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I believe part of it has to do with: 1) Helping to make sure business (specifically bars and restaurants) don't keep closing 2) Getting people off unemploymen

I believe part of it has to do with: 1) Helping to make sure business (specifically bars and restaurants) don't keep closing 2) Getting people off unemployment And just telling restaurants to stay on to go orders doesn't pay the bills. Most of these also sell alcohol. So revenue alone from to go may not pay the rent, not to mention you don't have the same amount of staff on either. Schools aren't going to close if we keep kids out of them longer, and in theory teachers can still be paid because it comes from property tax money. Unless of course people can't pay their taxes anymore because they're unemployed/broke. So I think they're two separate problems. The issue with school at this point is most likely a societal one which consists of: - Parents who will have to go back to work at some point, have to have a place to send their children during the day (this is a whole other WFH conversation where appropriate). - Parents who do WFH but have no time to do learning during the day with their kids (or being unwilling for whatever reason). - Parents aren't teachers, so learning/development will probably suffer anyway. - Not all districts were setup to work like this. Think about underfunded urban schools or rural ones where technology might be a problem.

samtho 6y ago
> 1) Helping to make sure business (specifically bars and restaurants) don't keep closing I don't disagree with this, but I would like to pose the question: What makes them more valuable (and thus worth saving) than other types of businesses? The taxation structure is the most likely explanation which show you exactly were priorities are. Officials allowed open a very risky type of business as far as transmission goes (bars) for cash flow.
cosmie 6y ago
As vibernum mentioned[1], tax revenue comes into play as well. My municipality's school budget, as an example, is heavily reliant on a portion of local sales tax proceeds in addition to property taxes. So at a time when they're having an unanticipated spike in immediate expenses (increased sanitation/facilities costs, pppe costs, widescale elearning investments and implementation, drastically increased administrative burden, capital purchases for student technology, etc), they're also seeing an unanticipated drop in revenue. It really is a shame the federal government isn't stepping up more in this area. Even with the relatively small amount of relief funds allocated to primary education, states are having to sue the Education Department to even keep their hands on what they've been allocated[2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23834738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23834738 [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/07/888793021/states-sue-education-department-over-allocation-of-pandemic-funds-to-schools https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...

samtho 6y ago

> 1) Helping to make sure business (specifically bars and restaurants) don't keep closing I don't disagree with this, but I would like to pose the question: What makes them more valuable (and thus worth saving) than other types of businesses? The taxation structure is the most likely explanation which show you exactly were priorities are. Officials allowed open a very risky type of business as far as transmission goes (bars) for cash flow.

cosmie 6y ago

As vibernum mentioned[1], tax revenue comes into play as well. My municipality's school budget, as an example, is heavily reliant on a portion of local sales tax proceeds in addition to property taxes. So at a time when they're having an unanticipated spike in immediate expenses (increased sanitation/facilities costs, pppe costs, widescale elearning investments and implementation, drastically increased administrative burden, capital purchases for student technology, etc), they're also seeing an unanticipated drop in revenue. It really is a shame the federal government isn't stepping up more in this area. Even with the relatively small amount of relief funds allocated to primary education, states are having to sue the Education Department to even keep their hands on what they've been allocated[2]. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23834738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23834738 [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/07/07/888793021/states-sue-education-department-over-allocation-of-pandemic-funds-to-schools https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/0...