I shared this link yesterday, but a few thoughts: whyy.org/articles/want-…
If you're on a school committee/board, you knew the "we didn't like what you decided (whatever that was)" challenges were coming. It's been a dark joke for months at this point.
Second, we have REALLY got to talk more about pandemic privilege. There are absolutely some parents who are pushing for various things because of massive losses for children.
That, though, is a relative handful, and generally are NOT those fronting these efforts.
If we don't talk about the things far too many white Americans don't like to talk about--race and class--we're going to whiff what this is about.
(And yes, I can see this one coming locally. If you're out here comparing Worcester to Wachusett, I would be happy to take that argument apart piece by piece. My patience runs out right about there.) #WorcSchools
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The federal government just before the end of the year passed another big COVID-19 aid package, including a bunch of aid for schools.
Massachusetts is getting $800M, of which $733M is going right to districts.
It’s a federal grant through DESE, so that money goes straight to districts.
Enrollment not held harmless: "Overall foundation enrollment decreased from 938,085 in FY2021 to 907,506 in FY2022, a decrease of 30,579. Foundation budgets declined for 153 operating districts, including 29 districts with declines of more than 5 percent."
...really running with that “new CDC study” line, eh?
Nor is it new information.
It’s just gobsmacking to read everything one can find, and then see a few of those put together get blaring headlines.
And I should say, btw, that in my experience, reporters are careful readers and work hard to make research clearer. That's part of why I'm finding this so disheartening.
But I do want to very clearly say that this, regarding "going back to school" is not a factual statement on its own:
"overwhelming evidence that it is safe to do so"
There are many, many conditions that need to be included in "safe" to do so.
They are not in the statement.
That is quite explicitly the Executive Office making that statement--that is, Secretary Peyser's office--so we'll leave DESE out of this one. We can tie this one to the larger lack of following evidence of the Baker administration. #MAEdu