Prospects for COVID-19 Stimulus Package Fade: Will We Have to Wait for A New President and New Congress to Negotiate Relief for States and Their Public Schools? | janresseger

Prospects for COVID-19 Stimulus Package Fade: Will We Have to Wait for A New President and New Congress to Negotiate Relief for States and Their Public Schools? | janresseger

Prospects for COVID-19 Stimulus Package Fade: Will We Have to Wait for A New President and New Congress to Negotiate Relief for States and Their Public Schools?

Negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House negotiator Steve Mnuchin and Senate Republicans for a second coronavirus relief bill have collapsed until at least after the election—maybe until a new Congress convenes in 2021 and, perhaps, a new President takes over.  Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell has declared that the U.S. Senate will not even be back in session until November 9.

Of immediate urgency is essential assistance for individuals and small businesses now that most of the programs funded by last March’s CARES Act have run out—the one-time $1,200 stimulus checks, the small business paycheck protection program, pandemic emergency unemployment benefits, an eviction moratorium, and support for health coverage. But there is another critically important need—one that is slightly farther removed from families’ immediate crisis.

Through months of negotiations, the two sides could never reach any agreement on one of Nancy Pelosi’s top priorities and something essential for the nation’s over 13,000 local public school districts: significant relief for state and local governments. State funding averages 40 percent of all public school funding, with local funds comprising around 40 percent.  President Donald Trump and some Republican  Senators opposed what Trump called “a bailout for poorly managed ‘blue’ states.”  While Trump and so-called “deficit hawk” Republican Senators have politicized the issue, here is how—last April—Rutgers University education funding expert, Bruce Baker, and Albert Shanker Institute policy expert, Matthew Di Carlo defined the urgent need for relief for state and local governments: “The most terrible and lasting effects of the coronavirus pandemic will of course be measured in loss of life. But a parallel tragedy will also be unfolding in the coming months and years, this one affecting those at the beginning of their lives: an unprecedented school funding crisis that threatens to disadvantage a generation of children. It currently is difficult to make any precise predictions about the magnitude of the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic, except CONTINUE READING: Prospects for COVID-19 Stimulus Package Fade: Will We Have to Wait for A New President and New Congress to Negotiate Relief for States and Their Public Schools? | janresseger

Audio: America's School Funding Crisis: Budget Cuts, Rising Costs And No Help In Sight | 89.3 KPCC

Audio: America's School Funding Crisis: Budget Cuts, Rising Costs And No Help In Sight | 89.3 KPCC

America's School Funding Crisis: Budget Cuts, Rising Costs And No Help In Sight

Back in May, school funding experts predicted a looming financial disaster for the nation's K-12 schools.

"I think we're about to see a school funding crisis unlike anything we have ever seen in modern history," warned Rebecca Sibilia, the founder of EdBuild, a school finance advocacy organization. "We are looking at devastation that we could not have imagined ... a year ago."

But those warnings, like everything else that happened in May, feel like a lifetime ago. Where do things stand now? First, a little good news:

"So we're not looking at a disastrous year this year," says Michael Griffith at the Learning Policy Institute. He says the CARES Act, signed in March, helped states avoid a short-term school funding disaster.

Remember: Schools get about half their funding from state tax revenues, which have taken a big hit in the pandemic. States were facing budget cuts in the 20-30% range, Griffith says. But thanks, in part, to those federal CARES Act dollars, it's just "a bad year," he explains — "between 15 and 20%."

The bad news is: Those cuts are still pretty deep.

"There are about 570,000 fewer local education jobs" this year compared to the start of the previous school year, says Michael Leachman, who studies state fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Those are teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, secretaries, librarians, counselors."

Sibilia says one reason we haven't seen even more cuts is "because all of our elected leaders are putting their head in the sand."

Many politicians are wary of making big, unpopular cuts before the election, Sibilia explains, and instead are draining their rainy day funds or hiding the pain with CONTINUE READING: Audio: America's School Funding Crisis: Budget Cuts, Rising Costs And No Help In Sight | 89.3 KPCC

glen brown: "If you want students back in school buildings, it is time to act like it" - Ben Walker

glen brown: "If you want students back in school buildings, it is time to act like it" - Ben Walker

"If you want students back in school buildings, it is time to act like it" - Ben Walker

Since the scientifically driven announcement in late July that the 2020-2021 school year would start remotely for the Anchorage School District, educators of all experiences and levels have worked tirelessly to provide a positive and successful learning environment for all students and families. Educators, including counselors, teaching assistants, librarians, nurses and so many others, have sacrificed their time, money and health to ensure all students continue to grow as we navigate the most severe global pandemic of the last 100 years.

They are calling, Zooming, emailing and texting at all hours of the day and night to check up on students and families. Two-minute check-ins turn into 30-minute group therapy. They are spending hours and hundreds of their own dollars to ensure students have materials for success at home. They are driving door-to-door to drop these off. Sixteen-hour days and migraines are the new normal. They are doing it for the very simple reason they do anything; because it is the best for our students to keep them safe during what looks to be a new peak in a public health crisis.

But the one thing educators, students and families from across the district are not doing is failing. Yet, far too many in our community are saying just that. To say that schools are failing our students is not only CONTINUE READING: glen brown: "If you want students back in school buildings, it is time to act like it" - Ben Walker

CURMUDGUCATION: Orphaned Education, Forgotten Children

CURMUDGUCATION: Orphaned Education, Forgotten Children

Orphaned Education, Forgotten Children

These are depressing times. Let me tell you why I'm bummed, but first, let me tell you a story.

Almost a decade ago, I was the local union president during a contentious contract negotiation that became a strike. That was probably the lowest part of my teaching career. If you've taught for more than a year or two, you know, somewhere back in the back of your mind, that a lot of people are not really pulling for you, don't really respect the work you do, don't think you should get all uppity about wanting good wages, good working conditions, some sort of say in how the work is done. 

You know all that, but you put your head down, focus on the work, the students, the people out there who respect and value the work you're doing. There are plenty of them, sure enough. But those others. You know they're out there, in many cases in positions of power, but like I said--you keep your head down. But during the strike, I couldn't ignore them. They stopped me on the street, called me at home. I had to look right into that dark maw, and it was deeply disheartening. 

I feel like we're back there again. Seven months of this pandemess, and I think we've become numb, used to just how much education and children is NOT part of the ongoing concerns before us at the moment. On the one hand, it's not news--public education has been a political orphan for at least thirty or forty years. Go ahead--name a prominent political figure who's known for being a champion of public education. Name a Secretary of Education who did their utmost to stand up for public CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Orphaned Education, Forgotten Children

What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools? | janresseger

What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools? | janresseger 

 What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools?

Why has this blog kept on covering the Trump administration’s and U.S. Senate Republicans’ lack of willingness to negotiate a second COVID-19 stimulus bill including federal assistance to help public schools make accommodations to open safely this fall and to shore up the state budgets which provide an average of 40 percent of K-12 public school funding across the United States?

The answer is simple and for me it is very sad.  I do not remember a time when the wellbeing of children has been so totally forgotten by the leaders of the political party in power in the White House and the Congress. This fall, school district leaders have been left on their own as they try to serve and educate children while the COVID-19 pandemic continues raging across the states. School leaders are trying to hold it all together this fall at the same time their state budgets in some places have already been cut.

In Ohio, the COVID-19 recession is only exacerbating a public school fiscal crisis driven by a long history of inequitable school funding and the expansion of school privatization. On November 3, the school district where I live has been forced to put a local operating levy on the ballot simply to avert catastrophe. EdChoice vouchers, funded by a “local school district deduction” extract $6,000 for each high school voucher student and $4,650 for each K-8 voucher student right out of our school district’s budget. Although these students attend private and religious schools, the state counts voucher students as part of our per-pupil enrollment, which means that the state pays the district some of the cost of the voucher. In a normal year, there is a net loss because the vouchers are worth more than our district’s state basic aid, but this year the loss is even worse: In he current state budget, the Legislature froze the state’s contribution to the state’s school districts at the FY 2019 level. This means that the state is not allocating any additional funding to our school district to cover the new vouchers CONTINUE READING: What Does It Mean When Hardly Anybody Stands Up for the Basic Needs of Children and Public Schools? | janresseger 

NANCY BAILEY: Public Schools and School Libraries: The “Hub” of Democracy During a Crisis, Is Facing Its Own Crisis

Public Schools and School Libraries: The “Hub” of Democracy During a Crisis, Is Facing Its Own Crisis

Public Schools and School Libraries: The “Hub” of Democracy During a Crisis, Is Facing Its Own Crisis

A public school is the hub of the American community, and school libraries provide students the knowledge to better understand their world. But public schools and school libraries face a crisis at this time in history, and it’s important to question what has happened with CARES Act funding.

Americans in crisis recognize that public schools are the center of the community. Librarians have worked tirelessly alongside teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic to help students get books, and to help teachers with technology, but they haven’t had the best support. 

Here are some of the crises where communities have relied on public schools for support.

• Many towns in California and Oregon were devastated by recent and past fires. Public schools served as a hub for their communities for those traumatized by the fires.
• During the Covid-19 pandemic, school officials, educators, librarians, and staff have worked to hold classes in-person or reach students remotely.
• During this time of unrest, where Americans struggle to accept each other and become better enlightened, public schools still hold the greatest promise to CONTINUE READING: Public Schools and School Libraries: The “Hub” of Democracy During a Crisis, Is Facing Its Own Crisis

Uncontrolled Infections, Political Manipulation of Science, Lack of Funding, and Complexity of Operating Schools Make It Hard to Start Schoolyear | janresseger

Uncontrolled Infections, Political Manipulation of Science, Lack of Funding, and Complexity of Operating Schools Make It Hard to Start Schoolyear | janresseger

Uncontrolled Infections, Political Manipulation of Science, Lack of Funding, and Complexity of Operating Schools Make It Hard to Start School Year

Reporting on the complexities of attempting to reopen the public schools in New York City this week, the Washington Post’s Moriah Balingit quotes Michael Casserly, the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools: “Frankly, I don’t know of another institution, public or private, that has so many moving parts with so much public pressure on it from so many angles on it as much as public schools have… I have never seen a situation like this in the 43-plus years I’ve been doing this work, where public school leaders have devoted so much time, effort, creativity and just sheer endurance in trying to solve a set of problems where there’s just no obvious good resolution.”

A team of reporters from POLITICO covers efforts to prepare for school reopening in the nation’s four largest school districts—New York City Public Schools with 1.1 million students, Los Angeles Unified with 600,000 students, Chicago Public Schools with more than 350,000 students, and Miami-Dade County with 347,000 students.  Scale alone is a huge challenge during the pandemic as school districts of this size try to manage staffing, social distancing in classrooms and school buses, ventilation and other safety issues, and a mass of challenges around just securing access for masses of students to online instruction. All this is in addition to scheduling children for complicated hybrid schedules combining in-person and online learning and adapting curriculum and instruction to both modes of education. All these challenges are complicated by a shortage of money and a shortage of clear and consistent guidance from public health officials. The POLITICO reporters remind readers that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran have ordered Miami-Dade Schools to reopen in person this week despite that the county has been hit harder by the coronavirus than the rest of the state. The Governor has threatened to withhold state funding CONTINUE READING: Uncontrolled Infections, Political Manipulation of Science, Lack of Funding, and Complexity of Operating Schools Make It Hard to Start Schoolyear | janresseger

EdAction in Congress September 13, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress September 13, 2020 - Education Votes

EdAction in Congress September 13, 2020

McConnell fails students and educators yet again

After coming back from a month-long vacation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) failed last week to advance a “skinny” coronavirus relief package, leaving little time to regroup before the Senate adjourns until after the November elections. S. 178, the defeated bill, was an insult to the families that have lost loved ones to COVID-19, and to the many other families struggling to stay afloat. More than one-quarter of the language in the 300-page measure dealt with liability protections for businesses, workplaces, schools, and campuses, with scant attention paid to students and educators in public schools and college campuses. Instead, S. 178 would advance the failed privatization schemes of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with voucher and voucher-like schemes that rob public schools of scarce resources and tax breaks to help well-off families pay private school tuition or homeschool.

The need for Senate action remains critical. NEA supports the HEROES Act, which includes $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments that could be used to preserve the jobs of educators and other essential public servants on the frontlines of the pandemic. Other top priorities include at least $175 billion to stabilize education funding, at least $4 billion to equip students with hot spots and devices to help narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap, directed funding for personal protective equipment (PPE), and additional relief for student loan borrowers.

Four months have passed since the House passed the HEROES Act—four months of more sickness and death, escalating financial disarray, and rising personal hardship. During this period of inaction by the Senate, schools across the nation have reopened for in-person learning—often under pressure—without the resources to do so safely.

Email your senators and tell them to take action now.

1. Details
2. Messages
3. Confirmation

U.S. Senate: How to Contact U.S. Senators

EdAction in Congress September 13, 2020 - Education Votes

'No resources, just threats, bullying, and bluster:' AFT president on Trump's handling of back-to-school

'No resources, just threats, bullying, and bluster:' AFT president on Trump's handling of back-to-school

'No resources, just threats, bullying and bluster:' AFT president on Trump's handling of back-to-school

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden recently slammed President Donald Trump for his lack of leadership during the back-to-school season, a sentiment shared by the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. She joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the union’s concerns about school re-openings.

“Joe Biden was right to call it a national emergency and to completely blame Trump for the lack of leadership and ... mishandling of all of this,” she said.

“We knew we needed the resources we knew we needed to tackle the virus first ... And what happened is that the president in July decides, [on Twitter] in all caps, ‘We must reopen schools.’ No plan, Betsy Devos is missing in action, no guidance,” she said.

The president of the second-largest teachers’ union in the U.S. tells Yahoo Finance that Trump’s behavior is unprecedented in U.S. history — and unpresidential.

“That’s never happened in any crisis in a Republican or Democratic administration: no resources, just threats, bullying, and bluster. And now in places like Georgia, Florida, Texas, where you saw this huge surge, now they're trying to actually cover up cases because they don't want people to know what the truth is,” she said.

Weingarten says that for schools to gradually reopen the nation needs to “invest in recovery” and work together. “Do not abandon America’s communities or forfeit America’s future. These interventions will require more—not less—investment in public health and in our schools, universities, hospitals, and local and state governments. Strengthening communities should be a priority in the recovery,” she said. CONTINUE READING: 'No resources, just threats, bullying, and bluster:' AFT president on Trump's handling of back-to-school

Jersey Jazzman: State Aid Is School Aid

 Jersey Jazzman: State Aid Is School Aid

State Aid Is School Aid

Here in the Northeast, schools are getting ready to reopen in what can only be called a gigantic experiment in the middle of pandemic with a virus we barely understand. I'm going to say a few more things about this soon... but I first want to discuss something that's been pushed to the back burner over the last few weeks.

The Senate's complete abdication to do anything serious about the economy might lead you to believe that Republicans don't believe that public schools are facing a fiscal crisis. But that's not entirely true. Even though the GOP school aid proposal is incredibly weak, the very fact that Republicans are proposing aid to schools is a tacit acknowledgement that they are in financial trouble.

But, as usual, Republicans are proposing an inadequate solution to a very real problem. Part of this inadequacy is due to the insistence of ideologues on privileging private schools when coming up with an aid package. Part of it is simply the lowball amounts the Republicans seem set on sticking with, contrary to estimates about what's needed.

But a big part is due to a fundamental misunderstanding -- likely, a deliberate misunderstanding -- of how schools get their revenue. Schools rely heavily on their states for funding -- but the Republicans are refusing to provide fiscal relief for the states.

Let me put this as clearly as I can: Fiscal relief for states is fiscal relief for CONTINUE READING:  Jersey Jazzman: State Aid Is School Aid

Are We Staring at Teacher Layoffs? Or, Worse? | Ed In The Apple

Are We Staring at Teacher Layoffs? Or, Worse? | Ed In The Apple

Are We Staring at Teacher Layoffs? Or, Worse?

Is “Black Tuesday” (Tuesday, October 29, 1929) hovering? Are we a few weeks or months away from the economic cliff?

The “roaring twenties,” seemingly endless increases in stock prices, three consecutive Republican presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover), the flu pandemic was gone, a farm depression was concerning; however, the nation appeared to be booming.

On March 4, 1929, at his presidential inauguration, Herbert Hoover stated, “I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope.” Most Americans shared his optimism. They believed that the prosperity of the 1920s would continue, and that the country was moving closer to a land of abundance for all. Little could Hoover imagine that barely a year into his presidency, shantytowns known as “Homerville’s” would emerge on the fringes of most major cities, newspapers covering the homeless would be called “Hoover blankets,” and pants pockets, turned inside-out to show their emptiness, would become “Hoover flags.”

The stock market allowed anyone to buy stocks “on margin,” borrowing 90% of the cost of the stock from the broker, if the stock lost 10% of its value, the broker could sell the stock, the investor losing everything, for investors, seemed CONTINUE READING: Are We Staring at Teacher Layoffs? Or, Worse? | Ed In The Apple

Myths and Facts About the COVID-19 Public Education Relief Being Debated in Congress | janresseger

Myths and Facts About the COVID-19 Public Education Relief Being Debated in Congress | janresseger

Myths and Facts About the COVID-19 Public Education Relief Being Debated in Congress

Congress is debating a new COVID-19 relief bill, and there is much unhappiness, mythology and confusion about what is being proposed to support the nation’s 98,000 public schools, which are being forced to undertake big expenses to reconfigure classrooms and buses for social distancing and to improve ventilation systems.  At the same time school districts are coping with unprecedented state budget cuts which are forcing districts to lay off teachers and other essential staff.

Here is some background.

• The first gambit in the Congressional negotiations over more COVID-19 aid was the HEROES Act, passed on May 15, by the U.S. House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, where the bill languished for two and a half months. The House’s  HEROES Act (if passed by Congress) would provide $90 billion for public education (including higher education) along with $915 billion to shore up state, local, and tribal governments during the COVID-19 fiscal downturn.
• The HEALS Act, proposed piecemeal on July 27th by U.S. Senate Republicans, includes $105 billion for education—$70 billion for K-12 public schools and the rest for higher education.  For Forbes, Sarah Hansen explains the so-called bill’s release: “Senate Republicans on Monday released their plan for the next coronavirus relief package: the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act. But the legislation didn’t come all at once: instead, it trickled out from a handful of Senators and committees in different outlines and bills, including a few items that predate the Covid-19 crisis.”
• As of yesterday, the terms of the negotiations had shifted. Senate Republicans and the Trump administration were fighting to reserve the $70 billion in their HEALS Act proposal for schools opening with in-person classes. Senate Democrats had reduced their demand for relief for state and local governments to $875 billion and increased their request for combined relief for public schools as well as child care for a total of $430 billion, the amount needed for funding services outlined in a separate bill introduced on June 30 by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA).

Sometimes on the news shows there is considerable confusion about the details of the various CONTINUE READING: Myths and Facts About the COVID-19 Public Education Relief Being Debated in Congress | janresseger

Unsanitized: Randi Weingarten On What It Would Take to Make Schools Safe - The American Prospect

Unsanitized: Randi Weingarten On What It Would Take to Make Schools Safe - The American Prospect

Unsanitized: Randi Weingarten On What It Would Take to Make Schools Safe
Plus, Congressional maneuvering. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for August 5, 2020.

First Response

In many parts of the country, the school year has already begun, either for teachers setting up classrooms, or in a few cases, for students. They are returning to a patchwork of different procedures, ranging from in-person schooling (in close to 20 states) to online-only learning to hybrid models. Parents report frayed nerves having to deal with managing work and children at home, and desperately want schools to reopen. Student learning is also sacrificed, especially with the digital divide, without in-person instruction. It’s a terrible situation.

Fortunately it’s being planned for in the most chaotic, unprofessional way. While relative safety in childcare shows that in theory you could execute schooling safely, the experience of some summer camps and schools in Israel show that dangers exist, not just for kids in school but the entire surrounding community. But the planning has been haphazard, and runs up against an immutable fact: just about everything associated with school safety costs money.

If the classroom is half the size you have to hire more teachers. HVAC systems have to be overhauled to prevent recirculated air. Everyone needs PPE, from masks to plexiglass shields. You need mass testing capacity and hand-washing stations. Some schools have no on-site nurses, so you have to add those. You might need to double school bus routes to maintain distancing on transportation. Remote learning has ongoing costs attached, especially if students need to be outfitted with technology. None of that money has been authorized yet at the federal level, and state budgets are completely strapped.

How much are we talking? The American Federation of Teachers did the math on this a couple weeks ago. “We figured out you needed $116 billion” for the extra safety measures, said AFT President Randi Weingarten in an interview. That’s on top of $93 billion to deal with reduced state support for schools.

Read all of our Unsanitized reports

The Democratic plans approach that level. Nancy Pelosi added $100 billion for schools in the Heroes Act, but it included a “maintenance of effort” clause, which would have required states taking the school money to backfill K-12 shortfalls with part of the $1 trillion reserved for state CONTINUE READING: Unsanitized: Randi Weingarten On What It Would Take to Make Schools Safe - The American Prospect

What is the HEROES Bill? How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple

What is the HEROES Bill?  How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple

What is the HEROES Bill?  How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson]

In May the Democratic-majority in the House of Representatives passed the HEROES bill, a $3 trillion (yes, a 3 with twelve zeros), a bill that included funding for schools and local and state governments

See a summary of the HEROES bill here.

See how the bill impacts New York State here and how bill impacts state and local government here.

Why did the bill originate in the House of Representatives?

Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution requires,

 “All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”

The bill was sharply criticized by Republicans and the President and the Republican-controlled majority in the Senate took no action,

 President Trump sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill saying it must include a payroll tax cut and liability protections for businesses, CONTINUE READING: What is the HEROES Bill?  How would it impact schools? Why hasn’t the bill passed in the Senate? [A Civics Lesson] | Ed In The Apple

Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief | janresseger

Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief | janresseger

Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief

Back in session this week following a two-week, July 4th recess, Congress must now pass emergency fiscal relief for states and local school districts to make it safe for students and their teachers to return to school this fall. To rescue school districts whose funding has already begun to erode as the recession has undermined state budgets, more federal dollars are necessary even to ensure that school systems can operate hybrid, in-person/online school opening plans—bringing in students on a staggered schedule two or three days each week to protect social distancing in classrooms and on buses.

President Donald Trump has demanded that all schools open full-time, five days a week for every student.  A new report from the American Federation of Teachers explains why such an expectation is dangerously unrealistic, especially considering that any money appropriated in late July or early August won’t arrive soon enough for school districts to repair ventilation systems, secure temporary portable classroom space, or hire a sufficient number of teachers to divide all classes in half: “Take a look at what it would cost just to do what Trump wants: fully accommodating every child in public schools for face-to-face instruction.  Assuming virus spread is tackled so that the infection rate is low enough that experts deem it safe, and assuming there are ongoing testing and contact tracing protocols, it would potentially require a half-trillion dollars to safely reopen public schools at that scale.  That means 47 percent more classrooms to ensure that students are 6 feet apart.  And it means as many as 47 percent more instructors, which would cost approximately $140 billion in salary and benefits.  If half of those additional teachers required portable classrooms, it might cost more than $115 billion…  Even if there were political will to spend that money, we have already missed the chance to make the broadest progress toward that goal, with no way to find the teachers, the classroom capacity, or the buses needed by the time fall semester starts.  The call to do this is unserious and deters from what can be done, which is to provide supports for the fullest and CONTINUE READING: Public Schools Can’t Open Safely Unless Congress Provides Fiscal Relief | janresseger

Randi Weingarten: COVID-19: Teachers are ready to open classrooms if Congress acts

COVID-19: Teachers are ready to open classrooms if Congress acts

Randi Weingarten: Teachers want to be in a classroom — Congress must make it safe
Teachers aren't waiting for a vaccine to reopen schools, but we do need to keep students and educators safe. Where is the support from lawmakers?

We can usually count on a president and Education secretary to prioritize children’s and teachers’ well-being and safety. That certainly should be the expectation during a pandemic. But just as President Donald Trump has downplayed the virus from the beginning, now he and Secretary Betsy DeVos have demanded schools reopen regardless of the lack of a thorough plan, the necessary funding, or the safety considerations that scientists and public health experts tell us are needed.

Teachers are not waiting for a vaccine to reopen schools; they know in-person schooling is really important for kids, academically, socially and emotionally. But particularly as COVID-19 cases continue to rise in many states, teachers and our students need both a real plan to reopen safely and the resources to do so.

According to a recent poll of our members, 76% of educators support going back to school if we have the proper safeguards called for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other experts — safeguards such as ensuring low community spread (New York calls for a daily infection rate 5% or lower), daily deep cleaning and sanitizing of school facilities, physical distancing, masks and other appropriate personal protective equipment, ventilation, and reasonable accommodations for those most at risk. CONTINUE READING: COVID-19: Teachers are ready to open classrooms if Congress acts