COVID-19 POLICY UPDATE
FRIDAY 8/14
FEDERAL
Phase 4: The Senate formally adjourned on Thursday until early September and House members had already left DC. Politico Playbook says "It seems exceedingly unlikely a deal will come together before Sept. 30 — if at all.” Treasury Secretary Mnuchin had initiated a phone call with Speaker Pelosi and made clear that the White House is "not budging from their position concerning the size and scope of a legislative package."
Fauci: Offered his thoughts on schools reopening during a Facebook Live event with RI Gov. Raimondo: "The best way for a state, city, or county that's red [above 10% test positivity rate] to get their children back to school is to do what's needed to become yellow, and do what's needed to become green. If you are a red state and you want to get your schools open, you can ask yourself the question -- you have a choice. You can either close the bars or close the schools. If you want to have people congregating in bars, it's likely you're going to stay red. If you do something about that, it's very likely you'll transition to yellow or green."
CDC:
- Updated their guidance to say that people who have tested positive for COVID-19 do not need to quarantine or get tested again for up to 3 months as long as they do not develop symptoms again. In other words, they have immunity for 3 months.
- CDC Director Redfield on school openings: "We're going to need to do it safely. We're going to need to do it sensibly. And we're going to have to do it based on the unique circumstances, the kinetics of the epidemic and in the areas that the schools are beginning to try to wrestle with this reopening."
- According to a new CDC study, 25% of individuals ages 18-24 have seriously considered suicide in the 30 days
STATE
Arizona:
New York:
North Dakota: How the state bridged the digital divide.
South Carolina: Launched a new SEL website that provides resources for teachers, students, and parents including lessons.
Texas:
|
|
Virgina: Governor Northam is launching a pediatric coronavirus study to examine the number of children with COVID-19 antibodies.
INTERNATIONAL
Africa: The pandemic appears to have spared Africa so far. Scientists are struggling to explain why
Canada: Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said they will invest $500 million to achieve physical distancing in classrooms. The government will also spend $50 million to update school ventilation systems, and another $18 million to hire principals and support staff to administer online learning. Ontario’s four major teachers’ unions released a letter alleging the province’s back-to-school plan violates its own occupational health and safety legislation.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Two Americas: The recession is largely over for the upper class but the working class remains in deep pain. Some economists have started to call this a “K-shaped” recovery because of the diverging prospects for the rich and poor, and they say policy failures in Washington are exacerbating the problems.
Upper Class:
- Stocks are near record highs
- Home values at all-time highs
- Jobs are back
- Workers can work from home - or anywhere
Working Class:
- Employment is still 20% below pre-pandemic levels for workers earning under $14 an hour, and 16% down for those making $14 to $20 an hour.
- $600 expanded UI has expired
- Cannot work from home.
|
|
LEARNING PODS
COVID Parents Seek Education Alternatives: WFF's Bruno Manno: "Some are newer innovations like micro-schools and family PODS. Others are familiar—homeschooling, charter schools, and private schools—with new twists. The creativity and entrepreneurship involved is characteristically American and impressive, even if driven by urgency and exasperation."
PandemicPods.org: New website launched by Michael Stanton (partner at Learn Capital and investor in Coursera, Outschool, Photomath, MakeSchool, Minerva, Clever, and NearPod). They're working to better match families. Partners include CoLearn, Braid, Swing Education, Altitude Learning, Wonder School, and Guidepost Montessori.
Families Priced Out of ‘Learning Pods’ Seek Alternatives: Via NYT: "They have created rifts among friends, sparked accusations of “opportunity hoarding” by affluent whites, and compelled some parents to ponder whether and how to include lower-income children in their pods.
Give Learning Pads a Chance: Don’t limit the micro-school option to families who can afford it.
Denver School Board: Letter sent to parents regarding learning pods:
- "We are deeply concerned about the pods’ long-term negative implications for public education and social justice"
- "Consider the equity implications of creating or joining pandemic pods or micro-schools. If you choose to participate in a pod, please do not hire DPS teachers, paraprofessionals or special service providers for assistance in teaching and learning. This puts educators in uncomfortable positions, jeopardizes their employment, creates undue liability and pulls them away from students that need them most."
- "Reject the notion of school vouchers and stipends that further siphon funds from public education."
Fairfax County: Letter to parents on learning pods: "While FCPS doesn’t and can’t control these private tutoring groups, we do have concerns that they may widen the gap in educational access and equity for all students. Many parents cannot afford private instruction. Many working families can’t provide transportation to and from a tutoring pod, even if they could afford to pay for the service."
RESOURCES
Vaccine Tracker: Via NYT. The Washington Post also has an updated tracker.
|
|
Stanford School of Medicine: Researchers suggest schools should and can reopen safely if they follow the AAP recommendations. They offer additional operational guidance.
Maximizing Student Engagement & Learning: A Guide to High School Planning During COVID-19 from Springpoint.
Revisiting Blended Learning Principles: From the Christensen Institute.
Voices, Tools, and Resources for Equity in Education: Compilation of resources from NGLC.
State Child Care Efforts: CAP report summarizing recent state policy action to address child care.
"I Started Khan Academy. We Can Still Avoid an Education Catastrophe": Sal Khan: "To ensure that kids keep progressing on both the academic and social-emotional fronts, it’s critical that educators provide live teacher-led video conference sessions. These need to optimize both academic coverage and social interaction. A baseline would be two or three 30-to-45 minute sessions in each of the core academic subjects each week."
Hamilton: EduHam Online is an online resource that allows students to explore the world of HAMILTON and America’s Founding Era—ultimately creating and performing their own narrative in the form of a song, rap, spoken word, or scene. Resources include:
- Interviews with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ron Chernow, and original cast members like Daveed Diggs and Phillipa Soo
- A wide selection of primary sources centered on a diverse group of 45 people, 14 events, and 24 key documents from the era
- Video clips from HAMILTON performed by the cast
Community Transmission and School Reopening: The NYT created an interactive visualization and searchable database based on the Harvard Global Health Institute framework which uses community transmission as triggers for the various kind of models schools can operate under.
|
|
You Made It To The Weekend: Boom goes the dynamite.
|
|
|
If you know somebody who would appreciate these updates, feel free to forward this message. If you'd like to receive the daily COVID-19 Policy Update, please subscribe here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
