COVID-19 Policy Update #207
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 2/25
TOP THREE
School Closures Have Failed America’s Children: Via Nicholas Kristof
"Millions of American schoolchildren will soon have missed a year of in-person instruction, and we may have inflicted permanent damage on some of them, and on our country."
"The reluctance of many Republicans to wear masks and practice social distancing is one reason so many Americans are dead. But the educational losses are disproportionately the fault of Democratic governors and mayors who too often let schools stay closed even as bars opened."
"The blunt fact is that it is Democrats — including those who run the West Coast, from California through Oregon to Washington State — who have presided over one of the worst blows to the education of disadvantaged Americans in history. The result: more dropouts, less literacy and numeracy, widening race gaps, and long-term harm to some of our most marginalized youth."
"Yes, it’s hard to open schools during a pandemic. But private schools mostly managed to, and that’s true not only of rich boarding schools but also of strapped Catholic schools."
"Teachers in some places are suggesting that in-school instruction shouldn’t resume even after they are vaccinated, not until students are vaccinated as well. That’s an abdication of responsibility to America’s children."
Closing Schools is Not Evidence Based and Harms Children: Editorial in the BMJ:
"Children have least to gain and most to lose from school closures."
"In-person learning increases teachers’ exposure and might be expected to increase their risk of becoming infected,13 but accumulating evidence shows that teachers and school staff are not at higher risk of hospital admission or death from covid-19 compared with other workers"
"Many pupils may never be able to catch up on lost time in school, and vulnerable teenagers are falling through gaps in the school and social care systems. There is no substitute for face-to-face learning. In the absence of strong evidence for benefits of school closures, the precautionary principle would be to keep schools open to prevent catastrophic harms to children."
School Closures Weren't Effective: New study in JAMA:
Suggests that people’s voluntary behavioral changes, such as working from home and avoiding large gatherings, made a bigger impact during the pandemic than closing schools.
"The economic costs of school closures in the US in the spring of 2020 have been estimated to be some $2 trillion dollars"
"Given the uncertainty surrounding the severity and transmission dynamics of the disease, the decision to close schools in spring 2020 was reasonable. However, this analysis suggests that school closures did not play the only or even most important role in slowing the spread of the disease. Other, less harmful, means may be found in the future to effectively limit further spread of COVID-19."
FEDERAL
ED: Announced several new hires (Bios here):
Clarence “CJ” Powell, Special Assistant, Office of Postsecondary Education
Doralicia “Allie” Aguilera, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Deputy Secretary
Christian Rhodes, Chief of Staff, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Blanchi Roblero, Chief of Staff, Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs
Aaliyah Samuel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for State and Local Engagement, Office of Communications and Outreach
Kelly Leon, Press Secretary, Office of Communications and Outreach
Ben Cobley, Senior Director of Digital Strategy, Office of Communications and Outreach
Vanessa Harmoush, Special Assistant, Office of Communications and Outreach
Latricia Hardman, Confidential Assistant, Office of the Under Secretary
Loredana Valtierra, Special Assistant, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development
Montserrat Garibay, Senior Advisor for Labor Relations, Office of Secretary
Christopher Rush, Director of Educational Technology, Office of the Secretary
Monique Dixon, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Office for Civil Rights
Juliana Herman, Chief of Staff, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development
Scott Sargrad, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Programs, Office of the Secretary
Jen Mishory, Chief of Staff, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education
Maggie Murphy, Director of Advance, Office of the Secretary
Donametria “Tria” Stallings, Confidential Assistant, Office of the Secretary
Kabrillen Jones, Special Assistant, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
Jordan Matsudaira, Deputy Under Secretary, Office of the Under Secretary
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Vaccine Campaign: Launched today by the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative (WSJ / AP):
Vaccine Toolkit for Mayors: From Bloomberg:
IHME: Weekly update.
Projects 574,000 cumulative deaths on June 1. This represents 76,000 additional deaths from February 22 to June 1
By June 1, they project that 88,600 lives will be saved by the projected vaccine rollout.
Map of vaccine hestiancy
Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine: New study finds it performs as well in the real world as in clinical trials.
CDC Launches Nationwide VaccineFinder Tool: "The site will only include inventory data from 29,000 providers to start, roughly a quarter of the national total. They will include locations in four states — Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, and Tennessee — along with providers registered in the federal pharmacy program."
Modeling Transmission: Modelers at the Institute for Disease Modeling (IDM) found that the number of infected people who show up to school is proportional to spread in the community.
"More involved or costly safety measures — like vaccinating teachers and coronavirus testing at schools — may offer limited protective benefit when basic protocols like masking and distancing are in place, they say, but could be key to keeping case counts down if more transmissible coronavirus variants become common."
Covid-19: Keeping Schools as Safe as Possible: Another editorial in the BMJ:
"Closing schools risks detrimental effects on children’s educational attainment and their social and mental development. For many children, schools are also a source of food or security from domestic violence. The economic implications of closing schools must also be considered, including loss of parental income linked to childcare or supervision of online learning, particularly for younger children. These economic effects fall disproportionately on women. School closures augment existing social inequities, compounded by the fact that areas of social deprivation, often associated with multigenerational housing and public facing occupations, tend to be areas of greater transmission."
"The emerging consensus is that schools do not seem to be amplifiers of transmission, and that cases in schools simply reflect prevalence within the local community."
Vaccine Hesitancy: Civiqs poll: 41% of Republicans say they don't plan to get a vaccine if it's available to them. Only 33% say they do plan to get vaccinated.
Tracking Coronavirus Cases at U.S. Colleges and Universities: Via NYT
STATE
Arizona: OpEd: How should Arizona erase pandemic learning losses? Probably not how you'd think
California:
Gov. Newsom promised to set aside 10% of vaccines for teachers and other school staff, priority would be given to those already in class or plan to be within 21 days. AND those serving large number of low-income students, English learners and foster youth.
The state is moving ahead to pursue a waiver for standardized tests this year.
"Even with the modifications and software, many board members expressed concern over the validity and usefulness of the data that would be gathered while students are still learning remotely and the emotional impact that high-stakes testing could have on students living through trauma."
Results from a survey of families in the Mount Diablo Unified School District show nearly half of them would prefer their students to remain in distance learning for the rest of the school year.
40% of coronavirus vaccines available for school staff in Los Angeles County will go to the L.A. Unified School District through a new distribution formula designed to help reopen campuses sooner in areas hardest hit by the pandemic and student learning loss.
Illinois: CPS looks to require COVID-19 vaccines for employees without medical or religious waivers.
Louisiana: State leaders say expanded Internet access should be priority of federal school aid
Minnesota: Health officials ask students and families to take COVID-19 tests every two weeks
Mississippi: "They used a portion of the funds to supercharge the rollout of high-speed broadband to the most underserved areas of the state in an effort to close the digital divide."
"They went to rural electric co-ops -- private, independent electric utilities owned by the members they serve -- many of which were left gobsmacked by the offer, according to David O'Bryan, general manager of Delta Electric Power Association, which now serves Carroll and Grenada counties with broadband. Many of these co-ops had been preparing to deploy networks but lacked the cash to begin a major project, especially in the most remote and sparsely populated parts of their territories."
New Jersey: 11 parents from the South Orange-Maplewood schools are suing the district for remaining all-remote despite low COVID-19 infection rates.
New York: "New York State PTA Executive Director Kyle Belokopitsky, in an interview, said a full return to normal may not be until September of 2022."
"We're still not going to have a child vaccine, and I think it's very positive teachers were in that 1a, 1b category," she said."
Ohio: Columbus Superintendent Talisa Dixon fought personal loss, inequities in COVID pandemic.
Texas: Parents of HISD students concerned about "teacherless days"
Virginia: Homeschooling numbers this school year (Via Chad Aldeman)
+21,356 (56%) overall
+17,627 (101%) for K-5
+3,205 (34%) for 6-8
+881 (8%) for 9-12
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Powell Says Better Child Care Policies Might Lift Women in Work Force: Via NYT. “Our peers, our competitors, advanced economy democracies, have a more built-up function for child care, and they wind up having substantially higher labor force participation for women,” Mr. Powell said"
COVID-19 Work and Education Research: Strada Survey
Blue Meridian Partners: New Place Matters strategy
RESOURCES
Reopening: Why some school districts are open for in-person instruction but in some cases, neighboring ones aren’t
Is Hybrid Learning Killing Teaching? Asks Pondiscio.
Echelon Insights Survey: On party concerns and issues. Includes several questions on school reopenings.
I've Been Pouring Milk The Wrong Way: Turns out you the laws of physics says this is the right way: