The prospect of kids not going back to school until 2021

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

But since Hogan ceded decision making authority for MoCo to Elrich, can't Elrich refuse to open the schools? He's going to do whatever the teachers union president tells him to do.

No, because Elrich doesn't have authority over the schools.

Hogan ceded decision-making authority to Elrich for things Elrich has authority over. Which does NOT include Montgomery County Public Schools. It also doesn't include Montgomery Parks.

In this case, Elrich does have authority IF the state has not exercised their authority. The county health officer, who reports to Elrich, has the power to shut down schools.


Current school shutdown is because the state shut them down but that was only up until the school year that just ended. My guess is the state will _not_ shut them any further, and leave it to the counties, because infection rates vary greatly by county.

So Elrich IS in charge of MCPS opening decision. Huge bummer.

Yup- see childcare. That’s also supposed to be regulated by the state but Elrich kept those not already open shut down for another week. He will absolutely do this with the schools guys. It’s insane. I’m a Dem and just want out of this county right now.

[Anonymous]

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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.

Except we aren't many countries and we are the US and our rates are higher here. Move to FL or one of those countries if you want to go and be selfish.

How is noting that there are countries daring better than the US selfish? How is biting that there are states where people are able to do the basics of taking a kid to a playground selfish? Some of you people have lost your minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The good news is that if schools re-open for in-person instructin in the fall we can fully re-open the rest of the economy and stop social distancing, but schools are going to be such a powerful vector for mass infection that the rest won't matter.

This isn’t true - evidence suggests otherwise. Why are you spreading crap?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

How is noting that there are countries daring better than the US selfish? How is biting that there are states where people are able to do the basics of taking a kid to a playground selfish? Some of you people have lost your minds.

Stop complaining, get off the computer, and take your kid to a playground. Yes, you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So Elrich IS in charge of MCPS opening decision. Huge bummer.

No, he's not.

Purely on the county level: Will MCPS open if the county health officer strongly wants them closed? Unlikely. Will the county health officer close MCPS if MCPS strongly wants to open? Also unlikely. Realistically, it's going to be a consensus decision at both county and state.

But it's more satisfying to hate on the county executive, I guess.

[Anonymous]

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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.

What a substantive response. No, it wasn't a terrible response. Sorry. - MPH

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

So Elrich IS in charge of MCPS opening decision. Huge bummer.

No, he's not.

Purely on the county level: Will MCPS open if the county health officer strongly wants them closed? Unlikely. Will the county health officer close MCPS if MCPS strongly wants to open? Also unlikely. Realistically, it's going to be a consensus decision at both county and state.

But it's more satisfying to hate on the county executive, I guess.

Stop being such an ass. I’m just trying to understand who is accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What a substantive response. No, it wasn't a terrible response. Sorry. - MPH

Not a trump fan but I agree states make their own policies and that’s a feature of our specific brand of democracy. In general presidents get too much credit/criticism for things they don’t have power over, like the economy. Immigration policy, foreign policy, trade policy, DC protest response -these are absolutely on trump/exec. The more specific we are about our grievances with him increases our credibility. Blaming him (or Obama, as we saw recently) for everything does not.

As a further derail: The cdc is a part of the fed that absolutely could have done better during the pandemic, but they have been dysfunctional and ineffective since the days of the AIDS crisis, which is why Fauci and NIAID stepped up. Some president should Really sort out the cdc after all this or just put them under another agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

But since Hogan ceded decision making authority for MoCo to Elrich, can't Elrich refuse to open the schools? He's going to do whatever the teachers union president tells him to do.

No, because Elrich doesn't have authority over the schools.

Hogan ceded decision-making authority to Elrich for things Elrich has authority over. Which does NOT include Montgomery County Public Schools. It also doesn't include Montgomery Parks.

In this case, Elrich does have authority IF the state has not exercised their authority. The county health officer, who reports to Elrich, has the power to shut down schools.


Current school shutdown is because the state shut them down but that was only up until the school year that just ended. My guess is the state will _not_ shut them any further, and leave it to the counties, because infection rates vary greatly by county.

So Elrich IS in charge of MCPS opening decision. Huge bummer.

Yup- see childcare. That’s also supposed to be regulated by the state but Elrich kept those not already open shut down for another week. He will absolutely do this with the schools guys. It’s insane. I’m a Dem and just want out of this county right now.

Many DCUMers are offering free packing materials to COVID refugees from MoCo. Post your address and I’ll drop off 15 Amazon boxes today. You can be in Hagerstown by Saturday morning.

[Anonymous]

Yesterday my principal strongly hinted that we have online learning in the fall. His quote was "not looking good" for class in Fall. Yesterday afternoon, I got an email from MCPS offering college credit for summer planning in the fall up to 6 credits.

Taken together, this means MCPS is definitely planning for online learning and is trying to get teachers ready. It doesn't mean it will happen, but they definitely want to be ready for it more than they were in 3rd and 4th quarter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yesterday my principal strongly hinted that we have online learning in the fall. His quote was "not looking good" for class in Fall. Yesterday afternoon, I got an email from MCPS offering college credit for summer planning in the fall up to 6 credits.

Taken together, this means MCPS is definitely planning for online learning and is trying to get teachers ready. It doesn't mean it will happen, but they definitely want to be ready for it more than they were in 3rd and 4th quarter.

Your principal doesn't know anymore than anybody else.

MCPS should definitely *plan for* on-line learning, because who knows. Plus regardless, there will be some people who need to do distance learning, due to their own or family members' medical issues. But unless things radically change between now and August 31, most of the kids need to be in school, in person, starting on the first day of school.

[Anonymous]

High risk DH has 15 days to put in his retirement papers. He’s talked to multiple people from school level admin to central office. Everyone said F2F in the fall was highly unlikely and he should consider retiring after S1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High risk DH has 15 days to put in his retirement papers. He’s talked to multiple people from school level admin to central office. Everyone said F2F in the fall was highly unlikely and he should consider retiring after S1.

If true, this is shameful. Kids have already missed 3 months of school. That's enough. Kids need to be in school.

As for the teachers - if there's a medical reason, then MCPS will have to provide a reasonable accommodation (e.g., distance teaching). But if there's no medical reason, then people who don't want to teach in-person will either have to do so anyway, or find a different job. Teaching in-person is an essential function of the teaching job.

[Anonymous]

Maybe there should be designated schools for people demanding in person education for their children without any safety, sanitation, or social distancing measures in place. The county can concentrate high quality masks on the teachers in those schools, provide for social distancing for the teachers (not the students) and staff, and perhaps pay them a bit more. Those kids can get up as early as they need to so that they can be transported on crowded buses to the designated schools. Designated schools can have sporting competitions against each other. There will be no health screening to inconvenience parents or students. It will be business as usual with every seat filled.

That will make room for all the rest of us who recognize that no government entity created this pandemic and who have compassion for the adult administrators, staff, and teachers who have to try to formulate the best possible plan with limited funding. These schools schools will flexible scheduling, greater social distancing for all, and nicer kids and parents. Hopefully, in exchange for the inconvenience associated with measures to promote public health, these schools will have the best teachers too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe there should be designated schools for people demanding in person education for their children without any safety, sanitation, or social distancing measures in place. The county can concentrate high quality masks on the teachers in those schools, provide for social distancing for the teachers (not the students) and staff, and perhaps pay them a bit more. Those kids can get up as early as they need to so that they can be transported on crowded buses to the designated schools. Designated schools can have sporting competitions against each other. There will be no health screening to inconvenience parents or students. It will be business as usual with every seat filled.

That will make room for all the rest of us who recognize that no government entity created this pandemic and who have compassion for the adult administrators, staff, and teachers who have to try to formulate the best possible plan with limited funding. These schools schools will flexible scheduling, greater social distancing for all, and nicer kids and parents. Hopefully, in exchange for the inconvenience associated with measures to promote public health, these schools will have the best teachers too.

Nobody is demanding this.

Also, if there's no in-person school, then it's not the best possible plan.

Some people are acting like the only public-health issue related to school is covid-19. It's not. School is a public-health issue for kids. Being out of school endangers and harms kids.