The prospect of kids not going back to school until 2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a matter of three months, we as a society have become totally myopic when it comes to COVID. COVID now trumps all other issues, including education (permanent learning losses, especially for disadvantaged kids), the economy (devastated small businesses, hotels, airlines, mass layoffs, etc.); mental health (suicide, addiction); health other than COVID (skipped vaccinations, tests, well visits, operations), and happiness. This shift in mindset happened extremely quickly, and all of those who dared question it--stating the perhaps tradeoffs between health and these other issues might at least be considered--were shamed. Now, thousands of parents are realizing that their children are being permanently damaged by a lockdown of increasingly dubious value, and thankfully these parents are starting to slowly whisper "no, not this Fall." And you would think that these parents are monsters by the reactions of some of the truly virtuous woke posters on this board. I truly hope for the future of our society that we as parents start to find our voice and demand that our children receive a quality, in-person education this fall. And for the teacher's unions, County officials, Principals, and various others who will aggressively push back by citing the risks, let us remind them that, yes, in fact, they work for us, the taxpayers, and we demand that they do their jobs and figure it out. Of course there are risks. There are *always* risks. What we do know is that we now have a functioning contact tracing infrastructure, plenty of tests, plenty of PPE, and *six months* of time from March to September to figure this out. MoCo simply must figure out an in-person schooling approach; if they punt and go to another semester of Zoom wasted time, I can think of another organization that should be defunded.

Another honest question: who do you mean by "we as a society"? Because this is happening on the entire planet.

No, it's not. Some countries dealt with it competently. Unfortunately, our country did not.

Ok, which is it? Did the US focus exclusively on COVID with an air-right lockdown and contact tracing, or did the US not focus enough on COVID and that’s why it’s getting out of hand? I can’t keep track of everyone’s complaints except they all seem to think it’s better elsewhere. But I would challenge anyone to find a place in the world where everything is normal.

Who on earth is saying that? Nobody. Air-tight lockdown, ha. Contact tracing, triple ha.

Poster at the top here said COVID now trumps all other issues in the US, that we have “lockdown of increasingly dubious value,” i.e. that we’ve done too much. Then a poster said we did not deal with it competently, i.e. that we’ve done too little. Nobody seems to agree on what we’ve done wrong but they all think other countries all did it better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Poster at the top here said COVID now trumps all other issues in the US, that we have “lockdown of increasingly dubious value,” i.e. that we’ve done too much. Then a poster said we did not deal with it competently, i.e. that we’ve done too little. Nobody seems to agree on what we’ve done wrong but they all think other countries all did it better.

Nobody has said anything about an "airtight" lockdown. And "we didn't deal with it competently" means just that - we didn't deal with it competently. It doesn't mean we did too much, it doesn't mean we did too little, it means that our response was incompetent.

Also, other countries actually did do it better. Although of course there are also other countries that did it even worse. Brazil, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a matter of three months, we as a society have become totally myopic when it comes to COVID. COVID now trumps all other issues, including education (permanent learning losses, especially for disadvantaged kids), the economy (devastated small businesses, hotels, airlines, mass layoffs, etc.); mental health (suicide, addiction); health other than COVID (skipped vaccinations, tests, well visits, operations), and happiness. This shift in mindset happened extremely quickly, and all of those who dared question it--stating the perhaps tradeoffs between health and these other issues might at least be considered--were shamed. Now, thousands of parents are realizing that their children are being permanently damaged by a lockdown of increasingly dubious value, and thankfully these parents are starting to slowly whisper "no, not this Fall." And you would think that these parents are monsters by the reactions of some of the truly virtuous woke posters on this board. I truly hope for the future of our society that we as parents start to find our voice and demand that our children receive a quality, in-person education this fall. And for the teacher's unions, County officials, Principals, and various others who will aggressively push back by citing the risks, let us remind them that, yes, in fact, they work for us, the taxpayers, and we demand that they do their jobs and figure it out. Of course there are risks. There are *always* risks. What we do know is that we now have a functioning contact tracing infrastructure, plenty of tests, plenty of PPE, and *six months* of time from March to September to figure this out. MoCo simply must figure out an in-person schooling approach; if they punt and go to another semester of Zoom wasted time, I can think of another organization that should be defunded.

Another honest question: who do you mean by "we as a society"? Because this is happening on the entire planet.

No, it's not. Some countries dealt with it competently. Unfortunately, our country did not.

Ok, which is it? Did the US focus exclusively on COVID with an air-right lockdown and contact tracing, or did the US not focus enough on COVID and that’s why it’s getting out of hand? I can’t keep track of everyone’s complaints except they all seem to think it’s better elsewhere. But I would challenge anyone to find a place in the world where everything is normal.

Who on earth is saying that? Nobody. Air-tight lockdown, ha. Contact tracing, triple ha.

Looks like one of things we should concentrate on is adult education about our system of government. It's called federalism. The states retain public health and safety functions, which means that each governor is responsible for running a Health Department that does things like testing, contact tracing and hospital regulation (number of beds; number of ICU beds, etc). They are responsible for planning their state's emergency response and requesting assistance from FEMA and Homeland Security. The national government does not go uninvited into these situations. The CDC is there to provide guidance, specialized testing, etc. Therefore, you had different responses from each state. The only thing truly controlled by the Feds in this situation was the borders. I can only imagine what people would have said if their parents were trapped on a cruise ship and not allowed to come home to the U.S. Yes, this type of government is messy, but it is ours and it was set up to allow maximum freedom. People criticizing the Feds and Trump on COVID would have been the first to freak out if he had sent troops uninvited to states to deal with racial unrest. Same deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Poster at the top here said COVID now trumps all other issues in the US, that we have “lockdown of increasingly dubious value,” i.e. that we’ve done too much. Then a poster said we did not deal with it competently, i.e. that we’ve done too little. Nobody seems to agree on what we’ve done wrong but they all think other countries all did it better.

Nobody has said anything about an "airtight" lockdown. And "we didn't deal with it competently" means just that - we didn't deal with it competently. It doesn't mean we did too much, it doesn't mean we did too little, it means that our response was incompetent.

Also, other countries actually did do it better. Although of course there are also other countries that did it even worse. Brazil, for example.

The death rates in almost all European countries are worse than ours. Get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Looks like one of things we should concentrate on is adult education about our system of government. It's called federalism. The states retain public health and safety functions, which means that each governor is responsible for running a Health Department that does things like testing, contact tracing and hospital regulation (number of beds; number of ICU beds, etc). They are responsible for planning their state's emergency response and requesting assistance from FEMA and Homeland Security. The national government does not go uninvited into these situations. The CDC is there to provide guidance, specialized testing, etc. Therefore, you had different responses from each state. The only thing truly controlled by the Feds in this situation was the borders. I can only imagine what people would have said if their parents were trapped on a cruise ship and not allowed to come home to the U.S. Yes, this type of government is messy, but it is ours and it was set up to allow maximum freedom. People criticizing the Feds and Trump on COVID would have been the first to freak out if he had sent troops uninvited to states to deal with racial unrest. Same deal.

No, the terrible federal response is not due to federalism. It's due to the administration currently in charge of the federal government.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Poster at the top here said COVID now trumps all other issues in the US, that we have “lockdown of increasingly dubious value,” i.e. that we’ve done too much. Then a poster said we did not deal with it competently, i.e. that we’ve done too little. Nobody seems to agree on what we’ve done wrong but they all think other countries all did it better.

Nobody has said anything about an "airtight" lockdown. And "we didn't deal with it competently" means just that - we didn't deal with it competently. It doesn't mean we did too much, it doesn't mean we did too little, it means that our response was incompetent.

Also, other countries actually did do it better. Although of course there are also other countries that did it even worse. Brazil, for example.

The death rates in almost all European countries are worse than ours. Get over yourself.

How well we're doing:

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases-50-states

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

Friends in Australia and the Netherlands are living life normally because they had competent governmental responses to covid.

Friends in Florida are living life normally because they're pretending that covid doesn't exist. It does, though: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases-50-states/florida

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

Yes, we do. Because it's June 15, which is the last day of school, and the first day of school isn't until August 31.

As for the playground PP - there are plenty of playgrounds in Montgomery County that people are currently taking their children to, and the rest of them will be officially play-on-able on Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

Yes, because children's education and well-being are being sacrificed in the name of a hyper-cautious approach that ignores all evidence that opening schools is not going to have a significant impact on the overall spread of the virus throughout society. They are not going back to school because those in charge refuse to weigh the harms closed schools inflict on children against the questionable benefit doing so has with regard to the larger goal of "flattening the curve", a goal that appears to have been abandoned in favor of an approach that justifies even the most harmful and burdensome restrictions (such as closing schools) as worthwhile if they save even a single life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

Yes, because children's education and well-being are being sacrificed in the name of a hyper-cautious approach that ignores all evidence that opening schools is not going to have a significant impact on the overall spread of the virus throughout society. They are not going back to school because those in charge refuse to weigh the harms closed schools inflict on children against the questionable benefit doing so has with regard to the larger goal of "flattening the curve", a goal that appears to have been abandoned in favor of an approach that justifies even the most harmful and burdensome restrictions (such as closing schools) as worthwhile if they save even a single life.

Caveat emptor on those crystal balls, dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

Yes, because children's education and well-being are being sacrificed in the name of a hyper-cautious approach that ignores all evidence that opening schools is not going to have a significant impact on the overall spread of the virus throughout society. They are not going back to school because those in charge refuse to weigh the harms closed schools inflict on children against the questionable benefit doing so has with regard to the larger goal of "flattening the curve", a goal that appears to have been abandoned in favor of an approach that justifies even the most harmful and burdensome restrictions (such as closing schools) as worthwhile if they save even a single life.

Caveat emptor on those crystal balls, dude.

Oh, I didn't mean to predict anything. I quoted the PP. I very much hope they ARE going back to school, so I hope you are right, "dude".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People everywhere are over it.

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. Does it care? No.

Except many countries are reopening and doing fine. I occasionally wonder why my kids can’t even go to a MoCo playground while friends in Florida, Australia, and the Netherlands live life normally.

Here we are wondering if we’re lucky enough for our kids to go to school while elsewhere children are enjoying the normal - parks, playgrounds, beaches, grocery stores, etc.

You do understand the reason, don't you? Even though children are not in danger, why they won't go back to school in the cities on the coasts? I think we all know.

Yes, because children's education and well-being are being sacrificed in the name of a hyper-cautious approach that ignores all evidence that opening schools is not going to have a significant impact on the overall spread of the virus throughout society. They are not going back to school because those in charge refuse to weigh the harms closed schools inflict on children against the questionable benefit doing so has with regard to the larger goal of "flattening the curve", a goal that appears to have been abandoned in favor of an approach that justifies even the most harmful and burdensome restrictions (such as closing schools) as worthwhile if they save even a single life.

Caveat emptor on those crystal balls, dude.

Oh, I didn't mean to predict anything. I quoted the PP. I very much hope they ARE going back to school, so I hope you are right, "dude".

I sure think schools will open, but in the event they don't, I would NEVER EVER, NEVER vote blue again even though I'm a lifelong Dem.I

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I sure think schools will open, but in the event they don't, I would NEVER EVER, NEVER vote blue again even though I'm a lifelong Dem.I

If schools don't open, it will be because the Hogan administration decided against it. MCPS/BoE answer to the Maryland State Board of Education, which answers to Governor Hogan, who is a Republican.