So this appears to be the current status: If you open schools and go live, then you get federal money. If you decide in favor of online schooling, then you don’t get federal money. The areas with little or no COVID will get help. The areas under microbial attack, who could unquestionably use funds to get ready for opening later and for supporting distance learning — which heavily favors wealthy districts already — get no help.

What part of this makes sense? Does it make any sense?

I understand what is happening here. Money is being used to pressure school districts into doing what the Federal government* wants. That money has not stopped many areas from backing away from on-site instruction. San Diego and LA plan to start online. Texas has postponed in-person attendance until at least November now that the state has clocked over 300,000 coronavirus cases. The Florida Education Association has filed a lawsuit against Governor Ron DeSantis and Department of Education to stop schools from reopening at the end of August. Other districts across the nation are backing away from reopening their hallways next month.

Members of the federal government keep telling us that children don’t get sick or they don’t get as sick. None of these officials discusses the fact that children leave school every day and go home to their families. Can adults get COVID from kids? Of course they can. They can also get it from teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, office staff, custodians, bus drivers, nurses, librarians and cafeteria workers. And high school kids are not exactly little children. Their COVID experiences tend to be demonstrably rougher than those of elementary age children. One critical concern: A July 21, 2020 article in WebMD says that “children and teens between ages 10-19 are more likely to spread the coronavirus among family members than adults and children under 10, according to a new study in South Korea.”

But I don’t want to bog down in the facts, especially since the current administration seems hell bent on ignoring those facts — at least when they prove inconvenient. I want to keep this post short: In short, those who most need help will get little or no help, at least not from the current administration.

Eduhonesty: I am actually rather fascinated by the fact that the administration seems surprised that a highly infectious, mostly respiratory illness is somehow spreading in direct response to open bars, beaches, campaign rallies, and large holiday gatherings. How could such a thing happen? At the moment, we are losing. Our caseload is approaching 4,000,000.

On the plus side, the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams just a few hours ago said the country needs to lower the COVID-19 transmission rate before reopening schools. Perhaps the President will now back down on his demands. After all these months, he has at last finally put on a mask.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a city of 7.4 million people which is currently considered a special administrative region of China, the COVID death toll today stands at 14 people. In this area which masked up immediately in response to the COVID threat, they are having a little trouble. Cases are up there as cases are up in much of the world. But that death toll serves to remind us that there is a way to do this right.

Science is real. Social distancing and masks help slow the spread of infectious diseases. Not throwing a bunch of kids into close proximity when a disease is exploding… that just might be a MUCH better plan than sending everyone to school willy-nilly, regardless of where they live — especially since the masks that are documented to work effectively remain in short supply. Wipes are impossible to find where I live. The PPE crisis has only partially abated.

I am not sure that the title for my post is accurate. Are we making up facts or simply ignoring facts? Let start with the obvious: Children go home at night. Those children spend the school day constantly coming in contact with adults. This disease can be spread by people who do not have a fever — yet or ever –and current data suggests that on average, every person who gets sick will infect 1.7 new people.

We are a long ways from out of the woods yet.

*i.e. the Trump Administration and Betsy DeVos

P.S. If you live in a safe enough area and can go back to school soon, have a great year! I know these news reports must seem absolutely freakish to some people in small, rural mountain towns or distant prairie farming areas..

(https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/13/covid-schools-reopening-lausd-san-diego-online-classes/5429995002/, https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-schools-may-be-online-only-november-hybrid-model-2020-7, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-florida-teachers-sue-governor-desantis-school-reopening-plans/, https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200720/teens-tweens-more-likely-to-spread-covid-19?ecd=wnl_spr_072120&ctr=wnl-spr-072120_nsl-Bodymodule_Position4&mb=UT0EfRiJlerLe8Nl%2f6BrJGdEpmNqbUHLZTN%2fwNIxCow%3d, https://www.britannica.com/place/Hong-Kong ,https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/covid-19-hong-kong-new-cases-deaths-locally-transmitted-12950280 , https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/tunedin/us-surgeon-general-jerome-adams-on-reopening-schools-funding-for-coronavirus-testing/vi-BB170kRg