Let the Principals & Teachers Decide

In any given period before covid was a problem, about half the deaths in the US occurred in those 80 and above, so repeating that statistic is meaningless.
No it is not when you are looking at who is dying from the virus.

Because that number tells you precisely who is most affected by the virus.

It also tells you most other age groups really have little issue with the virus.

That is why age related data is important Richard.
 
If the left wants to keep schools closed this fall and likely the year...why the need for more funding?

"Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal reports that education special interests are demanding, through their Democrat representatives, nearly half a trillion in additional deficit spending for the fall without requiring schools to operate. Yes, you read that right: Democrats want nearly $430 billion extra to put kids in the equivalent of Khan Academy online math lessons. Did I mention that Khan Academy is free? And that the ask to duplicate it is 600 percent more than annual federal spending on K-12?"

 
Hard to be partisan when I’ve criticized both Trump and Johnson. I’ll plead guilty to the bitter. This is just a blatant exercise of interest group power at the expense of children so you bet I’m bitter about it particularly given that the new cdc recommendations land hard in favor of school reopening. And you are right...he could chose to sit anywhere. It’s a poor choice. Thank you for pointing that out. Appreciate the assist.

Please continue.
 
I think “melting pot” is an exaggeration. I think “salad bowl” is more appropriate because every ethnicity is present but they aren’t interacting with each other much; this is also present at the universities where the students self segregate.

We need to figure out how to integrate kids better.
This is where I am - salad bowl. We have a diverse population, some diversity among races in each class, but little diversity by class.
 
No it is not when you are looking at who is dying from the virus.

Because that number tells you precisely who is most affected by the virus.

It also tells you most other age groups really have little issue with the virus.

That is why age related data is important Richard.

Are you making an argument that old people are just going to die soon anyway so we should just back off from all restrictions?
 
Concerning Online Education: Even if Covid-19 did not exist, we need more online education and less "in-school" education. And we need to focus on the most important elements of education. We should not be paying so kids can play school sports, or participate in band. Public education should have a very heavy emphasis on math, science, literature and writing. There should be a much lesser component on the humanities. 80% of all schooling can be done online.

We don't need high schools to take up 50 acres of land. We don't need football fields, or gymnasiums. Kids should attend the campus no more than twice per week, and do everything else online.

We have turned our schools into daycare centers, and people seem to think that schools are there to develop the "whole child." Its wrong. Schools are asked to do too much.
Are you serious? What % of kids can;t read or write in America? This sounds more like Charter schools to be honest.
 
Sweden’s doing great now. Despite having no restrictions and making the same stupid mistakes as New York the virus has practically disappeared

Spain is in a mini second wave despite all the lockdowns (largely in the Barcelona area which wasn’t hit as hard). France is also in a second wave and it’s prime minister has called the lockdownS a mistake and promised not to do it again. The lancet report also recently showed lockdown have very little effect.

Ps it’s pretty clear from around the world that no government policies have worked. The two exceptions are Chinese/Vietnamese lockdowns with forced testing, mandatory enforced quarantines, forced removal from homes and welding people in. Other exception is some islands that caught it early and shut themselves off from the world. We are at the point where the only 2 choices are live with it with some reasonable social distancing and measures, or lockdown until a vaccine. If lockdown forever don’t ask a poor plumber or aircon guy or mover into your house.
 
Are you making an argument that old people are just going to die soon anyway so we should just back off from all restrictions?
No, what he is saying I have said 10 times is that some folks go over to say hi to grandpa when they should have never said hi in person. They share these corona death storeis like 80 year is sitting at his house and the wind brought in the virus from the open window. No, some parents or kids make bad decision and bring the death virus to gramps. Only zoom or phone with us. Follow the rules and death will come down. Mask is important when being inside 6 ft. Fauci could have sat two seats away and wear no mask but they chose to sit next to each other. Media stunt? The other type of 83 year old is one who lives alone and gets a stroke. In the hospital he catches Corona. Triple pay?
 
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Are you making an argument that old people are just going to die soon anyway so we should just back off from all restrictions?
I am making the argument that the rest of us can go on.

Old people are the ones who should be self quarantined.

Have them stay home and away from the general population and right there you have a good chance of cutting deaths in HALF.
 
Sweden’s doing great now. Despite having no restrictions and making the same stupid mistakes as New York the virus has practically disappeared

Spain is in a mini second wave despite all the lockdowns (largely in the Barcelona area which wasn’t hit as hard). France is also in a second wave and it’s prime minister has called the lockdownS a mistake and promised not to do it again. The lancet report also recently showed lockdown have very little effect.

Sweden compared to its neighbors, all of whom had strict social controls starting early in the pandemic --

 
If your argument is that we need a total lockdown except for the most essential services, then I generally agree with you. I don't see any other way around this. A total lockdown of 4-6 weeks worked in other places. It worked in the Northeastern States like New York and New Jersey. Covid-19 is not eliminated anywhere, but it is now very manageable in the northeast and most of Europe.*
A big reason it is manageable in the Northeast is due to the early failure to contain the virus so that a significant proportion have immunity and killing off a large number of those annoyingly high risk patients in nursing homes.
 
Sweden is not doing great. It now has the third highest Covid-19 death rate at 561 per million of population, just behind Italy and Spain. That is significantly higher than the US, which has a death rate of 442 per million.

In terms of infections, Sweden is at 7,770 per million, which is the highest in Europe. Spain is second with 6,729 per million. I do agree that Sweden is doing better today than it was last month or the month before.

Maybe she thinks no one is going to look it up. Or maybe she has access to data sources no one else has.
 
Ps it’s pretty clear from around the world that no government policies have worked. The two exceptions are Chinese/Vietnamese lockdowns with forced testing, mandatory enforced quarantines, forced removal from homes and welding people in. Other exception is some islands that caught it early and shut themselves off from the world. We are at the point where the only 2 choices are live with it with some reasonable social distancing and measures, or lockdown until a vaccine. If lockdown forever don’t ask a poor plumber or aircon guy or mover into your house.
I can say that the big plumbing companies are struggling big time. I helped a guy up in LA who has over 30 trucks. Copa said they paid $225 for 30 minutes of work. If it's just Joe the Plumber, he a made a few bucks depending on how Copa found Joe. Google and Yelp is not cheap to advertise. Plus truck, GL, Workers Comp and all the requirements to be a real plumber in Cali, not much meat on the bones at $225. If Copa called a big company like the guy I know IN LA, then the owner lost money on that deal with Copa but did get a new customer and that has value for repeat biz. Just to get to someone's door can have a "True Cost" ((TC)) to the door is insane. The TC in OC is well over $300 to see green :)
 
*Note: Sweden is an exception. Sweden did not lock down at all, and is now paying the price.
The US has 10 states with a higher death rate than Sweden. NJ is nearly 3x higher and NY and CT are 2x higher. Sweden may not be the gold standard for combating the Covid virus, but it did much better than these states without having the other health and education issues caused by a lock down.

Toucan what factual (not emotional) basis do you have for teachers being treated differently than other essential workers (or even non-essential workers for that matter)? And keep in mind no one is proposing that teachers go back to work without reasonable protections.

What evidence do you have that contradicts the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Medicine, a 70% majority of epidemiologists interviewed by the New York Times that all agree that kids should return to school in a physical capacity? What evidence do you have that contradicts a recent study in England that concluded that worldwide there have been no incidents of pupil to teacher transmission?
 
This is from DC...but this is politics as it relates the virus. The mayor extended the face mask requirement....but exempted many local and fed gov workers. Why? Are they more important? Less susceptible?

This is a variation of what is going on in the schools. The gov is trying to exempt their big money donor (the education union) from actually having to go into work. They are different. More special somehow I guess. And yes they will expect to be paid while hiding in their basement at home as well.

“The enforcement provisions of this Order shall not be applied to persons in the judicial or legislative branches of the District government while those persons are on duty; and shall not apply to any employees of the federal government while they are on duty,”

https://mayor.dc.gov/sites/default/...80 Wearing Masks in DC to Prevent COVID19.pdf
 
Just to refresh everyone's memory. These are some of the demands by the LA union in order to re-open the schools.

This is what you are up against. As I look through the demands...it is clear to me children and the virus are of utmost importance...or not.

The union demands, among other things:

  • $250 million in extra taxpayer funding for Los Angeles schools,
  • An additional $500 billion in federal funding,
  • Government-run Medicare for All,
  • A wealth tax,
  • An increase in the California state income tax,
  • Defunding the police,
  • A ban on new charter schools, and
  • Public benefits for illegal immigrants as part of the plan to reopen schools.
 
This is from DC...but this is politics as it relates the virus. The mayor extended the face mask requirement....but exempted many local and fed gov workers. Why? Are they more important? Less susceptible?

This is a variation of what is going on in the schools. The gov is trying to exempt their big money donor (the education union) from actually having to go into work. They are different. More special somehow I guess. And yes they will expect to be paid while hiding in their basement at home as well.

“The enforcement provisions of this Order shall not be applied to persons in the judicial or legislative branches of the District government while those persons are on duty; and shall not apply to any employees of the federal government while they are on duty,”

https://mayor.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/mayormb/release_content/attachments/Mayor's Order 2020-080 Wearing Masks in DC to Prevent COVID19.pdf

Education unions are the government’s big money donor? That’s one of the dumber things I’ve heard here.
 
Just to refresh everyone's memory. These are some of the demands by the LA union in order to re-open the schools.

This is what you are up against. As I look through the demands...it is clear to me children and the virus are of utmost importance...or not.

The union demands, among other things:

  • $250 million in extra taxpayer funding for Los Angeles schools,
  • An additional $500 billion in federal funding,
  • Government-run Medicare for All,
  • A wealth tax,
  • An increase in the California state income tax,
  • Defunding the police,
  • A ban on new charter schools, and
  • Public benefits for illegal immigrants as part of the plan to reopen schools.
This is all negotiations and you have to put it all on the table. The other side right now is only asking for freedom to choose a charter and home school or a mix of both. When we tried to home school it failed. However, my wife still wanted to teach the kids some and still have her freedom to shop anytime she felt like. So we did try a hybrid model with an outfit called RiverSprings. Three days of school and two days of bonding time with mommy. I worked from home so I got to be with my kids too and teach them outdoor stuff. We took field trips and it was super fun. However, my wife put my son's name at TPS and the third time was a charm and my son was picked from lottery. We talked about it and we enrolled him there. Best decision ever and my son thanks me because he said he would have been weird if home schooled forever. The next year my dd got automatically in because of her sibling brother. She tells me her life would have been ruined if I forced her to go there. My wife said it would be good for her and I over ruled her and let her out of that place. My wife says I was 100% right on both of my kids education choices :)
 
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