5 ms·

Whitmer: Michigan closing all K-12 school buildings

59 points by newtoday 7y ago

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
If the US trajectory for COVID-19 is anything like Italy's, we are 6 days away from going from 1k cases to 15k cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_I... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_t...
- wyldfire 7y ago
  The official stats are throttled by the availability of testing.
- ComputerGuru 7y ago
  Not if there aren’t 15k test kits, it’s not.
  - tehlike 7y ago
    Reminds me of the show Chernobyl
    - davidkuhta 7y ago
      Not great, not terrible
    - Nuzzerino 7y ago
      Ouch, I fear that this may unfortunately turn out to be the case
  - seilrse 7y ago
    We have them, the CDC will just refuse requests to use them.
robbrown451 7y ago
Seems to be happening everywhere. They just announced an hour ago that they are closing schools in my daughter's school district (Burlingame California), and switching to online learning. That was quick...I am honestly a bit excited to see how online kindergarten works. I'm also wondering if the internet infrastructure will handle this well, with so many people working and going school remotely, with a really fast ramp up.
- newtoday 7y ago
  Time to scale up and horizontal.
- ComputerGuru 7y ago
  I’ve been making K-12 plans for three weeks. You shouldn’t be excited. It’s one thing for people to prepare and plan and develop a curriculum that is suited for online learning. It is another to be told at a moment’s notice to shut down schools and turn to online learning. And the internet is going to be fine, although individual sites with a sudden increase in traffic (Zoom, Skype, Office 365, etc) might have issues.
  - robbrown451 7y ago
    Why shouldn't I be excited? I'm not saying I'm happy this is all happening, but I can be interested in seeing how all this works and see the positives, can't I? Should I tell my kindergartner to be all grim and sad, or tell her that this is an adventure?
    - copperx 7y ago
      I agree. I would even dare to say that losing an entire year of K-12 is not catastrophic. Beneficial, even. There's no need to go insane coming up with educational plans for the duration of the crisis.
    - ComputerGuru 7y ago
      For kindergarten, sure. But juniors and seniors? They don’t need excitement, they need stability.
meritt 7y ago
Forget how they're going to learn remotely, who is going to watch and feed those kids? A very significant portion of US lower and middle income families depend on the public school system do those exact things while the parents work. They quite simply do not have a parent who can stay home with the kids unless they want to lose source of income. The severity of the impact on the livelihood of these people and the residual impact to the economy cannot be overstated.
- bilbo0s 7y ago
  >who is going to watch and feed those kids? Let's be honest, that duty will likely fall on an extended family member. The worst part? That extended family member will likely be a member of a covid-19 vulnerable population. More precisely, grandma.
  - robbrown451 7y ago
    I'm not sure how that's such a problem. Does watching and feeding kids make the grandparents more vulnerable to covid-19? Are you saying they'll catch it from the grandkids? (edit: I see I'm being downvoted.... ok. I'm genuinely curious, and also hoping that people aren't keeping their own out-of-school kids away from their own grandparents out of fear)
    - ultrarunner 7y ago
      It does if the virus has already been circulating widely. Which is why it's important to take steps like this early on. Provided other states or districts react differently, the estimation of efficacy will be very interesting to see after the fact.
      - robbrown451 7y ago
        Can you explain that? Just having the grandparents near the kids? I'd think that happens anyway... no one is suggesting people avoid their own family members, are they?
eries 7y ago
If anyone is struggling with being an involuntary homeschooler (especially if you are WFH and doing childcare at the same time), please reach out. I’m trying to compile resources to help And if you don’t have kids but want to help out, hit me up
- daxfohl 7y ago
  Yup, I'm in Kirkland where it hit first in US. My sister in Cincinnati was asking for advice on what things to stock up on. I said "nannies". Fact is, everything is slowing down because everyone is in the same boat. It seems like an unsurmountable problem at first, but after a few days of everyone recognizing it's for the long haul, you quit worrying about it. That said I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg and we'll look back and wonder how we worried about such petty things. This is going to hit small businesses hard because they can't just stop hibernate for a while and survive. IDK what they'll do. I have a feeling this recognition will hit and we'll realize how deep the economic dire straits we really are in the next few days. And that's before we even start talking about the medical part.
- eries 7y ago
  Beta site up: https://covid19schoolclosures.com/ https://covid19schoolclosures.com/ Feedback welcome
bcrosby95 7y ago
Several bay area school districts announced closures today too: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/school-districts-around-the-bay-area-announce-closures-affecting-tens-of-thousands-of-students/ar-BB117f9D https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/school-districts-around-th... I live in southern California, and today the 4 school districts near us announced 2-5 day closures for next week, with status updates coming afterwards.
evan_ 7y ago
Oregon just closed schools through March.

59 points by newtoday 7y ago

If the US trajectory for COVID-19 is anything like Italy's, we are 6 days away from going from 1k cases to 15k cases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Italy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_I... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_t...

wyldfire 7y ago
The official stats are throttled by the availability of testing.
ComputerGuru 7y ago
Not if there aren’t 15k test kits, it’s not.
- tehlike 7y ago
  Reminds me of the show Chernobyl
  - davidkuhta 7y ago
    Not great, not terrible
  - Nuzzerino 7y ago
    Ouch, I fear that this may unfortunately turn out to be the case
- seilrse 7y ago
  We have them, the CDC will just refuse requests to use them.

robbrown451 7y ago

Seems to be happening everywhere. They just announced an hour ago that they are closing schools in my daughter's school district (Burlingame California), and switching to online learning. That was quick...I am honestly a bit excited to see how online kindergarten works. I'm also wondering if the internet infrastructure will handle this well, with so many people working and going school remotely, with a really fast ramp up.

newtoday 7y ago
Time to scale up and horizontal.
ComputerGuru 7y ago
I’ve been making K-12 plans for three weeks. You shouldn’t be excited. It’s one thing for people to prepare and plan and develop a curriculum that is suited for online learning. It is another to be told at a moment’s notice to shut down schools and turn to online learning. And the internet is going to be fine, although individual sites with a sudden increase in traffic (Zoom, Skype, Office 365, etc) might have issues.
- robbrown451 7y ago
  Why shouldn't I be excited? I'm not saying I'm happy this is all happening, but I can be interested in seeing how all this works and see the positives, can't I? Should I tell my kindergartner to be all grim and sad, or tell her that this is an adventure?
  - copperx 7y ago
    I agree. I would even dare to say that losing an entire year of K-12 is not catastrophic. Beneficial, even. There's no need to go insane coming up with educational plans for the duration of the crisis.
  - ComputerGuru 7y ago
    For kindergarten, sure. But juniors and seniors? They don’t need excitement, they need stability.

meritt 7y ago

Forget how they're going to learn remotely, who is going to watch and feed those kids? A very significant portion of US lower and middle income families depend on the public school system do those exact things while the parents work. They quite simply do not have a parent who can stay home with the kids unless they want to lose source of income. The severity of the impact on the livelihood of these people and the residual impact to the economy cannot be overstated.

bilbo0s 7y ago
>who is going to watch and feed those kids? Let's be honest, that duty will likely fall on an extended family member. The worst part? That extended family member will likely be a member of a covid-19 vulnerable population. More precisely, grandma.
- robbrown451 7y ago
  I'm not sure how that's such a problem. Does watching and feeding kids make the grandparents more vulnerable to covid-19? Are you saying they'll catch it from the grandkids? (edit: I see I'm being downvoted.... ok. I'm genuinely curious, and also hoping that people aren't keeping their own out-of-school kids away from their own grandparents out of fear)
  - ultrarunner 7y ago
    It does if the virus has already been circulating widely. Which is why it's important to take steps like this early on. Provided other states or districts react differently, the estimation of efficacy will be very interesting to see after the fact.
    - robbrown451 7y ago
      Can you explain that? Just having the grandparents near the kids? I'd think that happens anyway... no one is suggesting people avoid their own family members, are they?

eries 7y ago

If anyone is struggling with being an involuntary homeschooler (especially if you are WFH and doing childcare at the same time), please reach out. I’m trying to compile resources to help And if you don’t have kids but want to help out, hit me up

daxfohl 7y ago
Yup, I'm in Kirkland where it hit first in US. My sister in Cincinnati was asking for advice on what things to stock up on. I said "nannies". Fact is, everything is slowing down because everyone is in the same boat. It seems like an unsurmountable problem at first, but after a few days of everyone recognizing it's for the long haul, you quit worrying about it. That said I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg and we'll look back and wonder how we worried about such petty things. This is going to hit small businesses hard because they can't just stop hibernate for a while and survive. IDK what they'll do. I have a feeling this recognition will hit and we'll realize how deep the economic dire straits we really are in the next few days. And that's before we even start talking about the medical part.
eries 7y ago
Beta site up: https://covid19schoolclosures.com/ https://covid19schoolclosures.com/ Feedback welcome

bcrosby95 7y ago

Several bay area school districts announced closures today too: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/school-districts-around-the-bay-area-announce-closures-affecting-tens-of-thousands-of-students/ar-BB117f9D https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/school-districts-around-th... I live in southern California, and today the 4 school districts near us announced 2-5 day closures for next week, with status updates coming afterwards.

evan_ 7y ago

Oregon just closed schools through March.