Aha. Thanks. Invites by early August. That is reasonable.
The FA piece is a little more nuanced than that, which is why I chose not to include it in my summary.
They reduced their room and board charge by just under $6K for the year, so the net result for aided students staying home will be a lower overall aid award then they would otherwise have received. MIT addressed this with an additional $5K “covid-era” grant.
Also, Caltech’s finaid formula itself is on the less generous side (our Net Cost would have been $67K vs $50K at MIT).
Still a very fair and generous way to deal with the situation, and a very solid plan. I expected nothing less from Caltech.
…And so it looks like DS20 could have been heading to Pasadena in September. Still no regrets:)
And then there’s the cost. Who pays for all this? Remediation is expensive. Meanwhile PPE’s are still rationed where my wife works. She doesn’t get to say “my work conditions must meet every guideline or no go”. There’s “what should be done” and then there’s “what can we realistically do”. The two need to be reconciled on so many levels including by the teacher’s union.
It’s time to put all options and solutions on the table. Nobody is going to get everything they want and barring a vaccine it’s not likely to get better by next year either. Many of the older nurses and staff have either retired or have moved up their timelines. Maybe it’s time to turnover teachers and professors? Offer early retirements to those who feel unsafe teaching.
The company I’m consulting for just announced permanent remote work for the employees. Luckily it’s possible for our area but not for other lines of business. I’m sure the effort and cost of remediating buildings weighed heavily.
I thought I came up with a unique idea to offer homeschoolling to local families for the fall. I homeschooled my own kids so do have experience. I did some googling, and apparently this is already a thing! Interesting job in CA included travel by private jet to vacation destinations with a family of two girls. Alas, I’m on the east coast.
Yep. Our local homeschool FB groups have been inundated with parents asking for advice on how to homeschool for 2020-2021. As a secular homeschooler (most around me are conservative Christians), I’ve had my hands full recently directing secular parents toward all kinds of local and national resources.
Our S (Stanford grad school) has not yet made his decision on returning to campus this fall. He did get notified of his room assignment - a single in the brand new graduate student complex. Private room, private bath, sitting area, and kitchen. Looks very nice. Will that influence his decision? I think not. He’s too data driven.
The logic of this statement escapes me. Food is essential. If people don’t get food, they will die. So we have to keep groceries open, even though we know that working in a grocery store is dangerous and a not inconsiderable number of workers have died doing it.
Medical care is essential. If very sick covid patients don’t get medical care, they will die. So we have to keep hospitals open, even though we know that working in a hospital is dangerous and a not inconsiderable number of workers have died doing it.
Students will not die if they don’t get in-person school, although in-person is clearly better. So comparing in-person teachers to in-person grocery workers or health workers is a big fail.
I mean, nobody is saying, hey, doctors are working in heavily-hit areas, so I should be able to get my nails done there. (Or, if someone is saying that, they need to think hard about their spoiled, entitled attitude.) Instead we say, what is the right balance between on the one hand, protecting workers, clients and the general public, and on the other hand, providing services that people want and employment for workers? That’s the same process we need to go through with schools, rather than saying teachers are obligated to risk their lives because reasons.
I believe teachers have an obligation to teach or not be paid. In person or online (if they are a certain age or have medical conditions or a family member with an issue then teach online). In our town, the public teachers did nothing last year other than point kids to Kahn academy. While it was a crazy time, they have had all Summer to prepare. Now they are preparing to do the same for another year. Shameful.
My kids are in private school. One went online the day following in person classes, the other’s school took a week to migrate. The difference? No unions. And the will to teach. Yep, they’ll have classes and continue studying. The only difference? They will wear masks and have a plan B in case there is another wave of Covid.
I feel like an entire group of kids is going to miss out on 1-1.5 years of schooling. It is particularly bad for the vulnerable kids. No school lunches, parents maybe working outside the house, kids may/may not have access to the internet, kids may/may not attend online classes. This is serious. And sad. We can do better as a nation. Send the kids back to school if they are healthy. If someone has an issue ( teacher or student) have an online option and stop using unions to stop education.
I grew up in a low income area and know that school is a lifeline. It should not just be the kids whose parents can pay who get an education. I’m not surprised people are moving to homeschooling. That’s really the only option to continue with learning if public school teachers abdicate. Most private schools are continuing or if they are online they have a curriculum in place and are trying to keep it near normal.
The teaching situation is analogous to grocery stores, @cardinalfang, in that both can work in either an open or virtual format, but one is greatly preferable. You do not actually need to go to your local store. Rice, beans, and canned fruits and vegetables can be shipped anywhere, and you will not starve. Such foods may not be your preferred diet, but the objective is accomplished though not in a way you like. Same with virtual or in person teaching.
If your kids are in private school, how in the world are you qualified to state what public school teachers did in your district, let alone anywhere else?
In my district (public) we were teaching online from day one. Unions are critical not only for teachers, but indeed for more employees, and they should expand, not contract, their power and reach in this horrible environment of unbridled capitalism and employee abuse.
“Had all summer to prepare” - explain this, considering that we have been told varying and changeable information, with no resources and certainly no paid time working. I personally have already tried to prepare for several different “models” and then was told actually, we won’t buy that software; actually, you have to do something else instead, etc. If you want teachers to be your servants working all summer, then I certainly hope you’re not the kind of person who calls teaching a job with “summers off”.
@fretfulmother Personally, I would have liked to see the teacher unions take a leadership role in defining what would the best for students. Sadly, IMO, they have not. And, I find that strange, because when they are looking for raises they can be very vocal and visible on all the news outlets. Their primary message: we’re all about educating the kids.
I think if you read the actual document that the MTA put out, you will be pleasantly surprised - it is 100% about what will be good for students. That, of course, includes student health and wellbeing in all categories. I can’t speak to unions in other states.
There are many good reasons to keep schools virtual in the fall, but student health really isnt one of them, and I wish teachers would stop pretending it is.
I think you should not read your science so selectively. The major studies are now absolutely pointing to student health (particularly for students age 12 and above) as an important risk of in-person schooling.
Can someone point me to the published, science-based studies outlining the negative health outcomes as a statistically significant group for people under 21 directly from Coronavirus. And if you have those with preexisting conditions take further precautions as well?
There are numerous health concerns as to further isolation.
And I don’t mean case count. Significant health outcomes.
if you are one of the the thousands of children subject to neglect and abuse. I think school is life or death.
Food. Socialization. How about the 50000 students in LA that stopped attending remotely. Are 50000 students really going to get seriously ill. Come on folks.
If you don’t think this is life or death. It’s generational consequence.
But these students aren’t part of the lively debate around the tradional lac experience vs the new online course paradigm while strolling champs elysee crowd anyway.
It’s just such a myopic view to see the world through our children and personal circumstances exclusively.
Lots of the colleges and districts seem to be making decisions less about the risk and more about the political and social inclination of its academics, staff and alums. Grinell as an example is much less about the the “wow even Iowa”.
So, the annual R&B expenses are 3x $5,779 or $17,337 to be used to calculate a student’s need for FA, even if the student stays home to take classes remotely. For comparison, MIT assumes that cost to be $4,000 per semester, or $8,000 per year for an off-campus student. On the other hand, MIT offers $5,000 discount on tuition.
I’ve been paying a lot of attention to covid among under-18s, and I have seen no study that points to much risk for children infected with covid. The bad news is that older children seem to get infected and to transmit disease like their elders, but that is not in itself a health risk to them, if they rarely get serious complications as currently seems to be the case.
Haverford calculated my daughter’s need for remote classes down by about $11,500 from the on campus aid award she originally had. They also still require summer work contribution and work study- even though she’ll be in another state. How schools will handle the finances will vary quite a lot, I guess.