Anonymous wrote:If there are a lot of lobbyists in the open schools group, I have to say they suck at their job.

If there are a lot of lobbyists in the open schools group, I have to say they suck at their job.

Is it really so hard to believe that parents, regardless of what they do for a living, want to speak up for their kids. The PTAs aren't doing it and neither is the national PTA (where most of your PTA dues go). Just because you disagree with someone's opinion doesn't mean there is some big conspiracy theory. Geesh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The open schools movement is a cynical strategy created and funded by Republican operatives to lie to and divide communities at a time of national crisis in order to stoke outrage that translates into vote shifts and an evangelical takeover of the public schools.

OMG - are you serious!?!?! I wish!!! There's no funding here. It's a bunch of moms (and I guess some dads) trying to keep their kids educated, while not joining the millions of women who have already had to leave their careers during this pandemic. It's parents of special needs kids who haven't recieved a damn bit of education in a YEAR. It's parents of kindergartners and 1st graders who haven't seen the inside of a classroom in over a year - or EVER. It's families that can't afford private school. It's families that that work in essential fields and don't have access to child care.

I'm about as far away from a republican as you can get - and I can safely assure you - this is an actual real issue, affecting real people, and real children - who are just suffering - while self righteous people like you try to dismiss it.

Here's an interesting article - APS and FCPS mentioned
https://www.rollcall.com/2021/02/09/k-street-political-parents-channel-advocacy-into-reopening-schools/?fbclid=IwAR1kuWL7nAUXH4LuIkXByGoEb6sMnpwaKvMSz6O11Ui5mazgJaikA4M1oeU

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If only they could use their skill set for something that would save lives, like gun control.

The head of the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians said he's personally gone from admitting 1 kid every 6 months to the hospital for mental health issues to 1-2 kids a WEEK.

I think this issue matters.

That issue does matter but not ALL of those cases are due to isolation or school on a screen. Some parents are now seeing that their kids need help (and needed it before but it was missed) and that only happened because of seeing the behaviors/struggles at home/online school 24/7. Luckily they are now getting help for their kids. Our kids struggle with anxiety so I feel for all parents with kids having mental health issues.

DP, but we really need to stop downplaying the impact of social isolation and/or too much screen time on kids. Were some cases missed before, sure. But there are MANY more that have been CAUSED by the pandemic and its associated mitigation effects.

OP, the reopening group I'm part of (in MoCo) has a decent proportion of healthcare professionals, including psychologists and pediatricians. Maybe some are lobbyists, I have no clue. But there's certainly a higher degree of science literacy in this group than others I'm part of.

Anonymous wrote:The open schools movement is a cynical strategy created and funded by Republican operatives to lie to and divide communities at a time of national crisis in order to stoke outrage that translates into vote shifts and an evangelical takeover of the public schools.

OMG - are you serious!?!?! I wish!!! There's no funding here. It's a bunch of moms (and I guess some dads) trying to keep their kids educated, while not joining the millions of women who have already had to leave their careers during this pandemic. It's parents of special needs kids who haven't recieved a damn bit of education in a YEAR. It's parents of kindergartners and 1st graders who haven't seen the inside of a classroom in over a year - or EVER. It's families that can't afford private school. It's families that that work in essential fields and don't have access to child care.

I'm about as far away from a republican as you can get - and I can safely assure you - this is an actual real issue, affecting real people, and real children - who are just suffering - while self righteous people like you try to dismiss it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If only they could use their skill set for something that would save lives, like gun control.

The head of the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians said he's personally gone from admitting 1 kid every 6 months to the hospital for mental health issues to 1-2 kids a WEEK.

I think this issue matters.

That issue does matter but not ALL of those cases are due to isolation or school on a screen. Some parents are now seeing that their kids need help (and needed it before but it was missed) and that only happened because of seeing the behaviors/struggles at home/online school 24/7. Luckily they are now getting help for their kids. Our kids struggle with anxiety so I feel for all parents with kids having mental health issues.

The open schools movement is a cynical strategy created and funded by Republican operatives to lie to and divide communities at a time of national crisis in order to stoke outrage that translates into vote shifts and an evangelical takeover of the public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hmmmmm. What do you think?

There sure are a lot of people yelling about school vouchers with jobs on the Hill, aren’t there? It’s almost like it isn’t really about open schools at all.

There are some interesting connections between the Arlington and Fairfax groups too.

The open schools group is backed by voucher and anti union groups. I am not saying that all members of open schools support that. TO be honest, I think a lot don't know or are being willfully blind to it because they like the public message. I really want our schools open 4/5 days a week too, but also don't support a lot of the anti union pro voucher rhetoric.

Well I’m anti union, pro voucher, want schools open for all kids, and no one is paying me to say any of that, even though I’m a lawyer and sometimes advocate on the Hill. I’m happy to lobby for this one for free.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the anti-union/pro-voucher vibe comes from a belief that teacher unions were/are the main obstacle to opening schools for in-person learning.

Yup. GOP is driving this as a wedge issue and ultimately they want to cripple teacher unions and promote vouchers.

Keep yer eye on the long-game here.

The GOP may not have started the open schools push but boy howdy have they jumped on the bandwagon to scoop up some of those tasty suburban white woman swing voters.

As they should. Dems have abandoned kids. I don’t think there will be national races impacted by I will definitely not vote for a D at the state level unless they have been standing up to get kids back in school this year. For example, any delegate that did not support Sb 1303 will not get my vote. Mind did though so still voting D. Governor race depends. If the Rs can manage to nominate someone that isn’t a RWNJ then I am open to cross the party line for the first time ever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the anti-union/pro-voucher vibe comes from a belief that teacher unions were/are the main obstacle to opening schools for in-person learning.

Yup. GOP is driving this as a wedge issue and ultimately they want to cripple teacher unions and promote vouchers.

Keep yer eye on the long-game here.

The GOP may not have started the open schools push but boy howdy have they jumped on the bandwagon to scoop up some of those tasty suburban white woman swing voters.

I believe many parents in these groups are just advocating for what they believe in, but there are definitely some who are trying to use these movements to serve a larger conservative purpose. Republican House leadership is actively figuring out how they can utilize these advocacy groups to help them take back the majority for Republicans in the House (never mind that Congress has nothing to do with whether or not local schools are open).

I used to work in the education policy space (20 years ago!). Conservatives and Republicans always supported "local control" of schools. But now, when local school districts are doing what they think is in their community's best interest, instead of advocating for local changes, the conservative movement and Republican party is trying to use school reopening as a national wedge issue. It's an interesting turnaround. I got into a discussion with someone the other day who was livid over all the crazy stuff the San Francisco school board does, and I said to her, "But don't you believe in local control of schools? What is Congress, or Joe Biden, or even Gavin Newsom supposed to do about what the locally-elected school board members in San Francisco are doing?"

No answer, except move to San Francisco and run against one of those crazy people!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If only they could use their skill set for something that would save lives, like gun control.

The head of the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians said he's personally gone from admitting 1 kid every 6 months to the hospital for mental health issues to 1-2 kids a WEEK.

I think this issue matters.

Is that why you're applying your lobbyist skills to this issue?

I have no lobbyist skills.

Anonymous wrote:I think the anti-union/pro-voucher vibe comes from a belief that teacher unions were/are the main obstacle to opening schools for in-person learning.

Yup. GOP is driving this as a wedge issue and ultimately they want to cripple teacher unions and promote vouchers.

Keep yer eye on the long-game here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If only they could use their skill set for something that would save lives, like gun control.

The head of the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatricians said he's personally gone from admitting 1 kid every 6 months to the hospital for mental health issues to 1-2 kids a WEEK.

I think this issue matters.

Is that why you're applying your lobbyist skills to this issue?