City council voting today on bill to force school closings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes no sense that closing schools would ease the burden on hospital admissions.

The staff and teachers are vaccinated. Since vaccination became available only like 2.8% of hospitalizations in DC have been vaccinated individuals.

Kids are already at a low risk for hospitalizations.

Closing schools has not been shown to reduce spread anyway.

Closing schools, if anything, will INCREASE the burden on hospitals as hospital staff can't report because they have to stay home with their kids.

Couldn’t agree more. People supporting this bill try to present closures as virtuous when really it just makes everything worse. Also, for all the R. White boosters that assured people on this forum that he is not an advocate for closing schools, it didn’t take long at all to see how eager he is to do so.

+1 - I can't wait to vote against him in the primary

Interesting. I can't wait to vote for him.

+1 I can’t wait to vote for him either!

He isn’t presenting this bill for school closures…he’s presenting for more transparency and accountability from DCPS and he’s a DCPS parent. I can’t wait until the staff shortage boils over and forcing all you to be home and to take some accountability for your own kids that you decided to have!

Barf.

Barfing back!

You guys always take something and leave the rest. The bill doesn’t say oh let’s just vote to close schools….it just doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

Mary Cheh says she won't support the metrics idea. She says it's just a sneaky way to force schools to close.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478408734204432385

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes no sense that closing schools would ease the burden on hospital admissions.

The staff and teachers are vaccinated. Since vaccination became available only like 2.8% of hospitalizations in DC have been vaccinated individuals.

Kids are already at a low risk for hospitalizations.

Closing schools has not been shown to reduce spread anyway.

Closing schools, if anything, will INCREASE the burden on hospitals as hospital staff can't report because they have to stay home with their kids.

Couldn’t agree more. People supporting this bill try to present closures as virtuous when really it just makes everything worse. Also, for all the R. White boosters that assured people on this forum that he is not an advocate for closing schools, it didn’t take long at all to see how eager he is to do so.

+1 - I can't wait to vote against him in the primary

Interesting. I can't wait to vote for him.

+1 I can’t wait to vote for him either!

He isn’t presenting this bill for school closures…he’s presenting for more transparency and accountability from DCPS and he’s a DCPS parent. I can’t wait until the staff shortage boils over and forcing all you to be home and to take some accountability for your own kids that you decided to have!

Barf.

Barfing back!

You guys always take something and leave the rest. The bill doesn’t say oh let’s just vote to close schools….it just doesn’t.

DP. No, it doesn't come right out and say it. It just sets non-evidence-based benchmarks for closing that will lead to unnecessary closures and all the ensuing harms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The CDC says schools should remain open. Why does the city council want to overrule the CDC?

Not aware of any medical group anywhere that says schools should close. They all say kids should be in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mary Cheh says she won't support the metrics idea. She says it's just a sneaky way to force schools to close.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478408734204432385

Good for her! Love the language about the "Trojan horse to force a return to virtual learning". So true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So stupid. I support each school having a threshold focused on the teachers (i.e. close if >15% of teachers are unavailable) but not students and certainly not city-wide.

Yeah, tying it to staffing makes sense. But case rates don't mean anything without more context -- how many kids are sick? Are all grades equally affected? How many are really ill? Is there in-school spread? What mitigation measures is the school already taking, and are there more that could be implemented (ventilation, for example)?

+1

And the idea of a district-wide threshold is especially dumb when you consider that most HS/MS students will be required to be vaccinated by March, whereas elementary schools have a population of kids (PK) who are not even allowed to be vaccinated, but who also are at much lower risk from Covid. All of that should be taken into account.

If you have a school with 100% vaccine compliance, I would want either evidence that vaccinated people are experiencing serious illness, or a compelling public health argument (virus spreading so rapidly we have to shut down everything to stop it) before closing that school. It would be absurd to send those kids home to protect them from a virus they are vaccinated against.

You can't have a blanket policy tied to case rates. You just can't. I've really had it with the Council on this issue. Not just White. Silverman has also been egregiously bad. They are so clearly suggesting policy based on some very loud (and uninformed!) constituents and not based on what is actually happening in schools. It's really frustrating and I am weirdly grateful for Bowser, who I can't stand, because at least she seems to understand that schools can't just close because some tiny percentage of parents signed an online petition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mary Cheh says she won't support the metrics idea. She says it's just a sneaky way to force schools to close.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478408734204432385

This legislation is a way for politicians to close schools without any fingerprints. They'll say they're just interested in transparency and accountability and that this has nothing to do with closing schools. Then, when schools can't meet the absurd benchmarks in the legislation, politicians will pretend school closures are being driven by science and are out of their hands. It's a way for politicians to please the powerful teachers union by going virtual while trying to escape the wrath of parents.

[Anonymous]

When is the vote?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When is the vote?

They’re not voting on it because it is out of order procedurally. At least that’s what one of the Twitter links said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mary Cheh says she won't support the metrics idea. She says it's just a sneaky way to force schools to close.

https://twitter.com/maustermuhle/status/1478408734204432385

Good for her! Love the language about the "Trojan horse to force a return to virtual learning". So true.

She's a professor (one of the best that I had) and probably knows just how bad virtual learning is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When is the vote?

They’re not voting on it because it is out of order procedurally. At least that’s what one of the Twitter links said.

Yes, Robert White couldn't get it together to introduce the bill in the appropriate time frame.

He's really pushing to link himself with school closures. I wonder if he thinks the twitter moms represent a huge voting block? Maybe he get a lot of funding from the union?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When is the vote?

They’re not voting on it because it is out of order procedurally. At least that’s what one of the Twitter links said.

No way Mendo allows this to come up for a vote ASAP if White so flagrantly broke with procedure. It almost certainly doesn't have nine votes to pass, anyway, so White will withdraw it eventually.

This was a campaign ploy by White, pure and simple, and a reminder to the teachers' union that he will support whatever crazy premise they come up with so long as they have his back. Notice how he constantly took shots at "the administration" when introducing it?

[Anonymous]

I really am beginning to think that R. White and JL George want the middle class to leave DC. I just don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really am beginning to think that R. White and JL George want the middle class to leave DC. I just don't get it.

The DC middle class doesn't all believe with you, silly goose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really am beginning to think that R. White and JL George want the middle class to leave DC. I just don't get it.

The DC middle class doesn't all believe with you, silly goose.

Ok, to be clear, DC middle class = about $85K - $200K in HHI.