Coronavirus prep
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The threat to withhold federal school dollars to states that do not open schools must be having an impact.
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GaleHawkins wrote: »
The threat to withhold federal school dollars to states that do not open schools must be having an impact.
Most states get less that 10% of K-12 funding from tbe federal government. A chunk but not a deal breaker if a state wants to be at odds with the POTUS.
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »Here in PA, when they went to online school about 1/3 of the kids in some districts never logged in. If they don't have a parent to push them to follow the lectures and do the work, they just fall farther and farther behind.
I know a teacher locally that was talking about that problem and that some who did log in never responded to activities. Kids have for the most part have fallen backwards. At the college level more and more seem to just be dropping out with no real plan to return. In one case they only lacked a few hours to graduate but like that hope of getting a job is now GONE. Some people do not seem to understand the virus is the lesser of the two evils we are facing today. I hope Columbus' head now in the Boston Bay can find some of the tea that other ticked off protesters dumped into that bay many years ago.
Times are not changing. Time HAS changed and yesteryear is gone for good. I know one guy that has liquidated many things just to get debt free. This was an effort he started 18 months ago before so many started dumping larger ticket items. More and more yards have vehicles and other items out for sale locally.
Local schools and colleges are planning to open in my end of KY.1 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
The threat to withhold federal school dollars to states that do not open schools must be having an impact.
Most states get less that 10% of K-12 funding from tbe federal government. A chunk but not a deal breaker if a state wants to be at odds with the POTUS.
I do not think you were aware of the financial status of many school districts prior to the COVID-19 shut down. Payroll tax collections are way down and expenses to start funding remote learning on a 12 hour notice messed up some budgets. With no medical hope of a cure or vaccine near term what is one to do? The bright spot is while the number of cases are climbing the death rate is really dropping. Maybe it will weaken and just be another annual type of flu in 2021.1 -
Our WI county is in a "surge" now and spouse and I have basically been going out only for essential stuff since early March. But one of his ball playing friends (in the demographic hardest hit by infection, who has not been social distancing as far as I know) is getting married this month and wants him there ... indoor wedding at a tiny place with (he says) a dozen or so people there, also from "surge" communities. He says he's going, despite the fact that within the last 4 months he's had a mild stroke & a pacemaker implanted. I voiced my opinion fairly reasonably (I thought) and his response was, well you don't have to come along. He's a 73 year old mule.
Would this help? (Wedding is in the top left of High Risk.)
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kshama2001 wrote: »Our WI county is in a "surge" now and spouse and I have basically been going out only for essential stuff since early March. But one of his ball playing friends (in the demographic hardest hit by infection, who has not been social distancing as far as I know) is getting married this month and wants him there ... indoor wedding at a tiny place with (he says) a dozen or so people there, also from "surge" communities. He says he's going, despite the fact that within the last 4 months he's had a mild stroke & a pacemaker implanted. I voiced my opinion fairly reasonably (I thought) and his response was, well you don't have to come along. He's a 73 year old mule.
Would this help? (Wedding is in the top left of High Risk.)
Interesting the risk of going to church or a bar is about equal but both are about socializing with like minded friends I guess.
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
The threat to withhold federal school dollars to states that do not open schools must be having an impact.
Most states get less that 10% of K-12 funding from tbe federal government. A chunk but not a deal breaker if a state wants to be at odds with the POTUS.
Also the President can't withhold federal funding, Congress distributes tax dollars. He can certainly pressure Congress to pass a bill that incentivizes full reopening rather than miss out on fed funding, but the teachers' lobby is pretty powerful too.12 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/06/cdc-after-10-week-decline-in-covid-19-deaths-it-may-soon-no-longer-be-an-epidemic/
I am starting to see why some may think this pandemic is going away based on headlines like the above.
Clearly death numbers lag the infection rate by 2+ weeks so while it may be factual COVID-19 death rates may be in decline but we know in the USA at least the infection rate is higher than ever in this 2020 Pandemic so we can expect death rates to soar instead of decline.
A lot depends on where you are. If you follow the Coronavirus world chart, you'll see some places stopped having deaths altogether, while others are having very few, even while still having some new cases of infection.
Increased knowledge and increased access to the necessary equipment and facilities, has led to a scenario where a larger percentage of sufferers are making a full recovery.2 -
My friend suggested no one pays tax this year if they owe any. I can actually see his point and generally I wouldn’t, but with a recession and people out of work it kinda makes sense. In other news they’re looking at moving the border further up near my town in NSW which would mean major long waits trying to get my mother to treatment.1
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In our area the bus drivers were running their regular routes delivering food and switching out homework packets... until staff started getting sick, then they shut it downmoonangel12 wrote: »we homeschool so it’s not a huge deal to us what they decide, but my heart breaks for the students that need the school system - for food, support, and even safety. I know there are many out there with horrendous home lives and it crushes me to think about what they are going through...
For food, at least, I know Chicago schools have been providing it throughout the time schools have been shut down (they normally do in summers too) -- breakfast and lunch, for pick-up, for 3 days at a time.
It's certainly tough on parents who rely on schools for part of their child care.
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kshama2001 wrote: »Our WI county is in a "surge" now and spouse and I have basically been going out only for essential stuff since early March. But one of his ball playing friends (in the demographic hardest hit by infection, who has not been social distancing as far as I know) is getting married this month and wants him there ... indoor wedding at a tiny place with (he says) a dozen or so people there, also from "surge" communities. He says he's going, despite the fact that within the last 4 months he's had a mild stroke & a pacemaker implanted. I voiced my opinion fairly reasonably (I thought) and his response was, well you don't have to come along. He's a 73 year old mule.
Would this help? (Wedding is in the top left of High Risk.)
Well, thanks I don't know if it would or not but I'm going to drop it into his inbox. 4 -
Is anyone else afraid about the possibility of schools reopening??
All my kids are way over that age but my dh works at a private high school and they usually have about 150-200 dorm students each year, from everywhere. I know it's still about 6 weeks away from now but Honestly, I don't foresee a better environment anytime soon. I just think of all the little kids and worried parents who will have to deal with this. I know the world is aching to get back to 'normal' but at the price of subjecting the children?
I was thinking about this the other day, and I think what's needed is something radical: much reduced class sizes, especially for younger kids who can't be expected to understand the need to wear masks and to maintain their distance. Which means we need more classroom spaces and more teachers. Space could be rented from facilities that can't open yet anyway -- like movie theaters. performing arts centers, indoor sporting venues. Teachers -- or at least adult supervision -- could be drawn from the ranks of the 10% of Americans who are unemployed, maybe with some online/video support from actual older or immuno-compromised teachers.
ETA: another part of my imaginary radical scenario was going back to mini "one-room schoolhouses" -- not as individual buildings, but classrooms that might have kids of different ages, maybe mixing three families of kids (to limit the number of potential interfamily disease transmissions, if that makes sense). Obviously with the smaller average sizes of family these might not work as well as it would have decades ago (I think the average family size on the block I grew up on was about 3.5). You might have to go four families depending on how large the hypothetical reduced class sizes would be -- I was picturing between five and 10 kids.
I don't see how we can go back to normal-sized classes of 20+ kids, circulating around schools to music rooms and art rooms with different instructors (or changing rooms and teachers for every class with older kids). There would be exploding hot spots everywhere.7 -
CupcakeCrusoe wrote: »RE: Schools reopening:
In VA, we've been talking about reopening schools, but their requirements are, to be frank, ridiculous and impossible. They've set standards for 6 feet between children, or at least three feet with masks. Staggering seats on the bus and sitting 1 person to a seat.
Do they have any concept of what these requirements would look like, logistically? They'd have to have so many more school busses, to keep kids in school on time. Not to mention a ton of extra space in the schools themselves, with a nonexistent budget for any of it.
Either they're putting these requirements out with the knowledge that they're not going to be able to be enforced, to wash their hands of the fact that they won't be enforced, or they'll make the smart decision and not open schools, citing these requirements.
SMH.
ETA: I suppose they could stagger kids going to school, like a 1 or 2 day a week model, much reduced number of kids that way.
Yes, I think that last sentence is what the plan is. At least some Virginia school districts are also offering parents the option to continue full-time remote learning at home, so that would cut down the number of buses. But, yeah, until they know how many parents choose that option, they can't really project whether the other logistics will work. And if they need more buses, I'm wondering how fast a country that can't keep up with the need for PPE will be able to turn out additional buses. I guess there are enough people out of work that finding bus drivers might not be an insuperable problem -- except you need a special class of driver's license, and I don't know if DMVs are doing drivers' exams now? Where the DMV employee and the person wanting the license have to get in the same car and breath the same air while the tester speaks the instructions?0 -
moonangel12 wrote: »I have heard a bunch of ideas being tossed around for school reopening - all virtual, part time (in class 2-3 days a week), alternating weeks, can’t remember some of the others.
we homeschool so it’s not a huge deal to us what they decide, but my heart breaks for the students that need the school system - for food, support, and even safety. I know there are many out there with horrendous home lives and it crushes me to think about what they are going through...
This is true, but it's also pretty crushing that in the U.S. our response as a society to horrendous home lives for children is that they get a six to eight hour respite at school. Hey, you don't have to worry about anyone hitting you or putting out cigarettes on your skin for the six to eight hours you're at school. That's something, right?
No, I don't know what the answer is, but it's still the thought that goes through my mind when the American Pediatrics Association talks about how important school is to make sure kids have adequate nutrition and time away from bad home conditions. Like, would it be too much to ensure that they can get a decent meal when they go home? Doesn't the APA also talk about how important families sitting down together for a meal is?
I'm happy to give money to food banks and other organizations that support these needs, but I find it depressing that it's necessary in "the richest and greatest country in the world" as we like to tell ourselves. And I imagine it's depressing for folks who have to turn to food banks, however glad they might be for the groceries.10 -
Is anyone else afraid about the possibility of schools reopening??
All my kids are way over that age but my dh works at a private high school and they usually have about 150-200 dorm students each year, from everywhere. I know it's still about 6 weeks away from now but Honestly, I don't foresee a better environment anytime soon. I just think of all the little kids and worried parents who will have to deal with this. I know the world is aching to get back to 'normal' but at the price of subjecting the children?
I have to say that I am hoping and praying my kids go back to school in a few weeks. They attend a private high school, that while they did the absolute best they could in the circumstances, that did not provide the high level of education that I have come to expect. They are set up for some online learning but not a fully online program. I can understand that some teachers might be reluctant, but many kids need that inperson attention and they can't get that through a screen. I know my kids each struggled in a couple classes because they just weren't able to learn the subject online (math for one, latin for another). They aren't/can't repeat these years and they need this education to move forward. How will we ever catch up the kids that don't have involved parents or parents that don't have the time to help their kids? We are failing the kids if we insist on online only.
Plus what about the kids who rely on the school for breakfast/lunch? For catching cases of abuse or neglect? Or just the fact that they are kids and NEED that social interaction. I'm not sure what the answer really is, but I don't think it's keeping the kids at home for another semester or year.
I can't help but think that if schools did such a good job of catching cases of abuse or neglect, there wouldn't be many such situations ongoing as kids entered #stayhome. But maybe I'm just depressed by what feels like the endless cycle of bad news wherever I turn.
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »Here in PA, when they went to online school about 1/3 of the kids in some districts never logged in. If they don't have a parent to push them to follow the lectures and do the work, they just fall farther and farther behind.
Or they may just not have Internet access at home. Did the school districts supply them with mobile hotspots?3 -
cmriverside wrote: »ExistingFish wrote: »Where I live, we have a Sheriff, a Deputy, and one Patrol Officer. I don't think having them running around mandating masks is a good use of their time.
You are really letting your anxiety run away with you.
Just like there is not a Deputy at every stop sign, there is not going to be a mass LEO response to a teenager at the Rite Aid not wearing a mask.
The "enforcement" as it is will fall to retailers and businesses to not serve those who are not wearing a mask. Just like dogs aren't allowed in stores, but people bring their dogs in anyway. Smoking isn't allowed at the zoo, but people smoke anyway. I don't blame stores and businesses for not being able to control this any more than they can control someone walking out with a $40 steak.
Be realistic here. C'mon.
There is a lot to be said for Social Pressure. The more people who wear masks, the more people will be self-conscious about not wearing them. Not everyone - because sociopathy and psychopathy - but we'll have to live with that or move to a tent in the woods.
You're right about social pressure. I wear a mask to go inside the bank during business hours, but never to go to the ATM inside the entrance on evenings when the bank is closed. Yesterday evening I went with no mask, and six other customers were there - ALL wearing masks except me. I felt really stupid!!
Of course we were all safe, because their masks protected them from me, and I was completely protected from them, as their mouths and noses were covered. I probably won't do that again.
Well, no, unless they were wearing N-95s to go to the ATM, their masks protected you, but not them. By the time any hypothetical virus droplets you were hypothetically exhaling got to their faces, the droplets would have broken down into smaller droplets that are more likely to penetrate their masks, whereas the droplets in their exhalations wouldn't have had time to break down before hitting the masks covering their noses and mouths. My mask protects you; your mask protects me.9 -
lynn_glenmont wrote: »Is anyone else afraid about the possibility of schools reopening??
All my kids are way over that age but my dh works at a private high school and they usually have about 150-200 dorm students each year, from everywhere. I know it's still about 6 weeks away from now but Honestly, I don't foresee a better environment anytime soon. I just think of all the little kids and worried parents who will have to deal with this. I know the world is aching to get back to 'normal' but at the price of subjecting the children?
I was thinking about this the other day, and I think what's needed is something radical: much reduced class sizes, especially for younger kids who can't be expected to understand the need to wear masks and to maintain their distance. Which means we need more classroom spaces and more teachers. Space could be rented from facilities that can't open yet anyway -- like movie theaters. performing arts centers, indoor sporting venues. Teachers -- or at least adult supervision -- could be drawn from the ranks of the 10% of Americans who are unemployed, maybe with some online/video support from actual older or immuno-compromised teachers.
ETA: another part of my imaginary radical scenario was going back to mini "one-room schoolhouses" -- not as individual buildings, but classrooms that might have kids of different ages, maybe mixing three families of kids (to limit the number of potential interfamily disease transmissions, if that makes sense). Obviously with the smaller average sizes of family these might not work as well as it would have decades ago (I think the average family size on the block I grew up on was about 3.5). You might have to go four families depending on how large the hypothetical reduced class sizes would be -- I was picturing between five and 10 kids.
I don't see how we can go back to normal-sized classes of 20+ kids, circulating around schools to music rooms and art rooms with different instructors (or changing rooms and teachers for every class with older kids). There would be exploding hot spots everywhere.
Speaking as someone who went to a 3-room K-8 in my earliest grades, I think that multigrade model is a pretty excellent model for social and education reasons, too. We had 3 grades to a room, so (sort of) you got some combination of a year of preview, a year of view, and a year of review for certain grades. At recess (because the 3 rooms were the whole school), there were all-grades games, not strict age segregation. I'm sure it was extra challenging for the teachers, though.5 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »kshama2001 wrote: »Our WI county is in a "surge" now and spouse and I have basically been going out only for essential stuff since early March. But one of his ball playing friends (in the demographic hardest hit by infection, who has not been social distancing as far as I know) is getting married this month and wants him there ... indoor wedding at a tiny place with (he says) a dozen or so people there, also from "surge" communities. He says he's going, despite the fact that within the last 4 months he's had a mild stroke & a pacemaker implanted. I voiced my opinion fairly reasonably (I thought) and his response was, well you don't have to come along. He's a 73 year old mule.
Would this help? (Wedding is in the top left of High Risk.)
Interesting the risk of going to church or a bar is about equal but both are about socializing with like minded friends I guess.
I think both are about being in close quarters inside for an extended period with lots and lots of other people whose compliance with social distancing in other situations you cannot possibly know for sure. I'm pretty sure that whether or not they share your religious beliefs or preferences in bars (sports bar? fern bar, if they still exist? pool bar? bar with jazz trio? tiki bar?) has no bearing on the level of risk.3 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »GaleHawkins wrote: »
The threat to withhold federal school dollars to states that do not open schools must be having an impact.
Most states get less that 10% of K-12 funding from tbe federal government. A chunk but not a deal breaker if a state wants to be at odds with the POTUS.
Also the President can't withhold federal funding, Congress distributes tax dollars. He can certainly pressure Congress to pass a bill that incentivizes full reopening rather than miss out on fed funding, but the teachers' lobby is pretty powerful too.
You would think that, but in addition to the somewhat controversial action called impoundment, almost all congressional funding authorizations other than direct block grants to states involve some level of decision-making by the agencies that run the programs through which the funds are distributed. Many of those agencies are in the executive branch, like the Department of Education. I can't say anything more about how the Department of Education distributes funding without crossing the line from civics to politics.0
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