Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Lessons On Safest Ways, Places To Teach Children This Fall
The New York Times: Reopening Schools Will Be A Huge Undertaking. It Must Be Done.
American children need public schools to reopen in the fall. Reading, writing and arithmetic are not even the half of it. Kids need to learn to compete and to cooperate. They need food and friendships; books and basketball courts; time away from family and a safe place to spend it.Parents need public schools, too. They need help raising their children, and they need to work. In Britain, the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health has warned that leaving schools closed “risks scarring the life chances of a generation of young people.” The organization’s American counterpart, the American Academy of Pediatrics, has urged administrators to begin from “a goal of having students physically present in school.” Here is what it’s going to take: more money and more space. (7/10)
The Washington Post: Betsy DeVos Wants You To Ignore Reality
It has been a bad few months for conservative politicians who hoped to ignore coronavirus reality. Governors and mayors, egged on by the Trump White House, reopened their states and encouraged citizens to dispense with masks and other preventive measures. Warnings that it was too early to relax restrictions were ignored or even scoffed at. The result? Record case numbers. Imagine looking at all that and still thinking, “You know what else should reopen, regardless of what local health experts think? Schools.” Yet that’s exactly what President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are saying. And they’re threatening to cut funding to schools that don’t go along. (James Downey, 7/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Schools Can Open Safely This Fall
Schools should open in the fall. It’s critical for meeting the educational and social needs of children. But local officials should have the discretion to take tailored actions to help keep children safe. One thing about Covid-19 is clear: We don’t fully understand its severity and transmission. At various turns, we’ve both underestimated and overestimated the virus.T he debate over schools has been swept up in a political maelstrom. Reopening schools will draw more controversy if people believe their school district was forced into opening. I’ve talked to Republican and Democratic governors about their strategies. The commitment to reopening is universal. Their approach is appropriately varied to local conditions. The main risk is transmission inside school buildings, but there are ways to reduce the chance of a big outbreak. (Scott Gottlieb, 7/12)
Dallas Morning News: Schools Need Federal Support To Reopen Safely. The President’s Bluster Is A Major Distraction
All across the country, schools were working hard to figure out how to have a safe and productive school year in the midst of a pandemic. Then President Donald Trump last week made a tough situation worse with threats and recriminations. Anyone who has been paying attention — and parents have been especially attentive — knows that school reopenings should be guided by science, safety and diligence. But as has been the case throughout the national response to the coronavirus pandemic, presidential bluster continues to complicate the already arduous task of getting children back to their classrooms. Trump’s call to water down Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for how the nation’s schools could reopen safely and the threat to cut federal funding if classes aren’t held in person are the last things parents, teachers and school administrators need from the president. We all know that K-12 instruction with teachers and students in the same room beats remote learning. However, we also know that the spread of COVID-19 may make distant learning a necessary alternative. (7/13)
The New York Times: Trump Threatens To Turn Pandemic Schooling Into A Culture War
Two weeks ago, I asked Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, what a functioning Department of Education would be doing to prepare the country to reopen schools in the fall.“ A functioning Department of Education would have been getting groups of superintendents and principals and unions and others together from the middle of March,” she told me. It would have created a clearinghouse of best practices for maintaining grab-and-go lunch programs and online education. By mid-April it would have convened experts to figure out how to reopen schools safely, and offered grants to schools trying different models.“ None of that has happened,” said Weingarten. “Zero.” (Michelle Goldberg, 7/10)
Fox News: Homeschooling During Coronavirus – Here's Why My Kids Will Be With Me This Fall
Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, I swore up and down that I’d never homeschool my kids. Patience is not one of my virtues. I hate crafts. Playgroups are not my thing. I work full-time in a job I love. Homeschooling was not happening – until it did. Like every other parent in the country who had their child in school, I had to figure out how to crisis homeschool, cover the basics with eLearning and wrangle kids all day long to do their schoolwork. It was hard and I fought with my kids and I worked late, late hours but admittedly, I loved having my two children home with me. Yet as I watched the pandemic unfold to epic proportions, I realized I needed to seriously consider homeschooling as they enter kindergarten and fourth grade this coming school year. (Kristina Hernandez, 7/13)
The Hill: Coronavirus Unveils The Digital Divide In Our Education System
Out of the coronavirus crisis have come shockwaves fundamentally affecting our country, the national economy, and many aspects of how we live. It may be tempting to think that only obviously impacted sectors like the healthcare and service industries need to adapt and learn from the pandemic, but in truth, coronavirus has touched more spheres of the economy than can easily be observed. (Francis Taylor, 7/9)
CNN: I Teach Public School. I Love My Students. I Don't Want To Die
I am a public school teacher and I don't want to die. As the question of whether and how to reopen schools in the fall intensifies, with parents and especially politicians expressing their opinions, I want to ask: Has anyone asked what we want to do in the fall? (Elana Rabinowitz, 7/10)
The Hill: As The Pandemic Continues, Where Will All The Children Go?
Four months ago, America’s 74 million children were active, conspicuous members of society, waiting for school buses, playing on playgrounds, and shopping with their families. Today, they are largely invisible, the homebound charges of frazzled parents. While newspapers and social media forums have filled with parenting advice about homeschooling and online playdates, society’s commitment to children has gone largely unmentioned. (Carolyn P. Neuhaus and Josephine Johnston, 7/12)
