COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 8/18
FEDERAL
Phase 4: Senate Republicans introduced a “skinny” coronavirus relief bill which includes a $300 for expanded unemployment benefits until December 27, $158 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, an additional $10 billion for the U.S. Postal Service, liability protections, $29 billion for vaccine development, $16 billion for contact tracing, and $105 billion for education (2/3 conditioned on schools being physically open 50% of time for 50% of students). No dedicated funding for closing the homework gap and no direct cash benefits. This is an attempt to restart negotiations although Democrats have been resistant to a piecemeal approach preferring a more comprehensive bill.
Education Insiders: From Whiteboard Advisor's Education Insiders survey: "Nearly 77% of Education Insiders expect Congress to complete a Phase 4 stimulus package by the end of September, with 65% believing the final figure will be close to the $105 billion for education in the Senate HEALS Act (including $70 billion for K-12)."
COVID (Non)Reporting: It's important to note a massive blind spot emerging in our national surveillance efforts. The first national database of COVID cases in schools isn't coming from states, the Department of Education, or the CDC. It's coming from a Kansas high school teacher using Google spreadsheets.
NBC News found that nine states - including Alabama, California, Ohio, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania - are collecting the data but will not publish it. It's worth reading the entire NBC news article and also this thread from Tom Inglesby, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. But it really is incredible at a time when everyone is trying to assess the risks of reopening schools that there isn't more complete data. In related news, Gov. Beshear announced that Kentucky schools with positive COVID-19 cases will be included in daily coronavirus reporting.
STATE
Indiana: Notre Dame cancels in-person classes after surge of COVID-19 cases.
Mississippi: Gov. Reeves is providing COVID-19 testing for all teachers, even for those without symptoms and expanding school-based emergency telemedicine coverage throughout the state.
North Carolina: Governor Cooper was leaning toward reopening schools with full in-person learning in June, but delayed the decision after a call with Dr. Fauci.
Pennsylvania: The challenges of school buses during COVID.
West Virginia: The Governor released the School Re-entry Metric – a color-coded map system that will determine the level of openness for each Pre-K-12 school in the state.
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INTERNATIONAL
Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics: "There is now clear data on COVID-19 and children: it should be safe to reopen English schools."
- "Children under 16 accounted for just over 1% of all cases of coronavirus during the “first wave” of illness in England, and even among those with respiratory symptoms, only 4% tested positive for the virus, compared with between 19% and 35% in adults."
- "This makes one thing clear: reopening schools after the summer break does not represent a significant Covid-19 risk to children and teenagers themselves. What is also clear is that... children and young people have been disproportionately affected by the lockdown relative to their risk of disease."
- Sweden "has kept schools open for under 16-year-olds during the pandemic, and found that infection rates in teachers were no higher, and were often lower, than other occupational groups."
- "As with many aspects of the pandemic, there is no perfect answer, but the opening of schools must be a priority for the coming academic year."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Permanent Closures: New data from Yelp on growing number of businesses closing permanently.
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LEARNING PODS
Chicago Developer Converts Space Into “Pandemic Pod” Classrooms: Glencoe-based developer and architectural firm Optima is converting four of its 25 office suites in the 490-unit tower into classrooms.
Denver Schools Should Facilitate Learning Pods to Reduce Disparities: Van Schoales is the CEO of A Plus Colorado: "The Denver School Board still has time to reverse course. They could listen to families and commit to meet them where they are rather than telling them what to do... School districts like San Antonio, Indianapolis and Colorado’s Adams 12 Five Star are in conversations with families regarding their concerns and acting to establish quality online learning and safe, organized, in-person pods with an emphasis first on the students that most need these supports. These districts are not sitting back and doubling down on the existing system that is designed to grow inequitable student learning outcomes."
Microschooling and Distance Learning: New report from Matt Ladner for AEI.
CNBC: Opinion piece from anchor Kelly Evans:
- "If I were the teachers’ unions I’d be making the full-throated case for why the fracturing of public school will terribly worsen inequality in this country, and that “opting out” is unpatriotic. (Even though school choice is also the only way for low-income kids to escape failing public schools.) I’d be doing everything possible to get the schools open as safely as possible and urge parents not to prematurely withdraw."
- "But the genie is out of the bottle now. In the same way that “work from home” has opened new possibilities for how and where people do their jobs now, families are realizing they can also basically do “school from anywhere.” If you’re forced to learn remotely, why go with your local school’s online offerings when you can have your pick of curricula from the internet, and do it from anywhere? The same people who would have wrinkled their nose at the term “homeschooling” a year ago are now dazzled by the sophistication of the offerings."
RESOURCES
New Research: "Children could be up to 20 times more likely to catch COVID-19 at home than they are at school". Belgium's state virologist Steven Van Gucht said: 'We can say that the percentage of secondary infections at school is very low.'
New Report Calls Into Question College Admission Tests: The National Association for College Admission Counseling released a report critical of college entrance exams (SAT, ACT). "The task force observed that if standardized testing perpetuates or worsens inequities, and if it is to remain a part of the undergraduate admission process at all, it must receive the most stringent of reviews."
Clever: Teacher turned desks with plexiglass shields into trucks with windshields for her students:
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EdNext Poll: "Americans’ interest in online schooling is on the rise. In 2020, 73% of parents say they are willing to have their child take some high school courses via the Internet—a jump of 17 percentage points over 2009. Parents who report more positive experiences with remote instruction when schools closed this spring are more likely to support online education." These results and more on teacher pay, free college, the Trump effect, and more here.
Anxious With Reopening: Nearly two-thirds of Americans fear it will be unsafe to send children back to school this year according to a Financial Times poll.
The Important and Elusive Science Behind Safely Reopening Schools: Great JHU post on the challenges of having a single set of indicators to trigger the opening/closing of schools.
Reopening Resources: From Chiefs for Change including:
COVID-19 Burden Index: Torch Insight, an initiative from Leavitt Partners, has an interactive dashboard of active cases, hotspots, prevalence, hospital capacity, and transmission rates for counties and states.
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