How the public middle school and high school parents feel about it? How would students who come from relatively poor background learn if they do no have internet and computer at home. The disparity between have and have nots will be widening again. And if school district open the school then it has it’s own downside too for teachers and parents as exposure can not be contained. Both options have downside.
https://news.yahoo.com/los-angeles-san-diego-not-201000313.html
Why SF does not have same issues? Is it because more poor people live in LA and SD?
Where are you getting your information?
Why do you assume more “poor” people live in LA and SD?
Do you reside in California?
Each city in California has its own school districts, run by different community committees. They decide what is best for their own students. The article states that those cities indicate that there is no control over the pandemic and have opted to do online instruction.
Why do you assume that the lower income students were denied access to learning via internet? So, in your view, none of the students, in lower socioeconomic classes within the state of California, received any learning online options over the past 4 months? That is news to me and my education colleagues!
@“aunt bea” First of all thank you for your reply. I am making hypothesis and raising these issue so I can understand them better. I am hoping people like you provide me inside information and in turn I can make myself more educated in this area as I feel exchanging the ideas and learn from those ideas. These interaction makes be a better human being and more informed individual. It is better to ask a stupid question than make silly mistake in real life if a decision is taken on half cooked information.
Better public health officers and mayor in SF shut down everything early and longer.
@“Cardinal Fang” When you say and what you say “Better public health officers and mayor in SF shut down everything early and longer.” Does that mean things are equally dicy in SF and politicians are not assessing correctly?
IMHO this is especially disastrous for our lower income communities. As mentioned, many do not have reliable internet nor parents that can afford to stay home with their children. One of my D’s friends struggled during the last few months of hs online because she did not have reliable internet at home. (Not a priority when food and rent is due.) It’s not as if they can head to Starbucks or the library either. To think months into this, even more families are struggling financially , I believe you raise valid questions that no one wants to think abt.
Yes, the pandemic is a serious threat, people are dying. Sadly it may also be with us for quite awhile (months to years depending when a vaccine is available and IF it works). Online school may work as a short term solution but I’m afraid we’ve passed that. Thankfully my youngest graduated this past June but I’m just sick for all the families with kids in K-12.
Btw, there are plenty of lower income families in Los Angeles! Not to mention a high percentage of homeless that existed precovid-19.
Anecdotally, my daughter works and lives in SF. On March 7, she cancelled dinner plans with us because “ Things are getting kind of serious here with coronavirus so I’m sad to cancel dinner”.
She was working at home the first week of March.
I don’t know if they are still in that situation, but here is a list of companies that are helping. Most notably, AT&T has internet for $5 to $10 a month as long as one person in the household qualifies for SNAP.
Yes, there are lower income people in LA and SD County, but in our county (San Diego), the children who qualified for the lunch programs (low income “poor”) received Chromebooks and iPads. The teachers advocated for supplies or services for each of their students on their rosters. (That included our teachers in Special Education). Local cable companies stepped it up, and had reduced or free internet-with resource people for help. The homeless students, at our local shelters, received resource packets and adult assistance/ socially distanced tutoring. Teachers prepared packets of information and provided resources in all languages. A number of my colleagues dropped off supplies at the homes of their students, several times over the past season. These students were not ignored.
@casinoofny, are your children in this group? Did your children not receive any education in the prior 5 months?
@“aunt bea” No we are very fortunate. I have one kid in Harvard and one attending Stanford. Due to various interest, both college kids are taking gap year. On other hand, this fall my daughter is going to start 7th grade. We are not very pleased as what on line education has to offer during spring time, but know that it is no one’s fault as virus is creating havoc. I am seeing first hand that even at my daughter’s suburban school, there is a huge difference in kid’s educational approaches. As parents many folks have to put food first on the table and they do not have time for managing children’s education. Just a sad story.
Not all of San Diego. There are 42 school districts in San Diego County. San Diego Unified is the largest, but each district is making their own plans and decisions. If we are talking about the city of San Diego only, San Diego Unified does not cover all of the City of San Diego either.
Observed at a local park yesterday: Large clusters of school aged kids sitting together under the shade trees. No distancing, no masks. They might as well be in school learning something. It’s not as though keeping them out of school is keeping them apart from one another and slowing the spread of the virus.
Their parents may well have been at work and not in a position to supervise the kids’ activities. They are running feral.
Its’ not just about the kids. Its also about the teachers, staff, bus drivers, school admins, maintenance crew that are affected by 1000s of kids coming to campus. There are no easy answers. I believe that most schools feel they cannot safely open. My son’s LA high school is on the fence on whether they can open for some in-person classes, and even so limited it would be limited to about 3 hours a day with less than 15 students per class. It’s a very complicated situation with no good options at this point.
@socaldad2002 I agree with what you say, these decision will be very tough.
One California school district sent a survey to parents. 65% of high school parents voted for on campus education, 62 for middle and 63 for elementary.
There were lots of concerns about special education students being left way behind by online learning. There were concerns about multiple kids but only one computer in the home. There were child care concerns by working parents. There were concerns about the socialization and mental health of kids being left alone without friends for so long.
It is a quandary.
@tatinG, I agree with you. I am thinking that parents who have means (more likely upper middle class or who are affluent) will likely supplement their kids education by hiring on line instructors for their kids who are in grade 1 through grade 12. Our both kids who attended famous prep schools, told us that a lot of their friends from abroad have received helps from private long distance tutors. I am thinking that this is coming here too. Educational gap is going to be bigger due to COVID 19 lockouts.
^^^Yes, this is happening here too. There are ads on the social networks for tutors. There are posts talking about tutoring in groups.
In LAUSD, attendance at ‘online’ school was monitored. It was the minority kids whose attendance fell far below the attendance of Asian and Caucasian kids. Of course, it didn’t help that it was announced that no one would fail spring semester. Whatever grade a kid had before the shutdown would remain his grade so there was no incentive to continue attending online.
No doubt a very difficult situation however if you consider education essential, I would look at other “essential” workers that are taking a risk daily: grocery store and healthcare workers to name a few.
My sister happens to be a middle school teacher. I know she would be nervous abt going back but also feels it is her duty to provide the best education she can to her students. Even with her best efforts, spring online was a disaster in her opinion.
If we knew that it was just for a month or two that would be one thing. The reality, that this virus could be with us for a very long time, demands that we figure out how to move forward amidst its clutches.
In saying that, I am not surprised that LAUSD cannot figure out ways to return safely. They struggled to operate and educate effectively pre-covid19, IMHO. As a native and contributing tax payer, I would be hesitant to put my trust in them as well.
(My apologies for the rant. My focus and frustration on the issue stems from thinking of the many children that will suffer. I respect that we may have different views on the topic.)
@gratefulmama We all may different point of views, but we are still human being and that characteristics binds us. This thread is to listen to different perspective and understand. We all are going to make decision that is best for our families. But we can calmly listen to each other and think ourselves.