That prediction sounds nice, because currently it seems like in most suburbs the public schools are all announcing they will not be in person, and the private schools are all announcing they will be in person. It's the Republicans' dream scenario. More home-schooling, more people in private schools, more women having to stay home instead of going to work.
I did read that NYT article about the private schools, but I forgot about it when I wrote this post a moment ago. That's a depressing point.
Locally, none of our private schools have much money. I think the teachers actually earn less, for the privilege of teaching the upper crusties.
The one other variable in higher ed is that I think schools are playing a bit of a game of chicken regarding getting their tuition payments in. They all want to collect as much revenue as possible before announcing that whoops, they can't actually risk in-person anything this fall.
I'm a little sympathetic to the position they're in, because the way we finance higher ed has shifted dramatically in the past 20 years, with state budgets contributing far less and tuition revenue (from both US-born and, crucially, full-paying international students) contributing more. But that's a marker of how screwed up the system is, not an endorsement of their risky and dysfunctional tactics in coping with a screwed-up system.
Needless to say, the administration's whiplash regarding international students in the past couple of weeks has further decimated higher ed revenue. Even though they lost decisively in court, the damage has in many ways already been done.
4: In higher ed, I think some of the private schools can do it by having only half of their students come to campus and testing them multiple times a week.
Apropos of nothing, I'm reminded of this
4: That assumes that tests are available and are fast enough to be useful. Currently in my part of PA, turnaround time is 7 days -- utterly useless.
It also assumes that students are somewhere else (safe) during their days "off" and that teachers, administrators, and other staff can safely social distance. Based on my recent conversations with retail workers, I'm not remotely confident in that.
Good short thread on higher ed revenue issues and Covid.
6 last is indeed an excellent thread. And added to that, I know my university it worried that if they announce they are going to be online then a lot of students will switch to a university that says it will be face to face. So they delay (and are currently reassigning classrooms to allow more distancing) because they really need all the universities to make the call at pretty much the same time. Which will of course be the 11th hour.
And test turnaround here seems to range between 3 and 10 days, depending on the lab.
And this op-ed from pediatricians goes into the testing delay issues for children.
6.last This is an aside in that thread, but oh yeah:
Third, given the years of alarming hype about the glorious promise of MOOCs and online education, it's worth noting that at least implicit in these crazy efforts to force faculty and students back into the classroom is a recognition of how misplaced that fantasy really was.
People in powerful positions in this country are unable to achieve their policy goals by democratic means. Instead of compromising or reconsidering, they are deliberately weakening key institutions and social norms in an attempt to achieve goals by non-democratic means and because people they hate are more immediately affected by the weakened state of America.
10: Exactly. The only upside to this is that, since it's an intensification and federalization of what was going on before, it's a lot more visible and it affects more powerful people. I mean, "fuck with the process because we're going against the popular will" isn't new, but as long as it was just a problem for, eg, poor people, it was invisible to many people of good will. I don't think it's just that middle class people, etc, only care about their own interests; I think that a good percentage of middle class people clearly support Western European style social programs but because society is large and complex and our media is terrible, those people remain isolated and politically inactive, plus lack a sense of urgency because they misunderstand the scale of the problem.
For many years I always said that rich people basically didn't care if they ruled over a smoking mass grave as long as they were the rulers, but I really hoped it wasn't true. I find it very unpleasant when my analysis of society is proved correct.
I'd really, really hoped to get in another good ten to fifteen years before society collapsed, and without the plague it would have been possible. Minnesota is relatively rich, relatively well-governed and relatively insulated from the worst of climate change, plus we have plenty of water.
Also, my habitat is a terrible, cave-like mess because I've been almost entirely collapsed with anxiety all week. We have eaten nutritious meals, I have done all critical paid work and I have showered several times, and that's about it.
1, 2 - My daughter's private school announced yesterday that K-5 will be in person five days a week and that the older kids will be on campus for less than that. They're being very flexible about allowing parents to pull their kids out until the very last minute, but I'm sure that also puts pressure on them to try and make it in-person learning because it seems like a lot of people think there's no reason to pay for remote learning. I'm not one of those people, mind you. I think they did an incredible job last year. But I would prefer to send my daughter to campus so I can get some work done.
Although Utah is one of those bruised red states, when the governor said that SLC was going to be remote learning if we couldn't keep our numbers of new viruses down, a protest of 100 people seems to have convinced the governor that SLC needed to have on-campus learning. I'm surprised at how quickly he recanted. Especially considering that he's not running for another term, so who cares if he angers his constituency?
I like the habitat quip. I've had similar thoughts when I look at the big blue exercise ball I just got, it's like a hamster toy.
6: Broad is testing their employees 2x week, but they run their own tests.
I think New England turn around times are ok. And they are quarantining people at those schools
You can get a 15 min antigen test. Around here through your doctor it's like 24-48 hours,
6 is excellent, and well worth reading.
I am profoundly irritated by the impulse to blame college faculty (those lazy, tenured-radical professors who just don't want to put in an honest day's work ... ); and, at the level of elementary through secondary school, to blame teachers (those lazy teachers who already get their summers off, and their corrupt, left-wing unions ...).
Like, the problem isn't a failure to take a global pandemic seriously, is not a failure to enact sane and sensible public health policies accordingly. No: the problem is lazy teachers!
Teaching online takes a lot more effort than teaching in person. Even teaching online to a significantly lower standard than usual teaching is a lot more work.
Just Plain Jane, did your son make it across the border?