Covid cases are rising daily. Years of neglect have left schools with crumbling infrastructure and without working air conditioning. Our schools’ teacher and staff shortage was already far too high. Now rising illnesses and quarantines are pushing some districts to a breaking point. Bus driver shortages are creating havoc statewide.
How has Gov. DeSantis responded to these crises? He has already withheld billions of dollars intended to help schools and communities recover from the ongoing public health emergency. On top of that he is now threatening to take away funding from school districts who follow the medical advice given to them by doctors in their communities.
As educators, we know a bully when we see one and we know the only way to end bullying is to join together to call out the bad behavior…
Take a stand today by emailing Gov. DeSantis to tell him to stop threatening locally elected school board members for following their duty to keep students safe…
Page last updated at 5:52 pm, Friday, Sept. 17.
Tell Gov. DeSantis to support school boards’ authority to keep students safe Gov. Ron DeSantis is threatening to withhold funds from school districts that follow the advice of health professionals in their communities. We must tell him to stop.
Never before have I been so concerned and extremely frustrated with a school year…than the present…
Having had such hope with President Biden funding our schools though the AmericanRescue Plan….
However, because our Country is so divided… Republican controlled states are causing such chaos between state and local school districts… over the safety of our children due to the new delta variant…
This new variant is causing children to be hospitalized and even dying…
And we here in Florida have our Governor Ron DeSantis, who does not care!!!
His hashtag being known as… #DeathSantis…
We must #voteblue 2022
Because… He is making reckless decisions based solely on his political aspirations, appealing solely to his base rather than the safety of our children…and the people of Florida…
Especially…prohibiting the mandate of wearing a mask…And refusing to mandate those older than 12 to get vaccinated… these necessary, safety protocols….
#DeathSantis does not want school districts to provide the necessary safety protocols!!!
And will even go to great lengths to withhold funds…
Many of our districts are rebelling…They know wearing a mask is essential to protect our children hospitalizations and deaths…And DeSantis is not allowing a true count of how many are really affected!!!
There are those citizens here in Florida litigating his authoritarian mandates…And if there was a remote possibility, even recalling him would definitely be an option…
Our only real option is to continue with #goodtrouble…As the late Representative John Lewis had said…And pass John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act… Before it is too late…
Do not get lost in despair…We will be hopeful…💕🙏🏼🌈😷🇺🇸
Children were a priority…Integration and Early Childhood Education were paramount…And Head Start began…
However, as the years passed, by the nineties I realized that due to changes at the Federal level: our public school children were less of a priority because they were losing the funding to privatization, and the resources needed to do all we could for our children were diminished…
Yet our expectations were unrealistic and we were being blamed…
There now was teacher accountability, developmentally inappropriate curriculum and over testing….Yet fewer resources…
And moreover since the new millennium…with all these drastic changes…. Dismantling of public schools…teacher shortage….Poor leadership… A Pandemic..
We are facing a crisis…
However, through all of these changes I always maintained there would be that better day!!!
And now with the election of a new President….we may see a change!!!
” Biden’s education plan: Targets inequity, expands federal role”…Laura Meckler and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel Washington Post
The federal government has long been a bit player in education… Under an expansive vision being rolled out this spring by President Biden, that would change…
Biden has proposed — or is expected to propose — a half dozen education programs that would constitute the largest federal investment in education in at least a half century. Any one of them would be significant on its own. Taken together, if approved by Congress, they form a cradle-to-college plan that aims to reduce inequities that course through American schools by infusing hundreds of billions of dollars into virtually every level of the system….
“These are truly unprecedented investments in education,” said Sarah Abernathy, executive director of the Committee for Education Funding…
Much of Biden’s strategy is focused on cold, hard cash, a show-me-the-money plan that would more than double federal support to high-poverty districts, rebuild crumbling schools and subsidize pre-K and community college alike. It’s excited educators up and down the system, but left some allies wondering if the administration is doing enough to use the money to drive policy changes by states and districts. For their part, Republicans oppose such sweeping new spending as well as the tax increases proposed to offset some of the cost…
Should Biden’s entire agenda become law, the U.S. educational system could morph from a 13-year guarantee — where children are entitled to free education from kindergarten through 12th grade — to a 17-year promise, where prekindergarten is available starting at age 3 and tuition is free through two years of community college…
“Think of it this way: Joe Biden is adding four years to a student’s education. It’s the largest increase in educational time since high school became universal,” said Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Biden ally who championed similar policies for early childhood and community college when he was Chicago’s mayor. Early-childhood education, he said, will prepare children to learn, while postsecondary programs prepare them for the workforce…
Biden does enjoy support for his education agenda among liberals, who are pushing him to aggressively confront educational inequity, and centrist Democrats, who like several pieces of this package…
“He’s investing in things like apprenticeships and community colleges and pre-K and all kinds of things that moderate Democrats love,” said Lanae Erickson, who heads social policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. “There’s something in there for everybody in the party and that’s how he’s keeping folks on board.”Even when he had a Democratic Congress, Obama did not ask for this level of spending. After passing into law a recovery act meant to respond to the 2008 financial crisis, he telegraphed his interest in fiscal responsibility. At his first Cabinet meeting in April 2009, he announced that federal agencies would be hunting for cuts and efficiencies, saying he had challenged his secretaries to find $100 million in reductions…
Never give up on your dreams…
President Biden is determined…. making his Presidency consequential… Our children a priority; making our public schools stronger… Providing our children the success they so need…
With our New President, Joe Biden and New Secretary of Education, Dr.Miguel Cardona allocating the much needed funds for schools through the American Rescue Plan providing resources and programs to help our children… Especially now living through this Pandemic…
We just may see the much needed change to our public schools…”a redesign”…A renaissance…
We will now have the monetary resources available;
To provide mental health support;
Better training for all educators, including bus drivers, cafeteria staff, everyone that engage with students, to understand the social and emotional needs of students…
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Says Schools Have to Be ‘Redesigned’ Post-Pandemic
BY KATHERINE FUNG ON 4/14
Watch “Education Secretary Miguel Cardona Says Schools Have to Be ‘Redesigned'” on YouTube
The nation’s new education secretary is calling for schools to be “redesigned” after the coronavirus pandemic.
“We shouldn’t go back to the schools of March 2020—that’s a low bar,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a discussion with the founders of A Starting Point, a civic engagement organization.
“We have to make sure that our schools have stronger mental health supports, have better training for all educators, including bus drivers, cafeteria staff, everyone that engages with students, to understand the social and emotional needs of students,” he continued. “That has to be a prerequisite to getting our schools open quickly and safely.”
Cardona said the coronavirus relief plan signed into law by President Joe Biden last month will focus on redesigning schools so that students feel supported amid the ongoing public health crisis.
“The American Rescue Plan prioritizes funds and, really, prioritizes redesigning our schools,” he told Starting Point founders Chris Evans and Mark Kassen.
“We are in the middle of a pandemic, and our school systems have to be prepared to welcome our students back, not only with the academic learning needs that they might have missed but really to receive them and our staff after having experienced a traumatic experience like COVID-19,” Cardona said.
Biden’s relief package provided the U.S. Education Department with $122 billion to help reopen the majority of K-8 schools within the president’s first 100 days in office.
Miguel Cardona speaks after President-elect Joe Biden announced his nomination for education secretary on December 23, 2020. Cardona, who was confirmed by the Senate last month, said schools need to be “redesigned” to better help students return to in-person learning. Joshua Roberts/Stringer
Most of the nation’s schools shuttered at the beginning of the pandemic last year, moving instead to virtual learning, which presented its own challenges, especially among lower-income students who did not have broadband connection to the internet.
As schools began reopening in the fall, safety measures, such as face masks and social distancing, were implemented, but some districts faced pushback from educators who felt unsafe returning to work. In response, federal health officials stressed the importance of in-person learning by highlighting the toll online classes had taken on students and recommended that states prioritize teachers in their vaccination rollouts.
“We know there is no substitute for in-person learning. The biggest equity lever we have is providing safe, in-person learning options for students,” Cardona said. “We know, as much as we’ve worked really hard to get the laptops to connect and make sure there’s internet access, the relationship that students have with their peers and their teachers—there’s no substitute for that.”
Despite the return to in-person classes, the education secretary, who was confirmed on March 1, said the digital divide that was seen as schools scrambled to provide virtual lessons needs to be addressed by his department.
“The laptop is like the new pencil. It’s no longer a privilege. It’s no longer something that’s cool. It’s a necessity to be functional in today’s society and in today’s schools,” he said. “We need to close that digital divide across the country once and for all. It’s a finite problem to have, and that’s something that we need to make sure we’re focusing on as we reopen [schools].”
Cardona emphasized the importance of building up that infrastructure, pointing to Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plans, which includes $100 billion to expand broadband access across the country over the next eight years…
I do have my concerns with this newest change in lowering the distance among children to three feet…
In order for children, teachers and essential staff to be able to adhere, and rely on all levels of safety protocols… the extra funding from President Biden’s Covid Relief Bill, and vaccination will definitely help…
However, now allowing a three feet distance among our children… How safe will the classroom be? Is this a change do to the fact, it would be easier to implement in a smaller, older classrooms, which many older schools still have?
From my own experience in that small, older classroom….Children do get ill…And teachers do too!!!
We were so close…Germs everywhere..It was extremely difficult to separate, and sanitize…Our custodial staff…on call…and understaffed…
Now with a pandemic!
And in fact, presently it is reported because children have been isolated for so long, there is an uptick of colds among children when they have returned to social situations, and they can carry the coronavirus and other viruses as well…
The data reflects…
Children and COVID-19:
State Data Report
A joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association
Summary of publicly reported data from 49 states, NYC, DC, PR, and GU… Version: 3/11/21
As of March 11, over 3.28 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic. Nearly 53,000 new child COVID-19 cases were reported last week. This marks the 8th consecutive week with a decline in new cases.
The age distribution of reported COVID-19 cases was provided on the health department websites of 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Children represented 13.2% of total cumulated cases in states reporting cases by age.
A smaller subset of states reported on hospitalizations and mortality by age; the available data indicated that COVID-19-associated hospitalization and death is uncommon in children.
At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children. However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects.
Schools can allow social distancing of three feet, rather than six currently, between students in classrooms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday in what is expected to be a boost to reopening of schools nationwide…
The CDC’s long-awaited guidance on how schools can safely reopen comes after lawmakers and parents have become increasingly concerned about returning to in-person education to help with children’s learning and social development after some students have had virtual classes for a year or more…
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement that the agency is committed to leading with science and updating guidance as new evidence emerges.
“Safe in-person instruction gives our kids access to critical social and mental health services that prepare them for the future, in addition to the education they need to succeed,” Walensky said. “These updated recommendations provide the evidence-based road map to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction…
Elementary school children can be at least three feet apart in classrooms, the CDC said. The same guidance applies to middle and high school students unless they’re in areas of high community transmission. Levels of community transmission are defined as the total new Covid cases per 100,000 persons in the past 7 days — low being up to nine, and high being 100 cases or more. Schools are encouraged to adjust classroom layouts to maximize distance between students, and desks should face the same direction when possible.
However, the CDC continues to recommend at least six feet of distance for other situations. For example, children must keep six feet apart in circumstances when wearing a mask is not possible, such as when eating. Activities that involve increased exhalation, such as singing, band, or sports should also adhere to the six-foot rule, and take place outdoors when possible.
Teachers and staff are expected to maintain six feet between one other and between students, as research shows that adult-to-adult transmission is most common in schools than transmission between students or between students and teachers… The recommendations on testing allow for safe participation in sports. Schools may consider testing student-athletes, coaches, parents, or other adults who support extracurricular activities.
During a press briefing Friday Walensky responded to a question on why the CDC’s new research on schools did not address underfunded urban schools.
There is growing evidence from many different school settings that did not control for ventilation to demonstrate that it’s safe in classrooms where masks are worn and students are at least three feet apart, Walensky said. “We are following the science and we’ve done the science, and we’ve seen the science to ensure that this is safe for those schools,” she said.
Teacher unions across the country have opposed reopening schools out of safety concerns. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the New York Times this week she was concerned about the possibility of new guidelines, and suggested the CDC might have been pressured to shift its guidance.
In response to a question, Walensky said she had spoken to representatives of the unions.
“They know that we need to follow the science and to make our guidance based on that science, and they were very respectful of that,” Walensky said.
The Biden administration Wednesday said it would provide states billion of dollars for Covid-19 testing to help reopen schools safely. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is allocating $10 billion to help schools screen teachers, staff and students.
Another $2.25 billion will support scaled-up testing in underserved populations and the development of new guidance on screening in schools, workplaces and congregate settings.Three studies, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday, said evidence shows that physical distancing of at least three feet between students can safely be adopted in classroom settings.
I do hope these changes do not affect a positive outcome…
Our children, teachers and essential staff, deserve to be safe…
President Trump is definitely not a proponent for children, and those who rely on our public schools for their education…
Just the fact his selection of Betsy DeVos , an unqualified, billionaire who has strong ties to religious, private schools…as secretary of education….
I knew our public schools were in trouble…
With the fewer resources and funding this administration has taken from public education…and putting those funds into privatization…
And Now…this week at the State of the Union, post Impeachment… President Trump had an opportunity to vindicate the past…
He most definitely did not… He made his State of the Union Speech…a bid for his reelection….His little regard for our public schools calling them government schools…is absolutely disgraceful!
Taking this momentous occasion as an opportunity to stage a young student, who he said attended a public school, to be a recipient of the Education Freedom Scholarship…so she would be able to attend a private school…(Which is reportedly false) …She is already attending a prominent private school!He then revealed that he for wanted Congress to fund 1 million dollars to that Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act- for those worthy students….Adding:
“Because no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government schools!
He also urged Congress to pass legislation,
creating a 5 billion federal tax credit program that would fund scholarships to private and religious schools… benefitting individuals and donors…
The scholarships would be funded by individuals and businesses who want to privately donate but who would then receive a federal tax credit…
The President did call for more vocational and technical education at the high school level…And the importance of the constitutional right for prayer in schools...
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union, said in a statement: “Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos have made no secret of their antipathy for public education. Rather than strengthen the cornerstone of our democracy and the chief enabler of pluralism and opportunity, they choose to defund and destabilize it. No amount of rebranding vouchers and privatization as ‘choice’ and ‘freedom’ changes that...
This November….We will have an opportunity to vote in a very critical, presidential election… We can impact these detrimental changes since the election of Donald Trump…
One being…public education …There has been the ongoing process of weakening public education by both Republican and Democratic political influences since “No Child Left Behind” of the late nineties…and privatization…
However…. When President Trump chose an unqualified, Betsy Devos as the Secretary of Education….who is a strong proponent of charter schools… Our children who have relied on our public schools have truly suffered….
Our public schools are being dismantled… Due to those monies that would fund many of the necessary programs and resources helping children succeed in our public schools;
They are now being funneled to private schools…
In addition, there is a critical teacher shortage due to poor teacher pay, and the many obstacles teachers deal with everyday…
Such as the rise of gun violence in today’s schools… Thus arming teachers as the answer to the extremely important need for gun control… and gun safety in our schools…
Children live in fear each day!
Now 2020 is finally here!!!…
We have this wonderful opportunity to all unite behind a strong presidential candidate who will advocate for our children; being that strong supporter for public schools…
Itis my hope for our children that this election be the hope for our children… #Vote4Children🇺🇸💙🍎
Our children deserve a strong public school education…
Not since the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the candidate who would have prioritized our children, and their right to a strong public education….
And Donald Trump becoming President…a staunch supporter of the privatization of schools, and his choice of Betsy Devos…an unqualified supporter of privatization…as his secretary of education…
Because of their intent….Our schools are in crisis…Our children and public schools are systematically being dismantled… We have a critical teacher shortage due to unrealistic demands like arming teachers….and poor pay….And our public schools lack resources for necessary programs because their funds being diverted to…
Charter Schools…Profit and Non Profit… schools that do not have the oversight and same regulations and standards that public schools must adhere to…And our tax dollars fund…
With the upcoming presidential election in 2020, we certainly have a crucial opportunity to change all this for our children!!!
We have a strong chance to save our public schools if we elect a democratic candidate… one who supports our children who count on a public school education…There are now about 24 candidates who are in this race…
It is important to listen to the candidates, and how they plan to prioritize our children…with policies that will strengthen our public schools…And I do have my eye on a few…
One candidate that had impressive educational credentials…yet virtually unknown is Michael Bennet…a former school superintendent and senator from Colorado…
He was superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009…Bennet was closely tied to the education reform movement;
Closing low-performing Denver schools ; changing the district’s merit pay system in a way that favors newer teachers. Both were decisions unfavorable to veteran teachers and some students….but he has since realized these mistakes …
During the Obama administration, as a senator, Bennet did help author the Every Student Succeeds Act, the overhaul of No Child Left Behind….
Bennet is a vocal opponent of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos!!!
Where he now calls for preschool for all…
Another strong candidate choice is Joe Biden…former vice president…As Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden is tied to the many education policies that Obama encouraged…
Although many of which were detrimental including: evaluating teachers in part through their students’ test scores, the expansion of charter schools, and common standards for what students should learn… President Obama has since regretted these policies, and did enact the Every Student Succeeds Act in December of 2015…
Biden’s plan is to implement more funding into public school education; tripling Title I funding, implementing universal pre-kindergarten, and doubling the number of health professionals in schools…
Biden also said he doesn’t support any federal funding going to for-profit charter schools…However his education platform doesn’t mention charters…
Another concern I had, although happened so long ago, was revealed during the first debate by California Senator Kamala Harris, asking Biden if he was wrong to oppose busing back in the sixties and seventies…
Biden’s answer…“I did not oppose busing in America,”… “I opposed busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.”
Relating to my own personal experience, as a young teacher during those critical years…I knew busing was the only solution to integrate our schools and federal intervention was most definitely needed!!!
His stance has evolved, and recently expressed in reinstating Obama-era desegregation guidelines that were repealed by the Trump administration in July 2018…
Biden has stated, the first thing he would do as president is to appoint a teacher as education secretary!!!
I have always thought highly of Cory Booker, the senator from New Jersey…. However he not always advocated for public schools…
Booker too has been a leader in the school choice movement.. promoting charter schools, test-based accountability for low-performing schools, and ratings for teachers linked to student performance…Healso has supported private school vouchers, a policy few Democrats favor. He is currently a cosponsor of a bill to reauthorize the federally funded D.C voucher program…
However… Booker has evolved too as many of the candidates…. even plans to run “the boldest pro-public school teacher campaign there is,” noting that his state’s teachers unions had previously endorsed him…
Booker now states… “I’m a guy who believes in public education and, in fact, I look at some of the charter laws that are written about this country and states like this and I find them really offensive,” !!!
Booker has also stated he wants to provide better health care access to low-income communities in order to give those children better health care, so they would be more successful in school…
Pete Buttigieg, is the young mayor of South Bend, Indiana and an up and coming… candidate…Who may be lacking in years of experience however an ageless wisdom that accentuates hisintelligence…
He too, as many of the candidates indicate wants higher teacher pay… More Federal funds allocated to Title I schools… Wants debt free college…Does not believe for profit-charter schools as part of his vision…And he strongly opposes Florida’s guardian program, which gives districts the option to arm their staff.….“It’d be such an enormous, condemnation of our country if we were to to become the only developed nation where this is necessary.”
Julian Castro former secretary of housing and urban development…is another candidate with strong ideas for children and public schools…and whose wife was a former public school math teacher for many years….
As mayor of San Antonio, Castro expanded Pre-K acess, having more children in high-quality early childhood programs…If elected president, Castro wants to create a grant-funded, universal “Pre-K for USA” program…
He’s even created a ” People First Education” platform which will fund $150 billion to grow technology in schools…. ending tuition in public colleges….Raising teacher pay by $10,000…and ideas for safety and policing in schools…
He would promote school integration through efforts to integrate housing and “voluntary busing.” … recalling from his own personal experiences…“Today we’re still grappling with so many of the same issues that we were grappling with 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
One candidate who is one of my favorites...Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, now a senator fromCalifornia…who strongly advocates for our children and publicschools…
One of her education ideas is to propose federal funding to boost teacher salaries by an average of $13,000…and supports an increase school funding…Stood up for better working conditions in her state when California’s teachers went on strike…She has criticized Betsy Devos and has rejected the education secretary’s suggestion for arming teachers…
She is also proposing more federal funding to boost scholarships, research, and grants to historically black colleges and universities…And as a prosecutor, has prosecuted cases involving charter schools and truancy…
Amy Klobochar, senator from Minnesota…is one to watch…She was a front runner, but has fallen behind…
She too is a strong advocate for public schools….She wants in increase infrastructure by a trillion dollars to repair schools, increase teacher pay, make community colleges free, reduce rates on student loans, and expand Pell grants…
She is against private school vouchers and hold higher standards to charter schools…
Beto O’Rourke has become quite popular…He is a former representative from El Paso, Texas…He ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 for his senate seat…And now a vocal advocate gun reform…
He does support non-profit charter schools; believing they enhance innovation…Vocally opposes vouchers and taking funding away from public schools…
Beto’s children attend public schools and his wife was a former public school teacher…Now recruiter for new charter schools and launched a dual-language charter in El-Paso…
He is against high- stakes testing…Funding our schools with $500 billion that will help close the racial barrier inequities, and increase teacher pay … And for those teachers having at least taught for five years… debt forgiveness on their college loans…
Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont…is one of the most popular candidates espousing many of the progressive policies for the democratic platform…And was very powerful running in 2016 against Hillary…
Sanders has developed a 10-point platform called A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Education… outlining his program will include tripling Title I funding, and spending $5 billion on summer and after-school programs. He also proposes using federal funding to promote school integration…He has proposed making community college free for all…
He too has supported the teacher strikes…by paying them a starting teacher salary of at least $60,000… Restraining charter school growth by eliminating federal monies…and ban profit charter schools (which presidents do not have the authority)…
As a senator he voted against the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. In June, he introduced student loan forgiveness, expand what Pell grants can pay for, and eliminate tuition at public four-year colleges and universities.
Last is Elizabeth Warren another of my favorites…She is a senator Massachusetts…An advocate for progressive policies… although supports non profit charter schools…
Warren’s platform is progressive…She wants free community college…and student loan forgiveness…Her Pre-K plan will have a sliding scale for tuition, and those in poverty, tuition will be free… As of yet Warren has not shared her K-12 policy plan… In the past….She formally supported accountability testing…Which Warren now believes an education is not about testing…
She has shared she will appoint a public school teacher as her secretary of education…and has definitely stated her disapproval for the current secretary of education… Betsy Devos…
I have included Marianne Williamson, author and activist to be extremely interesting because of her philosophical ideas and approach to a political run for president…
Williamson believes that undereducation is a form of oppression…And wants a change…A whole-person educational system…and less testing…
These eleven candidates may be strong possibilities, and have some beneficial ideas for our children and public education… However there are thirteen more…We have our next debates on September 12 and 13… And there may be changes until those dates…and some may not qualify for the debates…
But the one critical factor I am counting on is …
Our children and their right to a strong public school education…must be that priority… 💙🇺🇸🍎
It will be up to all of us…united to support a candidate that will make that happen…
Not since the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the candidate who would have prioritized our children, and their right to a strong public education….
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 