Be careful: The same people who are weaponizing school opening are also blocking safe opening

[Anonymous]

As we wade through discussions of school reopening, just be careful to figure out the motivations behind different narratives.

Some of the arguments being made are in good faith, and that's fine. But some are being made in bad faith. And to figure out what to do about reopening schools, and what's safe, it's pretty important to understand motivations – whether certain information is being pushed by people who really do want schools to open safely, or whether they have ulterior motives that are not about keeping us safe as parents and kids.

Article today by Greg Sargent in WaPo:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/18/republicans-biden-closed-schools-pandemic/

In recent days, Republicans have tried to project confidence that they’ve found a killer attack line on President Biden: They can use the increasing anger of parents over the failure of schools to reopen to win back the suburban voters they’ve lost.

As Republicans describe this, it’s a twofer: They can channel the genuine hardships this has imposed on countless Americans to their advantage while also tarring Democrats as in the pocket of teachers unions, casting them as tools of their special interests.

when covid-19 is tamed sufficiently, and when normal life resumes, including kids returning to school — it will be in no small part because of solutions implemented on Democrats’ watch, which Republicans are already resisting.

When I asked Maloney to respond to GOP confidence in this attack line, he pointed out that we’re at the beginning of a long process, noting that Biden’s first big package hasn’t even been passed into law yet. Meanwhile, Republicans are largely opposing it.

Politico a few days ago also addressed this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/16/gop-pandemic-parent-voters-biden-469107

GOP lawmakers, while offering no commitment to meaningfully engage on policy proposals, have responded to continued school closures by striking hard at Biden and Democrats, with more Republicans each week accusing the administration of scaling back their ambitious goals on everything from testing to school reopenings.

“The science says that the schools should open, but instead of listening to the science, the Biden administration is caving in to Democrat special interest groups,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told POLITICO. “As a result, the education of our children is suffering and hundreds of thousands of working moms are being forced out of the workforce.”

...

“Their proposal buys into the myth from Big Labor that schools should stay shut a lot longer,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week of Biden’s “rescue” package.

...

[ex-president] had frequently called for schools to be reopened without conditioning his remarks on safety measures. Candidates across the country were also dealing with surges of the virus that overwhelmed local hospitals.

“The [ex-]president’s messaging was so toxic to your average suburban voter that we didn't feel like we were getting anywhere with it,” said one GOP strategist who worked on the races in 2020. “What we needed and wanted was somebody who was saying ‘the risks are low. Let’s reopen schools safely with proper precautions.’ He wasn’t capable of saying anything that nuanced.”

“But,” the person added, “if you asked people, ‘do you think we should safely reopen schools?’ the numbers were better.’”

The bottom line: we need to reopen schools safely, because kids are suffering; to do that we need to tame the pandemic or it won't be safe.

Frankly, that bolded above: "Let's reopen schools safely with proper precautions" – that's what I want. That's what we all should want. And if people stand in the way of that we should fight to get our kids back to school.

But to do all that we need people who want to FIX THE PROBLEM, not just use the problem to score political points. Opening schools unsafely does satisfy a political agenda. But it's bad for parents like me.

[Anonymous]

OP, politicizing reopening schools does not help children. You are not helping.

[Anonymous]

The key is avoiding politicization.

What drives me a little crazy is that when I talk to parents in DCPS, they mostly want similar things. They're mostly reasonable. Most parents are keeping their kids home, and those who are sending them into school have a higher risk tolerance and support older or at-risk teachers staying home.

And both groups are very very happy teachers are being vaccinated. The people who are most pushing back against the WTU are, in my world, the media and in-person, hardcore political partisans.

We don't want that! We want this de-politicized. But if you want to depoliticize it, we have to understand first who is politicizing it, and why. Once I read these articles a lot more about school reopenings became clear to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key is avoiding politicization.

What drives me a little crazy is that when I talk to parents in DCPS, they mostly want similar things. They're mostly reasonable. Most parents are keeping their kids home, and those who are sending them into school have a higher risk tolerance and support older or at-risk teachers staying home.

And both groups are very very happy teachers are being vaccinated. The people who are most pushing back against the WTU are, in my world, the media and in-person, hardcore political partisans.

We don't want that! We want this de-politicized. But if you want to depoliticize it, we have to understand first who is politicizing it, and why. Once I read these articles a lot more about school reopenings became clear to me.

No, I have friends and family in other areas of the country and some are keeping their children home because they have real health issues but most are sending them to school, full time or part time.

But in some areas, such as the DMV, we aren't given that choice. And we all know why. It's not because 50% of parents chose to keep their kids home when asked. It's political.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I don’t think the debate we are seeing here is from the local Republicans taking over the date. There are like 10 of them here.

Maybe this framing is useful for the debate in like Wisconsin or somewhere with a real political divide, but I am not convinced at all that this article accounts for what we are seeing in DC

[Anonymous]

Sorry date was supposed to be conversation. Not sure how I ended up writing date.

[Anonymous]

there aren’t a meaningful number of Rs here. to me this reads as the union poisoning the well.

[Anonymous]

Parents who want meaningful education for children are clearly republican propagandists! Everyone knows that access to public education is a republican talking point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there aren’t a meaningful number of Rs here.

There are many conservatives who post here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there aren’t a meaningful number of Rs here.

There are many conservatives who post here.

Conservatives are not the ones who are keeping schools closed. That's not the right direction to argue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think the debate we are seeing here is from the local Republicans taking over the date. There are like 10 of them here.

Maybe this framing is useful for the debate in like Wisconsin or somewhere with a real political divide, but I am not convinced at all that this article accounts for what we are seeing in DC

Yeah, I don't think the details of DC / MCPS school openings are being driven primarily by a political divide.

But I do think the national media discussion *is* driven by conservative talkers, and that eventually filters down into other places too.

A lot of our national political discussion is driven by the right.

I hear less of the anti-union "force schools open" discussion from actual real-life DC parents and much more of it on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don’t think the debate we are seeing here is from the local Republicans taking over the date. There are like 10 of them here.

Maybe this framing is useful for the debate in like Wisconsin or somewhere with a real political divide, but I am not convinced at all that this article accounts for what we are seeing in DC

Yeah, I don't think the details of DC / MCPS school openings are being driven primarily by a political divide.

But I do think the national media discussion *is* driven by conservative talkers, and that eventually filters down into other places too.

A lot of our national political discussion is driven by the right.

I hear less of the anti-union "force schools open" discussion from actual real-life DC parents and much more of it on the internet.

I have no idea. I don't talk to any parents in real life anymore. Only on the internet.

It's a pandemic. No more socializing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there aren’t a meaningful number of Rs here.

There are many conservatives who post here.

+1

Easily 80% of the people I know in my local community/school district who are pushing for "open schools now!" are Republicans. A handful are full-fledge, flag-flying MAGAs.

They push for opening and push back against ANY and ALL safety measures.

Eat outside? No.
Put in air filters? Nope.
Maintain 6'? No way.
etc.

Every single safety measure is the enemy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there aren’t a meaningful number of Rs here. to me this reads as the union poisoning the well.

if FCPS announces two days a week in the fall there will be a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The key is avoiding politicization.

What drives me a little crazy is that when I talk to parents in DCPS, they mostly want similar things. They're mostly reasonable. Most parents are keeping their kids home, and those who are sending them into school have a higher risk tolerance and support older or at-risk teachers staying home.

And both groups are very very happy teachers are being vaccinated. The people who are most pushing back against the WTU are, in my world, the media and in-person, hardcore political partisans.

We don't want that! We want this de-politicized. But if you want to depoliticize it, we have to understand first who is politicizing it, and why. Once I read these articles a lot more about school reopenings became clear to me.

it is politicized because of the blue states and their absolute disregard for children.



there is absolutely no reason schools should still be closed in blue states when its going fine in red ones. its insanity.