THURSDAY 8/6
FEDERAL
False Claims: Facebook and Twitter removed video of the President falsely claiming children are "almost immune" to the coronavirus.
Phase 4:
- Our partners at Brownstein Hyatt Faber Schreck have released their predictions of what economic/tax items will be included in the next package.
- White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said he supports renewing $600 per week unemployment insurance in the “short run” and reforming it later. He says it’s “not sustainable” but “would let it down very slowly.”
- White House officials and Democratic leaders ended a three-hour negotiation Thursday evening without a deal or a clear path for resolving outstanding issues. It's unclear what comes next, including if the Administration will attempt to advance some policies using executive authority.
Alabama: “You’re going to see a tremendous loss of learning among students with disabilities, some of which I fear will not easily be made up,” said Nancy Anderson, associate director of the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program."
Arizona:
|
|
DC: Research based on results from a testing site run by Children’s National Hospital showed Black children were more than four times as likely as white children to test positive for the virus, and Hispanic children were more than six times as likely as white children to test positive. Nonwhite children were also more likely to have known exposure to the virus.
Georgia: The Governor announced that he will allocate $6 million of CARES Act funding to help school districts connect students to the Internet.
Louisiana: New Orleans will launch "community learning hubs" at libraries, rec centers to help students without internet access.
Minnesota: All elementary schools may be able to reopen safely based on new county-level data.
|
|
New York:
- The Reimagine New York Commission, the 16-member Blue Ribbon Commission chaired by Eric Schmidt, launched a survey to identify ways of leveraging technology tools to build back a better and more resilient New York in the areas of connectivity, telehealth, and workforce.
- The teachers union released a new list of requests, including that a single COVID-19 case in a school should trigger an immediate 14-day closure.
- New York City will dedicate a team of contact tracers to investigate coronavirus cases in schools
Ohio: The Buckeyes released a video ad encouraging masks. #IWantASeason
Pennsylvania:
Texas: Flour Bluff ISD superintendent David Freeman passed away due to complications from COVID-19.
Virginia: The first state to use Apple and Google's COVID-19 contact tracing app.
West Virginia: A new Kids Connect initiative will guarantee broadband access to students using $6 million for 1,000 hot spots.
INTERNATIONAL
Kenya: Education officials announced that they were canceling the academic year and making students repeat it.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Children Facing Very High Hardship Rates: Report from CBPP that estimates 19 million children (more than 1 in 4) live in a household that is behind on rent or mortgage payments, isn’t getting enough to eat, or both.
Assessing CARES Act Economic Impact: New analysis from Opportunity Insights which finds that stimulus payments to low-income households increased consumer spending sharply, but had modest impacts on employment in the short run. The Paycheck Protection Program loans have also had little impact on employment at small businesses. "In sum, our analysis suggests that the primary barrier to economic activity is depressed consumer spending due to the threat of COVID-19 itself as opposed to government restrictions on economic activity, inadequate income among consumers, or a lack of liquidity for firms. Hence, the only path to full economic recovery in the long run may be to restore consumer confidence by addressing the virus itself"
State EITC: NBER paper that suggests state EITCs may increase federal EITC program participation among low-skilled single filers with children.
Student Loan Debt: Low-income households are falling behind on student loan repayments.
Mapping Unemployment: New effort to model unemployment down to the Census tract.
|
|
RESOURCES
IES Acting on Diversity: Post from Director Mark Schneider outlining some of the steps they are taking to address racial, cultural, gender, or regional bias.
Economics of Reopening: New ERS report looking at the budget implications to safely reopen.
Parents Are At a Breaking Point: As they try to cope with getting kids back to school, homeschooling, and the stress coming from the decision.
Learning Pods:
- Startup-assisted microschools ease remote schooling pain. "Weekdays facilitates most of the administrative process needed to set up a school, which is limited to 2 to 8 kids. Families can meet and interview candidate teachers — who Weekdays pre-screens — via video conference. The platform automates enrollment, payments, messaging, licensing and contracts between parents and teachers. Teachers set the tuition rates and can compare prices with other microschools. Prices range from $90-550 a week per student. “We really feel like we’re a great support mechanism for the public school curriculum,” said CEO Shauna Causey. “Everyone is trying to do the best they can given the uncertain circumstances.”
- Marin parent groups address ‘micro-pod’ school inequities. 1,500 members. "We are organizing how to be inclusive and keep kids from getting left behind."
- “The racial wealth divide is real,” says Nikolai Pizarro, a homeschooling mom who founded a Facebook group called BIPOC-led pandemic pods and microschools and an Instagram account, raising readers, devoted to “teaching Black & Latinx parents how to create high quality literacy environments.” Alice Locatelli founded thecopod.com just a few weeks ago. Interested parties input their location and requirements—the kids’ ages, whether masks are required, how frequent they want the meetings to be, and more. Then they are matched with other families and educators.
- Why a Houston Facebook group 'blew up' with desperate parents looking for help.
- Youth-oriented businesses band together as distance learning day camps
- The pandemic is fueling the private tutoring industry
- Good article covering pods.
- "Zacharias’s daughter will stay enrolled in the Goleta Union School District, learning from their distance-learning curriculum, but she’ll be joining two other kids, forming a pod with help from a tutor, not a teacher. Zacharias said it felt odd to “poach a teacher” and that paying the wage of a tutor is more affordable — $25 an hour split between three families."
- The Santa Barbara Zoo has offered “Zoo School” to traditional homeschool and charter students, but in recent weeks, local interest from public-school families has gone up by about 50 percent.
Teachers Are Worried: NPR/Ipsos poll.
- 82% teachers say they are concerned about returning to in-person teaching this fall, and two-thirds prefer to teach primarily remotely.
- 55%, say they cannot properly do their job online.
- 84% say online learning creates gaps in opportunities for students.
- 83% are also concerned about connecting with students they've never met when online classes begin this fall.
Parents Are Worried: Washington Post-Schar School survey conducted by Ipsos
|
|
The Current State of K-12 Social Emotional Learning: New research from Tyton Partners on the SEL market.
Got: Milk?
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
