Posted on by Californiacontrarian

School Reopening and BLM


Currently we are in the midst of two overlapping crises (yes, this is the plural of “crisis”) . . . the George Floyd residual protests, riots, BLM, etc., and reopening after the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Obviously each of these issues has multiple facets. Is there anything that could prove to be helpful as our country attempts to move on? 

I think there is. Follow me on this.

First: Can we agree that, in general, the education of school children in many parts of the country, especially in the major cities is woeful. Forgetting charter schools and private schools for the time being, can we agree that poorer, predominately black and Hispanic children, are, in general, coming out of  our el-hi public schools having learned less than those children coming out of schools in the more affluent and typically white areas. (The reasons for this are multiple, and this piece is not about “why” this is the case.) Also I think that it is reasonable to assume that poorer children suffered the most as far as their education during the school shutdowns. (Again a variety of different reasons for this.)

Second: Granted in the beginning of this Covid-19 pandemic, the closing of schools was not unreasonable as no one knew much about the coronavirus and children. However, at this time much much more is known about covid-19 and school children, as there has now been extensive experience through the world on sending children back to school. 

First of all some facts – Covid in children is not the same as Covid in adults.

According to the most recent CDC data, children 5 to 14 years of age account for less than 0.15 percent of all COVID cases in the United States. An international review of 78 studies found that “deaths remain extremely rare in children from Covid.

Denmark, Austria, Norway, Finland, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and most other countries that have reopened classrooms haven’t had outbreaks in schools or day-care centers. (One exception apparently was in a high school in Israel,) Furthermore, European authorities said the absence of any notable clusters of infection in reopened elementary schools so far suggested that children aren’t significant spreaders of the new coronavirus in society.

Note that in the above list of countries that have been making progress, the US  is nowhere to be seen. Here it seems that Dr. Fauci and the CDC have both been virtually useless. 

Last Wednesday, Anthony S. Fauci said on CNN that some schools may have “no problem” reopening in the fall but added that he hesitated “to make any broad statements about whether it is or is not quote ‘safe’ for kids to come back to school” since it would depend on the viral activity in an area . . . a worthless tap-dance!

The CDC came out with its “School Decision Tool.” Helpful?? Not so much!

 National Education Association rightly calls CDC’s “School Decision Tool” a “watered down,” “flimsy flowchart.”

So when I look at the overlapping Venn-diagram of “those hurt the most by the Covid school shutdowns” and “those who would benefit the most by sending children back to school now,” the overlap is poor mostly non-white children. Why isn’t BLM advocating the starting up of schools a.s.a.p. ? Err . . could it be opposition from their Democratic bedfellows, the teacher’s unions?

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