Yes, it takes the will but I think that is starting to dwindle in many places. Parents are starting to push back against masks in schools here in Wisconsin, and winning.
Thatās called keeping the educational mission in the forefront of all the Covid planning. This pandemic has been a real eye-opener in many ways.
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Sensing a lot of ācanāt be doneā in these comments. People are smarter than viruses. The pandemic has taught many of us that where thereās a will, thereās a way. No one size fits all, and each institution needs to come up with creative plans that prove they have the correct priorities (which would be education, even in a pandemic). One observation: smaller is better for making decisions. Thatās why, for instance, even our charter schools in our state could open on time this fall, while larger districts (including well funded one) whined about needing more time.
Iād agree - followed NEU a bit as I have a friend with a kid there. I think they came down a bit hard on that one group in the beginning but they backtracked and hopefully it became ancient history. We considered ourselves very lucky that our kids were attending a school on quarters that started a month later than everyone else and could watch and learn from all these situations (which of course were more than well-publicized in the general media).
and if someone is allergic to something in one of the vaccines they can take one of the other 2.
and there arenāt that many people who are active members of a religion that does not allow for vaccines.
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ā thatās why we left our public school district of 18 years this past fall. In the name of equity they offered no remote, no work, no grades for 50K kids, most low SES last spring. Education was not at the forefront. It has been eye-opening for sure. I suppose that sounds harsh, but think about it; would you want your child in that education situation if you had a choice?
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All I am seeing is the poor being gaslighted to not fight getting screwed.
Rich white people send their kids to private schools where they get aggressively tested so that Covid is assured not to spread within the community and they also have small classes so that risk is reduced even further.
The poor schools donāt receive that kind of funding and the kids donāt have parents who can afford to stay at home all day or even have internet access.
They are told that they only have a choice of two bad options when there is a hidden third one that their privileged decision makers have but donāt want to have to pay the taxes to provide to all.
Our public schools opened. The poor werenāt screwed. Direct your anger at those districts which remained closed despite clear evidence that young kids were neither greatly affected by nor carriers of covid. Motivation to open mattered more than money.
Our private schools, all of which opened, did not test. They opened windows for ventilation, and wore sweaters and turned the heat up. Many schools could have done that.
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On this very thread, on this Page, are accounts of private universityās testing its students multiple times a weeks and the low Covid rates that results from that. You canāt lie to me that private schools are not testing its students, I am seeing it with my own eyes.
Their students are granted HEALTH, granted freedom from the virus as well as in person classes. That decision was made by the ruling class and they are not also giving that right to our most deprived k-12 students.
If youāre upset with how schooling is being run in your state for K-12, talk to your teachers union and the governor. Theyāre the ones making those decisions.
Colleges made their own decisions and not just based on money. For example, Harvard is the wealthiest college in the country and they pretty much chose to close up shop when they could have implemented a testing regime and had many more students on campus, such as Northeastern did which is located in the same city. Different leadership with different ambitions.
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well, having a lot of money allowed Harvard to close up because they donāt need room and board. To a lesser extent, a large endowment allowed Bowdoin to also make a decision to only have a percentage of kids on campus each semester. They also didnāt get room and board for the kids who had to study from home.
I know, I was responding to the statement that money is all that is required to open schools. It also takes the will and interest to do it. The decision for k-12 schools to be closed came from and continues to be the decision of the governors and teachers unions. The decisions for colleges and universities came from their administration. Money isnāt only the deciding factor.
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The virtual option was offered because people liked it so much as well as because of the virus. They also need to dedicate the teachers to it- so they needed numbers finalized. There was some issues with IEP kids who also have medical issues and being able to come in if they were able to eventually get a vaccination and I think they are going to work with them. I think the availability of the vaccine to the kids came right after they closed the registration.
One school board member has been vocal against being virtual beyond the pandemic. D21 and many of her classmates loved virtual. So much time was wasted in school. With that, I donāt think I would have loved if she would have chosen it for next year. Luckily, itās not a choice!
Believe what you want, @msdynamite85, but I was talking about K12 schools, and not a single k12 private in my county tested. The parents never would have tolerated that, and frankly, it was enough of a battle to get the mask mandate, so that was all the schools could manage. I am sure in other places, some public and some private K12 schools tested, just like at universities, some public and some private tested, and some did not. Kids continued to socialize, so I am not sure what massive testing would have achieved anyway. Yes, some did get covid, and no, no one got seriously ill or hospitalized or long term conditions here among the kids. Just one data point, but 65k kids. Parents were pretty happy overall here, but I understand our solution might not work for you.
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Some housing issues at Amherst College in the fall, largely as the result of COVID-19ās impact on Amherst College.
Housing will be extremely tight, as they expect to have 170 more students on-campus than normal falls. As a result, they will be āconvertingā some doubles into triples (putting three beds in a double), āconvertingā some singles into doubles (putting two beds in a single), and potentially even converting some lounges into rooms.
Here are the reasons why:
- Much less rising juniors than usual planning to study abroad in fall.
- Overenrolled incoming freshmen class for two reasons:
a) Significantly higher yield than expected for incoming freshmen class
b) Significant number of people accepted for Class of 2024 deferred a year. - Overenrolled rising senior class for two reasons:
a) Significantly higher yield than expected for that class as well
b) Some athletes who would have graduated this year took a gap year so they
could get another season. - No remote learning option.
- They are keeping the traditional 50-person cap for maximum number of enrolled students who can live off-campus.
Many students are upset they are insisting on the 50-person cap because the reason a lot of students opted not to take gap years is that the college said students who took gap years would not be guaranteed on-campus housing for the remainder of their college career due to the potential of overcrowding, and now they are more than willing to cram students together in overcrowded living situations to accommodate those who took gap years.
Just wow! And of course none of this was disclosed before May 1. So much of this was KNOWN by the administrationā¦they knew how many gappers they had, could have managed yield better using the WL. Sounds like a money grab. SMH.
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Meanwhile, at Bowdoin, they will also be a bit over on students for fall but are allowing more seniors to live off campus. No news about tripling up on campus or anything like that.
Classes seem to be a bit of a challenge with more kids but they are stepping up. S19 got shut out of a physics class he needs in the first round of registration but the professor responded to the kids who didnāt get the class and added a fourth lab section. Emailed them the next day and gave them directions on how to make sure they get into it for the second round. They are doing everything they can to make sure kids get what they need.
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Do you think thereās more to the Amherst story? Seems unlikely that they are tripling up as a money grab. Maybe thereās just not available off campus housing and they didnāt want to put the seniors in a position to scramble for housing?
A large part of the issue is that they are not lifting the cap for number of students who can live off-campus, so people will not even have a choice between being put in those situations and living off-campus.
Looks like that info just came out. Maybe there will be some push back and theyāll change the cap.
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