4 ms·

The politicians doing what they please and trying to justify it as some have done is just par for the course. Few are giving real thought to how it really impac

The politicians doing what they please and trying to justify it as some have done is just par for the course. Few are giving real thought to how it really impacts the average person because they have long lived above them economically to the point all they can do is pay lip service. Fear is an incredible political weapon and its being used adeptly. The real issue is with schools is we have a perfect scenario for real education reform but we are doing everything but that. Instead we are leaving an incredible number of students behind because everyone is thinking of their political power under the guise of their health and that of the children. Parents are frustrated because many of them have to work because either their job is deemed essential or apparently not as much of a risk; as if the cashier at a grocery store is not more at risk than a teacher. If anything the pandemic is further reducing the trust people have in their elected officials and one can hope it pans out in upcoming elections both local and national. This won't be gone even through the majority of next year.

throwawaysea 6y ago
> If anything the pandemic is further reducing the trust people have in their elected officials and one can hope it pans out in upcoming elections both local and national. It has certainly caused a loss of trust for me but I don't think it will pan out as change in upcoming elections because COVID has become a political issue, with political outcomes at stake. The leveraging of a crisis for political gain is a classic pattern, but we don't seem to be acknowledging it is happening right now. Some examples: COVID is being used as a vague justification for universal healthcare, for permanent closure of streets to vehicular traffic, for increased low-income housing, for increased taxes to fund safety nets (like homeless shelters), for normalizing deeper state involvement in business practices (like evictions), and so on. Obviously, COVID was also a big factor in the presidential election, since it hurt an otherwise strong economy, enabled the George Floyd incident to turn into months-long protests and riots (employed/busy citizens would not have the time or energy to do things like block highways daily), etc. The political underpinnings of lockdown policies are clear when you see how heavy the pushback is against any transition to remote learning or decentralized learning or school choice. We're being told at once that even saving a single life is worth shutting down the entire country, but also being told that in-person public school education is an essential service (this is the position of the Biden COVID task force). Anything that might enable alternative education models is off the table since it goes against the politics of teacher unions and the Democratic platform, particularly with education increasingly becoming a vehicle for early political indoctrination (for example introducing gender politics or the factually-incorrect 1619 project into schools). How can all this be taken except as partisan exploitation of a crisis? But in the US, with people as divided as they are, I expect everyone to just stick to their tribe. So it goes...
- baumandm 6y ago
  There's a lot to respond to in your post, but let me address a single point: In-person public school education is an essential service because our society is not setup to allow every child to stay home all day with a parent or caregiver. 64.2% of married-couple families with children have both parents employed.[1] That's 33.4 million families as of 2019. It's not an issue about alternative education models or indoctrination. It's about who is going to stay home with the kids and help them with their remote learning. Which parent is going to quit their job, and how to deal with the financial impact of that. Closing a school means that everyone in that district has to immediately adapt, and that hits some people much harder than others. Additionally, 22 million children rely on free or reduced-price lunch at school.[2] Many schools made those same lunches available for pickup earlier this year, but they're not going to be able to reach all of those children. [1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/free-school-lunch-kids-summer-hunger-2019-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/free-school-lunch-kids-summe...

throwawaysea 6y ago

> If anything the pandemic is further reducing the trust people have in their elected officials and one can hope it pans out in upcoming elections both local and national. It has certainly caused a loss of trust for me but I don't think it will pan out as change in upcoming elections because COVID has become a political issue, with political outcomes at stake. The leveraging of a crisis for political gain is a classic pattern, but we don't seem to be acknowledging it is happening right now. Some examples: COVID is being used as a vague justification for universal healthcare, for permanent closure of streets to vehicular traffic, for increased low-income housing, for increased taxes to fund safety nets (like homeless shelters), for normalizing deeper state involvement in business practices (like evictions), and so on. Obviously, COVID was also a big factor in the presidential election, since it hurt an otherwise strong economy, enabled the George Floyd incident to turn into months-long protests and riots (employed/busy citizens would not have the time or energy to do things like block highways daily), etc. The political underpinnings of lockdown policies are clear when you see how heavy the pushback is against any transition to remote learning or decentralized learning or school choice. We're being told at once that even saving a single life is worth shutting down the entire country, but also being told that in-person public school education is an essential service (this is the position of the Biden COVID task force). Anything that might enable alternative education models is off the table since it goes against the politics of teacher unions and the Democratic platform, particularly with education increasingly becoming a vehicle for early political indoctrination (for example introducing gender politics or the factually-incorrect 1619 project into schools). How can all this be taken except as partisan exploitation of a crisis? But in the US, with people as divided as they are, I expect everyone to just stick to their tribe. So it goes...

baumandm 6y ago
There's a lot to respond to in your post, but let me address a single point: In-person public school education is an essential service because our society is not setup to allow every child to stay home all day with a parent or caregiver. 64.2% of married-couple families with children have both parents employed.[1] That's 33.4 million families as of 2019. It's not an issue about alternative education models or indoctrination. It's about who is going to stay home with the kids and help them with their remote learning. Which parent is going to quit their job, and how to deal with the financial impact of that. Closing a school means that everyone in that district has to immediately adapt, and that hits some people much harder than others. Additionally, 22 million children rely on free or reduced-price lunch at school.[2] Many schools made those same lunches available for pickup earlier this year, but they're not going to be able to reach all of those children. [1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/free-school-lunch-kids-summer-hunger-2019-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/free-school-lunch-kids-summe...