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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

+1 the “CRT” stuff wasn’t important to NoVa voters (it was just a bone for the R base in the rest of the state), but the closures and the perception that the curriculum was being “dumbed down” by the Democrats in the state DoE WAS important here. All it takes is a few percentage points of people who usually vote D switching to the other side.

And no, NoVa schools didn’t open at the same time as other schools. Anyone with functioning eyes and access to social media could have seen that. The closures killed Democrats and people took out their frustrations on the first election they could.

You may want to check your perceptions.

Here are facts:

From: https://info.burbio.com

January 4, 2021
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 53.4% (from 50.8% last week)

February 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent kids in career/CTE back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 38.2% (from 42% last week)

March 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent SN and K-2 back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 27.5% (from 31.1% last week)

etc.

Our schools were NOT an outlier and started send kids back to the classroom around the same time as MANY other school systems.

So we “started” sending a few kids back part time hybrid later than about 60-75% of all districts and that’s … a good thing? We were in the bottom 25-40%. That’s not great and I would also argue that it’s stretching the definition of “the same time as other districts.”

The closures hurt Democrats. There’s no two ways about it. Pro-closure people can rationalize all they want but it’s just denial.

Also your own source, https://cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/, indicates that VA was seventh from the bottom in terms of in-person school over the year. (MD was third from last, CA was last). How is that not an outlier? And how does it help to deny the obvious? Politically or otherwise? Democrats need to just to acknowledge the difficulties/ learning loss of the last 1.5 years and then say, and here, here is our plan for remedying the effects and improving public schools.

There were many other schools reopening at the same time. Yes, they were mostly blue states.

Learning loss is huge and should be #1 priority. The GOP isn’t the solution to that problem.

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Anonymous wrote:Biden will get his bills passed, 5-11 kids will get vaxxed, people will be happy and Biden’s approval numbers will soar. Talk of GOP retaking the House in 2022 is wishful thinking. Calm down, folks.

You still don't get it, do you?

Get what? Biden will now have an excuse to move back to the cevter, which is where he wanted to be anywhere. Silver lining for him here.

Anonymous wrote:So the key to winning elections is to coddle voters and just tell them what they want to hear?

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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

+1 the “CRT” stuff wasn’t important to NoVa voters (it was just a bone for the R base in the rest of the state), but the closures and the perception that the curriculum was being “dumbed down” by the Democrats in the state DoE WAS important here. All it takes is a few percentage points of people who usually vote D switching to the other side.

And no, NoVa schools didn’t open at the same time as other schools. Anyone with functioning eyes and access to social media could have seen that. The closures killed Democrats and people took out their frustrations on the first election they could.

You may want to check your perceptions.

Here are facts:

From: https://info.burbio.com

January 4, 2021
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 53.4% (from 50.8% last week)

February 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent kids in career/CTE back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 38.2% (from 42% last week)

March 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent SN and K-2 back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 27.5% (from 31.1% last week)

etc.

Our schools were NOT an outlier and started send kids back to the classroom around the same time as MANY other school systems.

So we “started” sending a few kids back part time hybrid later than about 60-75% of all districts and that’s … a good thing? We were in the bottom 25-40%. That’s not great and I would also argue that it’s stretching the definition of “the same time as other districts.”

The closures hurt Democrats. There’s no two ways about it. Pro-closure people can rationalize all they want but it’s just denial.

Clearly, closures hurt Ds. Even if it’s irrational.

But it’s misleading to act like our schools responded significantly differently than MANY other schools around the US.

It’s convenient to just compare against Florida but you are not telling the whole story. We weren’t outliers.

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Anonymous wrote:The easiest way to bring down food inflation is to stop the monthly child tax credits and pull back expanded SNAP benefits. Less money chasing the same product means a lower price. I'm not sure the rural R voters would appreciate that though.

It may lower food prices, but low-income families will have less money to buy food, so how does that help them?

I don’t think it will even lower food prices. Once prices start going up, they don’t really appreciably come back down. Look at gas prices since 2008 vs. the price of oil.

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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

Here you go. Facts.

Post about this from Feb 2020:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/951009.page
“Actually, based on the Burbio methodology, this says that *at most* ~40% of US student are in-person right now. Obviously, it's less than that since 100% of families are not choosing in-person.

https://about.burbio.com/methodology/
"• Burbio assigns a learning mode to a school district based on the most in-person option available to the general student population. Thus if a district offers both traditional and virtual options, the district is categorized as Traditional. " “

Hey out of state political activist.

We are talking about Virginia public schools, which were closed, vs Virginia private schools which were open.

Not 40% of schools in the US.

I’m a VA parent who saw this all go down. Don’t try to rewrite history.

DC areas schools sent kids back to the classroom around the same time as many other schools in the country. We weren’t an outlier.

Private schools had many more resources available to help them open. Mandates for testing, masking, traveling, etc. Plus, smaller classes and tons more space.

You are not being accurate or truthful.

Which part is inaccurate?

DP. All the stuff about private schools, for one.

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Anonymous wrote:Is it done? This is so awful. I don’t even live in VA anymore, but I am devastated. What the F is wrong with our country??

You don’t want to live in VA or the USA?

Not PP, but I thought Va was smarter than this. You learn something everyday.

Your opinion.

Well we have different definitions of smart

A majority of people in a state having different opinions does not make them less intelligent than you. I’m sure it easier for you to believe you are superior.

Actually non college educated white women came out in droves for Youngkin. So it can be inferred with a fair degrees of confidence that his voters were defiantly not of superior intelligence, based upon that one little factoid, not to mention that they were so easily encouraged to vote against their own self interests. So yes the lack of a college degree. Especially when we are talking about white women in this area is a pretty good indication of a less than average level of intelligence. superior but by definition definitely more intelligent, you do know that white women without a college definition came out in droves for Yoingkin.

I’ll never understand why people vote against their own self interests. If you only knew just how insulated people like me are from decisions people like you make you’d never stop weeping. The fact is that many people vote for dems because we want our country, states and towns to be better for everyone. I didn’t lose a dime under trump. I didn’t miss a day of work because I was able to work from home, and I will be able to going forward. I have great health insurance, I live very comfortably in a really safe neighborhood, my kids go to the best public schools in the area, oh and I will retire in a few years because I’ve amassed more wealth than I could possibly spend in my golden years, and I’m 50, which means I’ll pass on wealth to my offspring.

Yep I am a democrat but the truth is there are a lot of people in this area whose lives aren’t really affected one way or the other. They don’t live anywhere near the edge. I do well regardless of who is in power. I truly feel sorry for all of the rubes who bought into the nonsense that was spewed during this election. But keep voting against your own self interests after all the less you have, the more I have, and quite frankly if you don’t care why should I.

Now buckle up buttercups, or should I say bittercups and hang onto those bootstraps Because you are going to need too. Youngkin lied to get your vote your life and your schools will be no better this time next year and mine will be not have changed at all.

The quiet parts out loud.

The bolded is the coldest, meanest, snarkiest thing I've ever read and I love you for it!!! If I could say that to my MAGA aunt who posts disinformation on Facebook every day of my life, I would

So now we’ve seen like Mother Teresa on a bender looks like, and it’s not pretty. Shocked.

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Anonymous wrote:The easiest way to bring down food inflation is to stop the monthly child tax credits and pull back expanded SNAP benefits. Less money chasing the same product means a lower price. I'm not sure the rural R voters would appreciate that though.

It may lower food prices, but low-income families will have less money to buy food, so how does that help them?

I don’t think it will even lower food prices. Once prices start going up, they don’t really appreciably come back down. Look at gas prices since 2008 vs. the price of oil.

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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

+1 the “CRT” stuff wasn’t important to NoVa voters (it was just a bone for the R base in the rest of the state), but the closures and the perception that the curriculum was being “dumbed down” by the Democrats in the state DoE WAS important here. All it takes is a few percentage points of people who usually vote D switching to the other side.

And no, NoVa schools didn’t open at the same time as other schools. Anyone with functioning eyes and access to social media could have seen that. The closures killed Democrats and people took out their frustrations on the first election they could.

Yes, to this. I think it was much more bread-n-butter educational issues that motivated (or didn't motivate) NoVa voters. And Terry had to win big there. And now Democrats are going to respond to those concerns by calling everyone uneducated Karens, which wrong or right, is going to further drive the suburbs away. Ugh.

This. I know it’s next day bitterness, but the response that the swing voters who voted Youngkin are uneducated Karens is a terrible look. You will need these swing voters to come back to the Dems in 2022 and 2024, so what is insulting them accomplishing?

So the key to winning elections is to coddle voters and just tell them what they want to hear?

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Anonymous wrote:Gotta love southwestern Virginia that was just starting to see some relief from their massive shortages in healthcare providers after passage of the ACA and Medicaid expansion voting for someone who opposes the ACA and Medicaid expansion. Good luck with that!

Exactly. Why do folks vote against their own interests?

Like regressive taxes?

taxes help everyone - schools, roads, city services. ACA and the medicaid expansion helps the poor the most, but also self employed people, too.

You’re kidding about the ACA helping the self-employed, right?

Np. I’m self employed. The ACA is the only reason I was able to even remotely afford healthcare. I’m grateful for the initial required kick in the pants to do so. I’m so very grateful for the leg up. Universal healthcare would be much better, but the ACA saved my life and also made having a child possible. My plan is high deductible for sure, but the access through marketplace and a small tax credit are so remarkably valuable to me. Forever thankful.

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Anonymous wrote:I said it once before, I’ll say it again - Youngkin won because people can’t afford to feed and care for themselves or their families thanks to the crazy inflation, high gas prices and food shortages.

While the party feuds over its vast social spending agenda, Republicans are highlighting issues that preoccupy voters more immediately, like a sluggish economy, high gas prices, expensive groceries, crime rates and concerns about the rights of parents to influence what is taught in schools. Those concerns in many cases have been exacerbated by a prolonged pandemic, which President Joe Biden declared all but over in July but that spiked over the summer in a new blow to an exhausted nation's morale.

This sounds like people in Britain blaming Brexit for supply shortages. We're blaming Biden now for supply shortages when we should be happy to see real wage increases and inflation and instead of deflation, and the Great Resignation is signalling a real shift in our economy, our culture, which is needed.

I'm optimistic about economy right now. We really are changing what needs to be changed. Some of it is painful but we'll make it through to a better economy for Americans. I haven't heard many people saying this, instead there's complaints about gas prices and pointing fingers about ruining Christmas. Think longer term than just getting elected. Evaluate where we are and where our economy is going.

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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

+1 the “CRT” stuff wasn’t important to NoVa voters (it was just a bone for the R base in the rest of the state), but the closures and the perception that the curriculum was being “dumbed down” by the Democrats in the state DoE WAS important here. All it takes is a few percentage points of people who usually vote D switching to the other side.

And no, NoVa schools didn’t open at the same time as other schools. Anyone with functioning eyes and access to social media could have seen that. The closures killed Democrats and people took out their frustrations on the first election they could.

Yes, to this. I think it was much more bread-n-butter educational issues that motivated (or didn't motivate) NoVa voters. And Terry had to win big there. And now Democrats are going to respond to those concerns by calling everyone uneducated Karens, which wrong or right, is going to further drive the suburbs away. Ugh.

This. I know it’s next day bitterness, but the response that the swing voters who voted Youngkin are uneducated Karens is a terrible look. You will need these swing voters to come back to the Dems in 2022 and 2024, so what is insulting them accomplishing?

So the key to winning elections is to coddle voters and just tell them what they want to hear?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest way to bring down food inflation is to stop the monthly child tax credits and pull back expanded SNAP benefits. Less money chasing the same product means a lower price. I'm not sure the rural R voters would appreciate that though.

It may lower food prices, but low-income families will have less money to buy food, so how does that help them?

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IMO they shot themselves in the foot by closing school. What an impact they made on so many people day in and day out for a year. I certainly hope it is a case study for the future.

They made informed, reasonable decisions based on the info we had and resources available. You think we have staffing issues now? Imagine if you forced teachers in last fall before the vaccine and as numbers were skyrocketing.

Our schools (local, not state) didn’t just say F it and send kids back in.

Sorry that pisses you off so much that you had to vote for a Trump Republican.

I voted D like I always do but your attitude is exactly why the Rs won and I’ve been saying that.
I also remember that Northam allowed schools to open hybrid in August 2020 and Fairfax had some of the best corona numbers in the state - not the worst - such that we should have considered being more conservative than he allowed with school reopening. And I also didn’t forget that the Dept of Health approved of the hybrid plan as well.

So you’re pissed at FCPS?

I am just telling you where the people are so the Ds don’t miss the mark next time.

Most of the parents don't remember the nuance of what the governor approved vs. what happened. All they saw is that public schools weren't open for most of 2020-2021, while private schools did open full time.

I agree.

Agree too (Dem voter). This wasn’t the only issue, but one of the big ones. I fear my party is getting a set of alternative facts (like all the PPs set on arguing that Nova schools were opening just as early as the rest of the country??) Voting Youngkin may have been a stupid way to “punish” school boards, but it still was a strong motivation IMHO.

+1 the “CRT” stuff wasn’t important to NoVa voters (it was just a bone for the R base in the rest of the state), but the closures and the perception that the curriculum was being “dumbed down” by the Democrats in the state DoE WAS important here. All it takes is a few percentage points of people who usually vote D switching to the other side.

And no, NoVa schools didn’t open at the same time as other schools. Anyone with functioning eyes and access to social media could have seen that. The closures killed Democrats and people took out their frustrations on the first election they could.

You may want to check your perceptions.

Here are facts:

From: https://info.burbio.com

January 4, 2021
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 53.4% (from 50.8% last week)

February 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent kids in career/CTE back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 38.2% (from 42% last week)

March 1, 2021 - The week that APS sent SN and K-2 back to classroom:
% US K-12 students attending "virtual-only" schools = 27.5% (from 31.1% last week)

etc.

Our schools were NOT an outlier and started send kids back to the classroom around the same time as MANY other school systems.

So we “started” sending a few kids back part time hybrid later than about 60-75% of all districts and that’s … a good thing? We were in the bottom 25-40%. That’s not great and I would also argue that it’s stretching the definition of “the same time as other districts.”

The closures hurt Democrats. There’s no two ways about it. Pro-closure people can rationalize all they want but it’s just denial.

Also your own source, https://cai.burbio.com/school-opening-tracker/, indicates that VA was seventh from the bottom in terms of in-person school over the year. (MD was third from last, CA was last). How is that not an outlier? And how does it help to deny the obvious? Politically or otherwise? Democrats need to just to acknowledge the difficulties/ learning loss of the last 1.5 years and then say, and here, here is our plan for remedying the effects and improving public schools.