School Reopening Plans Still A Jumble

AP: Mike Pence To Visit Raleigh In Push For Schools To Reopen
Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Raleigh on Wednesday morning in a push to encourage more K-12 schools to reopen with entirely in-person instruction. According to an announcement from his office, Pence will join a roundtable discussion highlighting how a private school has worked to safely resume classes. Thales Academy allowed 300 students to return to campus on July 20. (Anderson, 7/29)

AP: Utah Teachers Want Online Only Classes At Start Of School
Utah’s largest teachers union called Tuesday for schools to delay reopening and start the school year with online classes, citing safety concerns for students and teachers. The Utah Education Association called for state leaders to temporarily resume distance learning until COVID-19 cases further decline. The union said school districts should seek input from educators and local health authorities before moving forward with any reopening plans. (Eppolito, 7/28)

AP: Texas AG Says Schools Trump Health Officials On Class Start
Local health officials in Texas do not have the authority to close schools to prevent spread of the coronavirus, state Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday, pushing that decision solely into the hands of school officials. Paxton issued a “legal guidance” letter on schools amid fierce debate among local governments, health officials, parents and teachers on when schools should open in a state that has become one of the nation’s hot spots in the pandemic. (Vertuno, 7/28)

AP: Officials: Virus Outbreak Hits Iowa Boys Detention Center
Authorities in Iowa reported an outbreak of coronavirus at Iowa’s detention center and school for male juvenile offenders in Eldora. Twelve students and five staff members at Eldora Boys State Training School have tested positive for the virus, television station KCCI reported. The first case at the facility was reported last week. All students and staff at the center are now being tested, officials said. The school holds about 70 youth from across the state. (7/28)

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Reuters: Lawmakers Probe White House Pressure Over Schools Reopening Amid Coronavirus
Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday asked the U.S. education secretary and head of a top government health agency for their correspondence with the White House to determine if political pressure influenced new federal recommendations on whether schools should reopen in the fall. Public comments from Republican President Donald Trump and members of his administration made clear that reopening schools was a priority and interfered in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) messages to the public, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Andy Levin said in a letter. (7/28)

USA Today: 'The Virus Beat Us': Colleges Are Increasingly Going Online For Fall 2020 Semester As COVID-19 Cases Rise
Call it coronavirus déjà vu. After planning ways to reopen campuses this fall, colleges are increasingly changing their minds, dramatically increasing online offerings or canceling in-person classes outright.  This sudden shift will be familiar to students whose spring plans were interrupted by the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Now, COVID-19 cases in much of the country are much higher than in the spring, and rising in many places. (Quintana, 7/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Back-To-College Plans Devolve Into A Jumble Of Fast-Changing Rules 
With fall semester just a few weeks away, the Covid-19 pandemic has stumped the brightest minds at universities across the U.S. There is no consensus about how college campuses are going to open, and what they will look like if they do. There are as many plans as there are institutions, and their guidebooks are being written in pencil, leaving families and students in limbo. At stake are the health and well-being of more than 20 million students, faculty and staff—as well as billions of dollars in revenue from tuition, dormitories, dining halls and sports competitions. (Belkin and Korn, 7/28)

CNN: Reopening Of Schools Will Provide Insight Into Coronavirus' Spread As Optimism Grows For A Vaccine By The End Of The Year 
Students returning to school in the fall will likely teach the nation even more about the unknowns of Covid-19, the United States' top infectious disease doctor said. With schools closed since March and April -- as coronavirus cases soared to more than 4.3 million and deaths climbed to 149,258, according to data from Johns Hopkins University -- a knowledge gap has persisted around how young children experience and spread the virus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Tuesday. (Holcombe, 7/29)

The Atlantic: Outdoor Classes Might Be The Best Way To Reopen Schools 
This month, Berkeley public schools, like many school districts across the country, announced they will not start the year with full-time, in-person school. Soon after, J Li, a business-innovation strategist who lives in the area, noticed moms in the local Facebook groups turn, like starlings at dusk, to one topic in particular: homeschool pods. Reluctant to face more months supervising Zoom classes, wealthy parents are grouping together in families of three or four and hiring someone to privately teach their children, at a cost of thousands of dollars a month. (Khazan, 7/28)