Arl Dems Caucus Endorsement - School Board - In the Candidates' Words
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Anonymous
That doesn't mean he's not in APE. |
Anonymous
What are you talking about? I am no fan of APE but no one is saying that APE is all MAGA Republicans. There are some Dems in APE, there are a lot of DINOs in there, there are a lot of Republicans in there, there are Rs who voted in the last Dem caucus, and then there are the MAGA Republicans in there. There are enough Rs in APE that they aligned with Republican positions during the pandemic. For instance, they were the only Arlington group that I can think of that didn't support our school board when it stood up to the overreaching by Youngkin in his politicized exec order prohibiting masking during the Omicrom surge. |
Anonymous
So what you are saying is that they did a good thing. They decided masks were not a political devise so they didn't get involved in the political discussion. Masks were never and will never be a political devise. |
Anonymous
Good for them! And they seem more in touch with the community given how fast families dropped the masks. Sort of how they were more in touch w return to school when 75% of families elected hybrid in fall 2020. |
Anonymous
| I know people here are pissed off at Miranda Turner but honestly you are wasting your time. Miranda Turner is going to win. The other guy is just not a viable candidate. It's as simple as that. |
Anonymous
Who would want to run with these insane bully parents running around? Some aren't even in APS anymore and are still aggressively anti-APS. |
Anonymous
- said no one who was paying attention to the Republicans during the pandemic |
Anonymous
Yes, standing in 2023, it's obvious that the mask mandate was the only thing between us and certain death and destruction. Are you really out here still fighting for masks? |
Anonymous
There we go. APE tough guy ready to throw down about masks. Nice job electing a POS republican just so you could drop the masks one month early. Way to ruin it for everyone. |
Anonymous
You are so out of touch that you don't realize that most Dems now agree the mask mandates were irrelevant. You're still out there fighting old battles that don't even matter. |
Anonymous
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I thought this was a good summary from NYT newsletter this morning:
Many other education leaders took a different approach in 2020 and came to favor a faster reopening of schools. In Europe, many were open by the middle of the year. In the U.S., private schools, including Catholic schools, which often have modest resources, reopened. In conservative parts of the U.S., public schools also reopened, at times in consultation with local teachers’ unions. Some people did contract Covid at these schools, but the overall effect on the virus’s spread was close to zero. U.S. communities with closed schools had similar levels of Covid as communities with open schools, be they in the U.S. or Europe. How could that be? By the middle of 2020, there were many other ways for Covid to spread — in supermarkets, bars, restaurants and workplaces, as well as homes where out-of-school children gathered with friends. Despite the emerging data that schools were not superspreaders, many U.S. districts remained closed well into 2021, even after vaccines were available. About half of American children lost at least a year of full-time school, according to Michael Hartney of Boston College. And children suffered as a result. They lost ground in reading, math and other subjects. The effects were worst on low-income, Black and Latino children. Depression increased, and the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in children’s mental health. Shamik Dasgupta, a philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley, who became an advocate for reopening schools, called the closures “a moral catastrophe.” The closures also caused some Americans to sour on public schools. Nationwide enrollment fell by 1.3 million, or 3 percent, according to the latest federal data. The share of U.S. adults with little or no trust in public schools rose by a few percentage points, to 33 percent, according to Gallup. In last year’s elections, political candidates who supported vouchers — which effectively reduce public-school funding — fared well, as Jonathan explains in his story. “It’s pretty undeniable that the last few years have been bad for public schools — even very bad,” he told me. |
Anonymous
| I find it very surprising that so many people in Arlington still stand behind our long return to in-person learning for almost all kids 5 days a week, when the data are so overwhelming that this was a bad call -- even if it was a well-intentioned bad call. |
Anonymous
No one is debating the return to classroom timing, except you. We are discussing SB candidates and what they bring to the table. Unfortunately, we have no good options this year so it’s a tough conversation. |
Anonymous
It doesn’t matter now. It didn’t matter one month after you elected Youngkin. The point was that Republicans politicized covid/masks/vaccines/school openings/CRT/bathrooms/etc. Instead of rationally these topics, we get bullies, many Republican, who were trying to force their beliefs on everyone else. In 2023, that is relevant because we have POS R governor because of this politicization. And we have a SB candidate who stood by and watched all of that nastiness go down in her group and thought that was acceptable. |
Anonymous
There you go again, trying to blame Miranda Turner for all of your political grievances. |