TOP THREE
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Full text of the infrastructure deal. Section by Section summary. It will change as amendments are already being considered. Some education highlights.
$500 million for energy-efficiency improvements and renewable energy improvements at public school facilities
$500 million to support increasing transportation energy efficiency for school buses and mass transit
$200 million to support voluntary testing or monitoring for and remediation of lead contamination in drinking water at schools and child care centers;
$75 million to promote the introduction of recycling principles and best practices into public school curricula;
$5 billion to support a Clean School Bus Program
$550 million to support the creation and expansion of industrial research and assessment centers at institutions of higher education, trade schools, and community colleges
Broadband
$1.5 billion for the establishment of the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program
$42.45 billion to establish a Broadband Access, Equity and Deployment program
$1 billion to enable middle-mile broadband infrastructure
How Has the Pandemic Affected Students' Social-Emotional Well-Being? A Review of the Evidence to Date: Valuable piece from CRPE with what we know and what we don't know along with recommendations.
"A significant portion of young people, likely 30 to 40 percent, have experienced negative impacts on their mental or social-emotional health during the pandemic."
"Rates of anxiety and attempted suicides, already on the rise pre-pandemic, appear to have increased among all students, especially among girls."
"Most research efforts focused on adolescent students. We have little clear evidence on the pandemic’s impact on the well-being of children ages 5 to 10"
"Anecdotal evidence suggests that students with disabilities were disproportionately affected by the pandemic"
The Madness of Teachers Unions Opposing a Vaccine Mandate: By Jonathan Chait
"American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten slipped a rather ominous comment into an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. “We’re going to keep kids safe, we’re going to keep our members safe, we’re going to try to open up schools,” she said. That “try” was a notable retreat from her concession two months ago that, after more than a year of throwing up impediments to in-person instruction, “we can and we must reopen schools in the fall.”
"The mere possibility that some schools may be forced to haggle once again with their unions to reopen school in the face of incontrovertible evidence of the need to do so is maddening enough. But the cherry on top of this sundae of public dysfunction is the fact that the national teachers unions have refused to support a vaccine mandate for teachers. “Vaccinations must be negotiated between employers and workers, not coerced,” says Weingarten."
"The awful thing is that 15 months of closed schools has brought with it hardly any public-health benefit. Even before widespread vaccinations, evidence suggested that closing schools contributed very little to suppressing the COVID-19 pandemic."
FEDERAL
COVID-19 Eviction Ban Expires: Reuters reports, "The White House had made clear it would not unilaterally extend the protections, arguing it does not have legal authority to do so following a Supreme Court ruling in June." The House was unable to pass an extension last week. Now the White House is calling on states to prevent evictions.
NTIA: Released a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, which will direct $268 million for expanding broadband access and connectivity to eligible Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs), minority-serving institutions (MSIs)
COVID-19 RESEARCH
70%: Of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Behavioral Nudges Increase COVID-19 Vaccinations: Via Nature.
Tested text-based reminders and delivered them to patients of a healthcare system one day and eight days after they received notification of vaccine eligibility.
"The first reminder boosted appointments and vaccination rates within the healthcare system by 6.07 (84%) and 3.57 (26%) percentage points, respectively; the second reminder increased those outcomes by 1.65 and 1.06 percentage points, respectively."
Information Campaigns And COVID-19 Vaccine Messaging: Applying Lessons Learned From The 2020 Election: Report from NGA
"False information campaigns, including misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM), exploit the emotional nature of societal issues, influence public opinion, sow social discord and erode trust in public institutions."
"Misinformation refers to false information shared inadvertently or without harmful intent; disinformation refers to the deliberate creation of inaccurate information for malicious purposes; and malinformation refers to the use of facts deliberately out of context with an intent to mislead."
To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit an ‘Influencer Army’: The NYT reports: "The White House has teamed up with TikTok stars, while some states are paying “local micro influencers” for pro-vaccine campaigns."
Who Is To Blame for Rising COVID Cases? Axios-Ipsos poll which has a crosstab of responses based on vaccination status. The numbers among the unvaccinated show the distrust they have of the CDC, health officials, and the Administration.
COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Cases: KFF with data from the States. Powerful visualization.
STATE
California: The new state school mask rule doesn't faze many students. It's 'second nature' now
Florida: Broward County Public Schools has dropped its mask mandate after Gov. DeSantis issued an executive order that would cut off funding to schools that did so.
Hawaii: As COVID cases spike, parents want distance learning options
Iowa: Des Moines may offer online elementary school again as COVID cases begin to climb
Louisiana: "The per-capita death rate for younger Black adults for last year was nearly four times the death rate of Whites of the same age, while death rates for Black seniors were roughly equal to those of Whites ages 65 and over."
Mississippi: Lamar County School District announced that two of its schools, Oak Grove High School and Purvis High School, were closing and going all-virtual until Aug. 16 “due to the high transmission rate of COVID-19.”
Oregon: State health officials said masks will be required for the rest of summer school and the first part of the 2021-22 academic year. If a district doesn't follow the guidance, they could face a $500 fine per day until they comply.
South Dakota: "In a typical year, 3% of students miss 30 or more days of school...This year, that figure rose to 6.5%, with about 8,600 students missing six weeks or more of a school year, with the majority of those students being from low-income families, Native American, Hispanic or in special education."
Texas:
TEA reminds parents of the option for students to repeat grade or, if in high school, repeat a course.
Frisco ISD is expected to offer an online learning option to students who are not fully vaccinated.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Reforming Tax Credits to Promote Child Opportunity and Aid Working Families: Via Scott Winship at AEI
Supporting Distressed Communities by Strengthening Regional Public Universities: Via Brookings
RESOURCES
For Many, the Belated Realization That Covid Will Be ‘A Long War’ Sparks Anger And Denial: Via Stat
"The prospect of contending with a prolonged outbreak phase — and adjusting again to a constantly evolving roster of restrictions — has brought back another feature of pandemic living in America: anger."
"Another lesson in the current outpouring of outrage — the danger of setting unrealistic expectations. “One of the big mistakes of the U.S. Covid response, among many, was at the beginning to not make it clear that this was going to be a long war,” said historian John Barry, who wrote the definitive account of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, “The Great Influenza.”
"A more likely scenario for exiting the pandemic phase of Covid-19, many scientists told STAT earlier this year, was that over time, likely a period of years, our immune systems would learn enough about SARS-CoV-2 to stave off the deadliest symptoms of infection. In this way the pandemic pathogen would become an endemic one — circulating among us and causing smaller, seasonal surges of milder illness."
Parents Caught in K-12 Masking Debate: Via Axios
Here's How Schools Should Handle a Covid-19 Outbreak: Via CNN
Student Laptops For Virtual Learning Are Also Helping Parents Learn English: Via NPR.
Heated Debate On Masks In Schools: Is really, really intense between these two.