the proceedings from the start to see what stunt Trump might pull. I watched as the mob approached and stormed the Capitol, where Electoral votes were being counted. What happened was a violent desecration of the Constitutionally prescribed process for transferring power from one president to the next. It was an attack on our government and our Constitution. The ceremony is typically dry as dust, and no one watches it.
This time there was an air of anticipation because some 140 Republican members of the House and at least 13 Senators had announced that they would oppose certification of Biden’s victory unless there was an “audit” of the states that Trump thinks he should have won, despite multiple recounts and 60 failures in state and federal courts and two rejections by the United States Supreme Court. Not a single court agreed with Trump’s claims of election fraud. (Remember that Trump said on the famous phone call with Georgia election officials that he couldn’t possibly have lost Georgia; not only did he lose it on November 3, he lost it again in the Senatorial elections of January 5.)
I have visited the Capitol many times for meetings with members of Congress. I always thought security was CONTINUE READING: The Trump Insurrection of 2021 | Diane Ravitch's blog
Since the beginning of this pandemic, experts and educators have feared that open schools would spread the coronavirus further, which is why so many classrooms remain closed. But a new, nationwide study suggests reopening schools may be safer than previously thought, at least in communities where the virus is not already spreading out of control.
The study comes from REACH, the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, at Tulane University. Up to this point, researchers studying the public health effects of school reopening have focused largely on positivity rates. As in, did the rate of positive coronavirus tests among kids or communities increase after schools reopened?
The REACH researchers worried that testing in the U.S., especially among children, is still too varied and unpredictable. Instead, Susan Hassig, a Tulane epidemiologist who worked on the study, says they focused on hospitalization rates as a more reliable indicator of virus spread. It's easy to imagine infections going undetected in communities with spotty testing, Hassig says, but "if you get infected with coronavirus and you become substantially ill, you're going to become hospitalized." Mining nationwide data from 2020, she and her colleagues looked to see if more CONTINUE READING: Where Is It Safe To Reopen Schools? New Research Offers Answers | 89.3 KPCC
A friend grew up in another country’s capital. There was political tension. One morning the tv was buzzing. There were tanks out the window. Good, he thought, no school.
He was right – there were some days off. The coup succeeded. Officials were fired. Leaders were executed. And life resumed.
By the way, the coup plotters were homegrown. Locals. But they were trained by a foreign power, a beacon of democracy. And they acted because the government had created a link to the other, evil, great power.
It seems, as I think about coups over the last 75 years, an awful lot of them were instigated, or even orchestrated, in Washington DC. But none of them took place there. And I thought none ever would. Until today.
Frankly, I was surprised by Trump’s video statement – because he told them to go home. This could have been much worse.
No credit, to him, of course. It is not clear to me what consequences he faces. But I’m guessing it’s a lot clearer to him. He’s a bully. And most bullies are cowards.
I watched too much tv today. TV news is addictive. I’m glad I usually skip it. But today… I’m about to CONTINUE READING: Coup? | JD2718
The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) is pleased to announce the availability of School Year 2021–22 School Breakfast Program (SBP) and Summer Meal Programs (SMP) Start-up and Expansion Grants.
The state Legislature appropriates approximately $1.017 million in the annual state budget for SBP and SMP Start-up and Expansion Grants. California Education Code Section 49550.3, authorizes the CDE to award competitive grants of up to $15,000 per school site for nonrecurring expenses incurred when initiating or expanding an SBP or SMP.
For more information about the SBP and SMP grants and eligibility requirements, visit the CDE Breakfast Grant web page.
The grant application package and instructions for these grants are available on the CDE SBP and SMP Grant Request for Applications web page. Please note that SFAs must complete the grant application online.
The online application closes on Monday, March 1, 2021, at 4 p.m., at which time the CDE will no longer accept applications.
If you have questions regarding this subject, please contact Tara Masse, Program Analyst, by phone at 916-323-7177 or the Breakfast Grant team by email at breakfastgrant@cde.ca.gov.
It’s unconscionable how reckless DCPS has gotten as Duval hits unprecedented numbers in the pandemic. Cajoling families to return their kids to school, class sizes rising, and a lack of deep cleaning is all going to lead to more people getting sick or worse.
On Facebook, somebody asked, are your rooms cleaned between classes. The response was an overwhelming no. I am not blaming our custodial staff either, they can only do what they can do, and DCPS, with a wink and a nod and a shrug of their shoulders, pretends all is well. Remember when they swore we would have deep cleanings and cleanings between classes, that cleaning was a priority? Now like treating teachers fairly, that is an afterthought.
Then there are class sizes that make social distancing impossible.
Yesterday I had a student sprung on me, which I think is ridiculous, especially since the previous day was a planning day. So I asked on Facebook if this happened to others, and I received over a hundred responses and spoiler it had. Now I think it’s a poor way of doing things, and where it can happen from time to time, it shouldn’t happen on the scale it occurs in DCPS, but that’s for another blog.
What really concerned me was teacher after teacher told me how huge their classes have become, sometimes larger than even in normal years. So much for social CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: As the pandemic gets worse, DCPS gets more and more reckless.
