Biden administration sends conflicting signals on school reopenings

The signals are clear. Even though schools in many parts of the country are open and have been open most of the school year, the Biden administration is propagating the myth that schools are unsafe and can't reopen until we spend $130 billion on them.

Follow the science? Listen to the CDC?

New research published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests the risk of COVID-19 spread in classrooms is relatively low, adding new questions over the continued closure of in-person education across the nation.

Published in the JAMA medical journal, researchers discuss the results of several studies looking at COVID-19 exposure among children under the age of 18.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehil...s-risk-of-coronavirus-in-schools-is-small?amp

This obvious conflict came up at a press briefing. Psaki had a lame response, saying the CDC director was speaking from her "personal capacity". What does that even mean?

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has sought to minimize the scope of a CDC study that identified schools as low-transmission zones for the coronavirus and has brushed back CDC Director Rochelle Walensky for saying that the science supports the notion that teachers can return to classrooms before they've been vaccinated.

At one point, Psaki said Walensky was speaking in her "personal capacity" when she said that teachers being vaccinated should not be a prerequisite for returning to in-person learning.

The mixed messaging underscores the tricky politics Biden faces as elected officials clash with teachers unions in Democratic strongholds over how quickly to reopen classrooms.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehil...s-conflicting-signals-on-school-reopening?amp

 

Screw the conservative effort to "save money" just so long as it's not being spent on billion-dollar jets to hunt hill bandits with or walls that Mexico was going to pay for. These are our kids here. And yes, I know, "think of the children" is the last thing any big tough Republican will ever think of cause our kids are MURICANS and they're TOUGH, nothing like any virus will ever bother them, nosirree. Mysterious and chronic ailments for the rest of their lives, why that's no problem, they're PROUD to put up with cancer and worse if they knew that it meant more money went to Boeing.

It's February the school year is just about over, and 130 billion is about 10% of what we saved in useless tariff taxes anyway

 

From an administration headed by a senile person, conflicting signals are to be expected.

 

Where is the money really going to be spent (or pocketed by politicians, activists, and "consultants")???

They didn't increase federal taxes to close the schools. It shouldn't cost anything to re-open the schools. Open the doors, bring back students and teachers and get back to it!

My state taxes fund school districts to pay teachers' salaries. My county school taxes pay most of the rest of the costs of developing programs, planning/maintenance/construction of new classrooms, and most importantly - educating students. Taxes did not decrease while we were not educating students. We already went months paying teachers, paying for computers for increased remote learning, and re-fitting air circulation systems out of state and local money. Schools are open and have been open for some time here.

Saying the federal government needs $130 Billion "to re-open schools" is just another tax grabbing scam by our totalitarianism-seeking corrupt bureaucracy in Washington D.C.

 

What can you say about a man who chooses truth over facts?

 

Clearly someone at the White House got a call from the teachers union

 

That too. Biden is probably trying to "bribe" teachers who want to get paid without having to teach "for fear of
Covid" as an excuse.

Average teacher salary is $60,000 year. Teachers earn more where cost of living is higher and earn less where cost of living is cheaper. They get a lot of extended holidays and most of the summer off work, or earn a bonus to teach summer classes. If current teachers don't want to do their jobs, we can likely find people to replace them who would take those salaries.

Meanwhile, the children suffer over the politics created by Teachers' Unions.

--
How much does a Teacher make in the United States? The average Teacher salary in the United States is $59,561 as of January 29, 2021, but the salary range typically falls between $52,076 and $68,793.



https://www.salary.com/research/salary/listing/teacher-salary

 

This reminds me of that preacher associated with Obama who said something about chickens coming home to roost. The degree to which children are suffering will be decades away from actually knowing but the immediate effects are scary.

 

I know that most children will probably be suffering, if I put myself in the mindset of 10-12 year old me and this were all happening, I would've been like "Wee, I don't know what's happening and I don't give af. I've got off school indefinitely." And I'd just video game it all day(back then it was the N64.)

On the topic, obviously a political power grab by the democratic unions but that's all this has been about for them from the very beginning of the negotiations with Republicans. They could care less about the crisis.

 

...or the children.

 

Republican leaders are calling for the current failed school system to restart.
IOW, the RP functions as a rather inept opposition party.
Of course that assumes that it really is an opposition party.

 

Teachers would make a lot more money if the entire education budget was transferred to vested education accounts controlled by the parents and guardians of teachers.

But that would be really scary!

 

That vested education account is what our state and local school tax dollars was supposed to protect.

The worst thing this country ever did to slowly destroy the education of our children, and to significantly diminish local control by local community stake holders, was to establish a federal Department of Education in 1979 under Jimmy Carter.

The State Establishment hated Betsy DeVos for her passion to make school choice for parents (private schools) just as affordable and accessible to all parents as public schools are.

They demonized DeVos for lots of superficial reasons to distract from the issue about school choice, but at heart The State does not want to lose control over one of the most effective society-shaping tools. They need millions of mindless worker bees who don't question authority, but rather worship authority.

Any wonder why members of The State send their children to private schools while they force children of "the masses" to get a "public" education?

 

Best for the "mean, evil, racist" RP to strengthen their skills as a real opposition party, IMO. The other "good, benevolent, and saintly" party isn't defending our childrens' rights to education.

 

Evidently that isn't enough money for the teachers to roll the dice.
As to the science the resurgence in Israel was traced to schools.
I don't know what they were doing wrong, but I don't see any reason to ignore it.
After Reopening Schools, Israel Orders Them To Shut If COVID-19 Cases Are Discovered : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

 

I get so confused when am I supposedly to listen to the CDC and when am I not. When do I accept the science and when do I not? Just trying to follow along here.

 

Well, Arizona has a very Republican Governor and I can tell you schools have been open and closed several times.

 

I'd say when they come out with official guidance. Which in this case I think will be Wednesday.

 

There are only about 4 million teachers.
I would vaccinate them. It's worth it to get the Moms back to work.

 

The final paragraph from your link:



Why would Covid not spread through schools? Teachers, of all people, are accustomed to seeing the spread of everything from colds and influenza to head lice and pink eye. Covid is a virus which is with us for the long term, like everything else we can't cure. It is also not a terribly deadly virus for either school children or for the age group into which most school teachers fall.

If we don't reopen schools until we "cure" Covid, then schools will never open again.

 

They keep flip-flopping the official guidance 180 degrees every few months. That is not "science based".

The only justifiable reason to shut down anything right now, as has always been the case, is if or when a region is approaching critical hospital capacity levels. That has only sporadically and temporarily happened in a very few hot spots over the last year. In all cases, we were able to quickly get control over the situation.

 

“They definitely should not do what we have done,” said Eli Waxman, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and chairman of the team advising Israel’s National Security Council on the pandemic. “It was a major failure.”

The lesson, experts say, is that even communities that have gotten the spread of the virus under control need to take strict precautions when reopening schools. Smaller classes, mask wearing, keeping desks six feet apart and providing adequate ventilation, they say, are likely to be crucial until a vaccine is available.

“If there is a low number of cases, there is an illusion that the disease is over,” said Dr. Hagai Levine, a professor of epidemiology at Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health. “But it’s a complete illusion.”

When Covid Subsided, Israel Reopened Its Schools. It Didn’t Go Well. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

 

Why on earth would you kill a bunch of people right now with the vaccine rolling like gangbusters.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has lost all its credibility during the Covid-19 pandemic. I don't trust what they say. I was under the impression that the CDC has been caught lying to us.

I hope Biden doesn't listen to them. We need a reality check.

 

The virus is spreading mostly mild cases of the virus, while continuing to lethally knock out the elderly and those with very frail health. No one is out to "kill a bunch of people".

The vaccine rollout is going like gangbusters, and that is a great thing.

For the last few weeks, Texas has opened the schedule to anyone over 16 who is either elderly or has health-compromising issues. That includes any school teachers with chronic conditions. Teachers who are not in any "at risk" group should continue to wait, just like the rest of us who work in essential jobs.

Is the Biden Administration which is catering to teachers who are resisting working but demanding their salaries, effectively allowing them non-essential status "due to Covid"? Most "non-essential" Americans did not get paid to be forced out of work. We shouldn't have to force, cajole or bribe teachers to do their jobs for their paychecks.