COVID-19 Policy Update #276
COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 6/15
TOP THREE
Pennsylvania District Spending Priorities: Survey by Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials which reveals district spending priorities for stimulus funds:
Purchasing educational technology for students to aid in regular classroom instruction: 87%
Addressing learning loss among students: 87%
Planning and implementing activities related to summer learning and supplemental after-school programs: 85%
Providing technology/internet access for online learning to all students: 77%
Providing mental health services and supports: 70%
Facility repairs/improvements to enable operation/reduce risk of virus transmission and exposure to environmental health hazards: 63%
Inspection, testing, maintenance, repair, replacement, and upgrade projects to improve the indoor air quality in school facilities: 65%
More than 9% of survey respondents noted the specific challenges related to growth in cyber charter tuition costs, which increased dramatically during the 2020-21 school year due to an increase in cyber charter enrollment of more than 20,000 students.
"The potential financial implications of this enrollment growth are devastating to school districts and could result in an increased charter school tuition cost of roughly $350-400 million in 2020-21. Based on updated 2019-20 Annual Financial Report data, the overall increase in the amount school districts will pay charter schools in 2020-21 could range anywhere from $450 to 550 million--this is at least double the normal annual increase in charter school tuition"
Bloomberg Philanthropies: Unveiled 50 innovative Champion Cities that will advance to the final round of the 2021 Global Mayors Challenge. US cities include:
Akron, Ohio: Taking lessons from training medical students to support Black entrepreneurs.
Baltimore: Citywide system to support Black-owned businesses.
Birmingham, Ala.: Investing in next-generation of food entrepreneurs.
Columbus, Ohio: Last-mile Wi-Fi access to underserved neighborhoods.
Durham, N.C.: Team to help residents access untapped federal resources.
Lansing, Mich.: Partnerships to halt learning loss in children.
Long Beach, Calif.: Bringing transparency to the gig economy.
Louisville: Creating diverse tech workforce.
New Orleans: Bringing trust-building lens to the delivery of public services.
Newark: Reducing crime by focusing on the most persistent offenders.
Paterson, N.J: Providing on-demand treatment to those struggling with opioid addiction.
Phoenix: "Career mobility units" for job-seekers.
Rochester, Minn.: Creating pathways for women of color into the growing, high-paying local construction field.
San Jose, Calif.: Bolstering college-support pipeline for marginalized families.
Virtual Learning Fault Lines: Via Washington Post:
"But in New Jersey, learning remotely will no longer be an option.“All we want is the choice,” said Nye, a New Jersey mother of three who has joined with other parents to protest the state action."
"The crosscurrents have created a new education fault line: School by computer is on the way out in some places and on the rise in others — driven by sharply differing views on the long-term value of virtual instruction and the best way to help the most vulnerable children and families in a moment when the stakes are high."
“This notion that learning can only take place when a kid is in school” is wrong, said AASA President Daniel Domenech"
“There will certainly be more virtual education going forward,” said Anna Maria Chávez, executive director and CEO of the National School Boards Association. “Now that we’ve seen the power of remote learning, we can’t go backwards.”
FEDERAL
Infrastructure:
Bipartisan talks continue with the White House, including several meetings today.
But the Hill reports that the White House told House Democrats to get ready to go it alone on infrastructure.
Sen. Schumer also said he will "convene a meeting with all 11 Democratic members of the Budget Committee Wednesday to begin the process for passing a budget resolution" which would be the beginning of using the reconciliation process for the infrastructure package.
IES: Request for Applications: “Research to Accelerate Pandemic Recovery in Special Education”
AmeriCorps: White House nominates Michael D. Smith for Chief Executive Officer of AmeriCorps
COVID-19 RESEARCH
600,000: More than 600,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
"It's a higher death toll than the number of American soldiers killed in combat during the Vietnam War, World War I and World War II combined."
COVID May Have Been in the US as Early as 2019: According to some new NIH assessments. "The NIH study of blood samples found a handful of cases in Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin dating back to early January and perhaps December 2019"
Mask Campaign: Ad Council, CDC, and Rockefeller launched a new campaign encouraging Americans to mask up until they're vaccinated.
Coronavirus Infections Dropping Where People are Vaccinated, Rising Where They Are Not: Via Washington Post
STATE
Arizona: GMA segment on a mom who beats odds, graduates from high school with 2-year-old with the help of ASU Prep Digital.
Florida: Around 35 to 40% of Alachua County Public Schools students aren’t meeting grade level expectations.
Ohio: Sidney City Schools is introducing the Jacket Virtual Academy (JaVA), a virtual learning experience for students in grades K-12.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
A Higher Ed Shakeout: "Behind the scenes in colleges across the U.S., institutions are having trouble paying their bills"
Rents: Rents for single-family homes just saw the largest gains in nearly 15 years
WFH/RTO: Andreessen Horowitz surveyed 226 CEOs in its portfolio of tech startups, asking their plans and expectations for remote work and the return to the office.
"About ⅔ of organizations said they would work in a “hybrid model,” with the majority of those opting to be in the office 1-2 days per week (38.8%) or in person only for offsites (28.6%)."
"16.8% of CEOs and 9.7% of organizations had plans to relocate from existing headquarters."
"Board meetings are also going hybrid/remote, with 54.4% of organizations planning hybrid environments for future board meetings, 32.3% prioritizing remote-first, and only 13.3% preferring going back to all in-person."
RESOURCES
The Rise of Black Homeschooling: Via The New Yorker. Argues the COVID-19 pandemic exposed fault lines within some public education systems—particularly for young black children—leading school choice advocates to have garnered new teammates, ranging from the libertarian corporation Koch Industries, to urban Detroit families.
Learning Loss: Students in both California and South Carolina show learning lags of approximately two and half months in both English Language Arts and math according to data released by Education Analytics (EA)
Digital Learning Is Here to Stay. Now, Give Non-Traditional Online Schools the Funding to Meet Their Students’ Needs: Via Yovhane Metcalfe
"Moving forward, it is critical that state and federal legislators prioritize digital education and the role it can play in keeping and recapturing students in the education system."
"For these models to thrive, and thus for students to succeed, lawmakers must ensure that virtual schools are funded at the same level as traditional brick-and-mortar schools. To encourage the creation of new virtual or hybrid schools in areas that lack access to flexible educational opportunities, legislators should also consider one-time startup funding to help launch new programs."
How K-12 Schools Tamed Silicon Valley: Via EdWeek: Why ed-tech startups Clever and Nearpod are expected to sell for a combined $1 billion.
For Some Rural Students, Taking More AP Courses Means More Online Learning: Via WBUR
EdTech Deals:
AllHere: Black-woman edtech founder closes $8M Series A funding round "This past year, the number of schools using AllHere grew by over 700%, reaching 8,000 schools across 34 states."
Maven raises $20 million to scale cohort-based online classes
RateMyRoom: Some strong scores from the education world.
Mario Ramirez with 8/10. Teddy & Bentley boosted my score, but a cord violation knocked it down to 8/10. Julia Rafal-Baer beat us all with a 9/10.
FPF's Jules Polonetsky quipped "What, Room Rater is now in my orbit, the world of deep policy geeks?" to which RoomRater replied "We think of it as a low earth orbit."