School's Out For Summer... And Fall?

I don't have any school-aged kids who I need to think about sending back to school next month. But my closest friend is an elementary school teacher in Compton. I'm worried about him, although neither the school district nor his union has said anything definitive about preparing for school. Yesterday, reporters Howard Blume, David Lauter and Nina Agrawal reported for the L.A. Times about the whole reopening idea. It strikes me as odd that people think they can plan that far in advance with the pandemic totally out of control in California, particularly in Los Angeles. On Thursday California reported new 7,248 cases. The total on Friday was 312,098 after another 8,775 new cases. There are now 7,898 cases per Californian. And it's almost all in Southern California-- L.A. worst of all. The half dozen worst hit counties in the state are all in southern California, which paid attention to the corrupt imbecile governor while the northern California mayors and county executives laughed this go-slow strategy towards shutting down. Friday's numbers:

• Los Angeles- 127,358 (+2,620)
• Riverside- 24,980 (+938)
• Orange- 22,960 (+872)
• San Diego- 18,863 (+461)
• San Bernardino- 18,275 (+861)
• Imperial- 7,759 (105)

Meanwhile San Francisco has just 4,316 cases and Santa Clara (San Jose) just 5,863 cases-- San Francisco with 171 new cases Friday and Santa Clara 185.

The L.A. school district-- different from Compton-- is supposed to start in 3 weeks but we don't think it's going to. For one thing, the teachers' unions are not buying it. "Californians," wrote the 3 reporters, "are deeply split over whether campuses can safely reopen amid the ongoing coronavirus surge-- caught in a collective moment of uncertainty and anxiety also reflected among teachers and education leaders."

Bangkok schools have reopened. This looks like a good idea. Will Trump pay?

T

My friend's union recommends that the first quarter should be 100% remote/online and the second quarter, depending circumstances, back in school with much fewer students-- maybe half the kids one day and half the next day.

Parents, as indicated in a new statewide poll, are grappling with the prospect of stressful, less effective learning at home-- not to mention continued child care woes-- and fears that children exposed at school could bring COVID-19 and its potentially deadly risks into their home.

Similar concerns among school workers are expected to crystallize in Los Angeles on Friday morning when the teachers union will recommend a delay in reopening campuses tentatively planned for Aug. 18. For now, learning from home-- in place since mid-March-- should continue, union leaders said.

The California Teachers Assn. on Thursday made a similar but less explicit statement, saying that conditions for keeping students safe have not been satisfied statewide.

L.A. school officials have not yet made a final decision other than to say that instruction will begin on the first day of school, one way or another.

...Overall, Californians are closely split on whether to continue with distance learning or go ahead with a limited reopening, according to the poll, which was conducted in consultation with The Times.

About 4 in 10 California adults want to stick with full-time distance learning this fall. A similarly sized group favors a limited reopening with students in school on alternating days or on half-day schedules. The staggered schedule would allow schools to comply with social distancing requirements, which typically require students to remain six feet apart.

Fewer than 2 in 10 support having students attend classes full time in person on a daily basis-- even if they follow social distancing guidelines, the poll found.

Respondents took part online in the California Community Poll from June 26 through July 6. The survey was commissioned by the Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality and the Los Angeles Urban League. Strategies 360, a California-based polling and political strategy firm, polled 1,184 adult citizens. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points.

The question of when and how to reopen campuses has divided experts and roiled politics up to the White House, with President Trump this week threatening to withhold funding for schools that don't open and challenging the advice of his own experts. He questioned the need for social distancing and labeled the safety guidelines from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as too tough, expensive and impractical. The CDC on Thursday refused to change its guidance.

"It’s clear that most Americans are much more conflicted about how to proceed-- whether it’s about wearing a mask or sending their children to school-- given the wide range of messages they’re hearing from their elected leaders," poll director Dan Schnur said.

California officials are contemplating, at best, a hybrid format, with students combining online sessions and work-at-home materials with part-time classes on campuses in small groups.

...In the poll, undertaken before Trump began touting reopening schools, residents of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties-- where the toll from COVID-19 has been heaviest-- were significantly more in favor of keeping students off campus than residents of other parts of the state.

The poll found only small differences between parents and non-parents on the issue, but significant differences among different groups of parents. Among parents earning more than $75,000, about 3 in 10 supported a full reopening this fall. Among parents earning less than $75,000, only half as many supported reopening.

Black and Asian Pacific American parents were especially supportive of sticking with distance learning, with half or more in those groups in favor. Latino parents were most in favor of a partial reopening, with nearly half supporting that option. Whites, who have been less likely than Black people or Latinos to be hit by the virus, were the most evenly divided, with about 1 in 5 backing a full reopening.

Moreover, the political polarization that has divided Americans on nearly everything in recent years reinforces an urban-rural split, the poll found. Self-identified Republicans and conservatives, who are more likely to live in non-urban parts of the state, were much more likely to back reopening than were Democrats and liberals.

"These poll numbers show that Trump's call for a full reopening is most popular with men, seniors and rural white voters," Schnur said. "Trump will almost certainly not win California in November, but the demographic groups that are most supportive of opening the schools are the voters he needs to win in more competitive states."

But for most-- including education leaders-- the issues are more pragmatic than political.

"It seems to me that we are ill-prepared for the reopening of schools," said Lynwood Supt. Gudiel R. Crosthwaite. "Given the increase in rates not only in Southern California but throughout the country, it seems almost irresponsible for schools to open."

Lennox School District Supt. Scott Price said he's been involved in discussions with leaders of other school systems and some expect they'll be ready with some form of hybrid learning, while others say they probably will need to start the school year using distance learning. His school system is working out its strategy for the fall.

Las Virgenes Unified, which straddles the border of Ventura and L.A. counties, announced Thursday that it would offer both a hybrid schedule and online-only instruction-- not that it will be easy. The district already has spent $850,000 on safety and health enhancements, while cutting its districtwide budget.

"We're still running about 70% to 30% in favor of being on campus." Supt. Dan Stepenosky said. "Schools are critical for both public health and the economy... If we don't open or don't do it right, both the public health and economy will struggle."

Antonio Mendez can attest to the economic hardship.

An independent trucker who lives in the San Diego area, Mendez took on responsibility for supervising his children's studies while his wife holds onto her credit union job. He doesn’t have anyone besides his mother to watch his sons, ages 7 and 12, and he doesn’t want to risk exposing her.

“I don’t want to send my kids to school if there’s any threat of them catching this,” Mendez said.

For now, he wouldn’t feel comfortable even with a partial reopening of schools: “When I go pick up the groceries, I see people outside with no masks on. Those people might have kids. If they’re acting that irresponsibly... and I’ve gotta send my kids to school with those children, I’m not doing that.”

But Danielle Simmons, of San Bernardino, says her children, ages 7 and 10, need to get back to something as close to normal as possible.

“The distance learning," Simmons said, "it really is a headache.”

Though Del Rosa Elementary provided a laptop and iPad, the family had problems signing into Google Classroom and muting microphones, eating up time and causing frustration.

Besides, her children "need that interaction... They need to get out of the house and go back to what they’re familiar to,” she said.

But she will also consider whether the school is operating safely and will keep watch for spikes in the virus, she said.

"Remote education doesn’t work very well for very many kids," especially for young children and low-income families, said Jesse Rothstein, a professor of public policy and economics at UC Berkeley, who's had to help manage schoolwork for his own children at home. All the same, "you can’t go to schools if it’s not safe."

And when it comes to the coronavirus, "there’s a lot of science that we don’t understand."