https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOd2FH5asK4&feature
Friday, August 14, 2020
Diversions, posturing as school board votes to reopen school in small-town Massachusetts
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/13/mass-a13.html
By Joseph Mario
13 August 2020
School districts across Massachusetts are finalizing their plans for a September start to the fall semester. The vast majority have voted for a hybrid model. Though the plans vary in details, essentially students alternate between in-person and remote learning. Teachers will report to school every day and come in to contact with all of their students in a given week. For middle and high school teachers, this amounts to close contact with up to 150 or more adolescents in a five-day period.
These decisions have outraged communities across the state, especially after a recent uptick in positive cases has led Governor Charlie Baker to reintroduce social distancing measures. Meanwhile, his administration has doubled down on its return to school campaign by pushing the vast majority of the state’s 289 school districts to resume full in-person learning.
Scituate, a small coastal town south of Boston, is one example of broader situation. Its school committee voted 4-1 Monday night to approve a hybrid plan for reopening schools in the fall. The meeting, which began with statements from the superintendent, Bill Burkhead, and the five members of the committee, included an extended period for public comment in which parents and teachers voiced their objections to the proposal. In general, the proceedings were marked by attempts of committee members and the superintendent to dodge accountability and an informed and spirited resistance to the plans on the part of members of the public.
Up to this point, Superintendent Burkhead had uncritically accepted and praised all guidance and protocols issued by the Massachusetts Department of Early and Secondary Education (DESE). However, in a theatrical about-face, Burkhead began Monday’s proceedings with a tirade against Baker and Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley for not providing clear directives for local officials. While the Baker administration and Riley in particular deserve criticism for their reckless reopening of schools, the superintendent’s sudden upswell of indignation meant only to curb and deflect public anger as they moved to reopen classes. The committee members, likewise seeking to shield themselves from criticism and accountability for what they clearly recognize as a dangerous act, lauded the superintendent’s grandstanding.
One school committee member speculated that the pandemic would “go on forever” even with a vaccine and suggested that communities must immediately grow accustomed to the risk as with the seasonal flu. The superintendent asserted that extended school closures would result in increased suicides.
A question from a teacher revealed that the committee did not fully understand what it was poised to vote on. Apparently, some of the members believed they were only approving the general plan, which by state mandate had to include measures for fully in-person, hybrid and fully remote models. Others believed they were voting to approve Superintendent Burkhead’s decision to start with the hybrid model on September 16. This was debated at length and the committee changed its mind twice before deciding to vote on hybrid to start the year. The urge to defer to state officials, to a “metric”, to a constantly receding temporal horizon when a firm decision can be made, reveals the discomfort of a body that on some level recognizes the danger of reopening schools, but are compelled by political pressure political pressure to do so.
Janice Lindblom, a social worker employed by a nursing and rehabilitation facility located in the town, was the only dissenting voice. Lindblom pointed out that a safe reopening would be impossible without large-scale proactive testing with rapid turnaround times, a condition which is simply not on the table.
In stark contrast to the evasions and confusion of their local leaders, parents and teachers demonstrated a highly informed skepticism of the district’s plan, both in terms of safety and quality of education. First to comment was a teacher with twenty years of experience in the district. Citing a comprehensive study conducted in South Korea which concluded that older children transmit the disease at rates at least as high as adults, he noted that the aging faculty of the high school would face significant exposure to infection on a daily basis. He further noted that the lack of substitute teachers, a chronic problem for districts across the state, would undermine protocols meant to ensure even the minimal social distancing called for under the plan (3 to 6 feet). All such concerns were “taken under advisement,” meaning neither the superintendent nor the school committee could answer the objections, not for a lack of planning, but because the return to school in the midst of a pandemic poses an array of insoluble problems.
Several parents raised concerns about the options available to families afraid to send their children into crowded and confined spaces. The state has contracted with Edgenuity, a for-profit company that provides a fully automated learning program, which has mostly been used to “serve” students for whom traditional models have failed. In reality, the program boosts graduation rates while providing little remediation to struggling students. Parents rightly noted that this option would isolate students from their peers and teachers, provide a separate and unequal education, and effectively privatize a significant portion of Scituate Public Schools.
Another veteran teacher questioned the accuracy of test positivity rates in gauging the prevalence of community spread, citing evidence that suggests actual infection rates far outpace reporting. Surprisingly, committee members agreed, contradicting their earlier calls for a “metric” to determine policy. Nevertheless, they voted to approve a return to in-person learning. In reality, this was an economic decision made many months ago.
These and countless other comments exposed the plan as a dangerous and short-sighted capitulation of common sense to powerful financial and business interests, served by the Baker administration and executed by district superintendents and local school boards. The wealthy has a lot riding on the return to work, which depends on the return to school. Otherwise, stock valuations propped up by massive infusions of fictitious capital will plummet even faster than they did in mid-March.
13 August 2020
School districts across Massachusetts are finalizing their plans for a September start to the fall semester. The vast majority have voted for a hybrid model. Though the plans vary in details, essentially students alternate between in-person and remote learning. Teachers will report to school every day and come in to contact with all of their students in a given week. For middle and high school teachers, this amounts to close contact with up to 150 or more adolescents in a five-day period.
These decisions have outraged communities across the state, especially after a recent uptick in positive cases has led Governor Charlie Baker to reintroduce social distancing measures. Meanwhile, his administration has doubled down on its return to school campaign by pushing the vast majority of the state’s 289 school districts to resume full in-person learning.
Scituate, a small coastal town south of Boston, is one example of broader situation. Its school committee voted 4-1 Monday night to approve a hybrid plan for reopening schools in the fall. The meeting, which began with statements from the superintendent, Bill Burkhead, and the five members of the committee, included an extended period for public comment in which parents and teachers voiced their objections to the proposal. In general, the proceedings were marked by attempts of committee members and the superintendent to dodge accountability and an informed and spirited resistance to the plans on the part of members of the public.
Up to this point, Superintendent Burkhead had uncritically accepted and praised all guidance and protocols issued by the Massachusetts Department of Early and Secondary Education (DESE). However, in a theatrical about-face, Burkhead began Monday’s proceedings with a tirade against Baker and Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley for not providing clear directives for local officials. While the Baker administration and Riley in particular deserve criticism for their reckless reopening of schools, the superintendent’s sudden upswell of indignation meant only to curb and deflect public anger as they moved to reopen classes. The committee members, likewise seeking to shield themselves from criticism and accountability for what they clearly recognize as a dangerous act, lauded the superintendent’s grandstanding.
One school committee member speculated that the pandemic would “go on forever” even with a vaccine and suggested that communities must immediately grow accustomed to the risk as with the seasonal flu. The superintendent asserted that extended school closures would result in increased suicides.
A question from a teacher revealed that the committee did not fully understand what it was poised to vote on. Apparently, some of the members believed they were only approving the general plan, which by state mandate had to include measures for fully in-person, hybrid and fully remote models. Others believed they were voting to approve Superintendent Burkhead’s decision to start with the hybrid model on September 16. This was debated at length and the committee changed its mind twice before deciding to vote on hybrid to start the year. The urge to defer to state officials, to a “metric”, to a constantly receding temporal horizon when a firm decision can be made, reveals the discomfort of a body that on some level recognizes the danger of reopening schools, but are compelled by political pressure political pressure to do so.
Janice Lindblom, a social worker employed by a nursing and rehabilitation facility located in the town, was the only dissenting voice. Lindblom pointed out that a safe reopening would be impossible without large-scale proactive testing with rapid turnaround times, a condition which is simply not on the table.
In stark contrast to the evasions and confusion of their local leaders, parents and teachers demonstrated a highly informed skepticism of the district’s plan, both in terms of safety and quality of education. First to comment was a teacher with twenty years of experience in the district. Citing a comprehensive study conducted in South Korea which concluded that older children transmit the disease at rates at least as high as adults, he noted that the aging faculty of the high school would face significant exposure to infection on a daily basis. He further noted that the lack of substitute teachers, a chronic problem for districts across the state, would undermine protocols meant to ensure even the minimal social distancing called for under the plan (3 to 6 feet). All such concerns were “taken under advisement,” meaning neither the superintendent nor the school committee could answer the objections, not for a lack of planning, but because the return to school in the midst of a pandemic poses an array of insoluble problems.
Several parents raised concerns about the options available to families afraid to send their children into crowded and confined spaces. The state has contracted with Edgenuity, a for-profit company that provides a fully automated learning program, which has mostly been used to “serve” students for whom traditional models have failed. In reality, the program boosts graduation rates while providing little remediation to struggling students. Parents rightly noted that this option would isolate students from their peers and teachers, provide a separate and unequal education, and effectively privatize a significant portion of Scituate Public Schools.
Another veteran teacher questioned the accuracy of test positivity rates in gauging the prevalence of community spread, citing evidence that suggests actual infection rates far outpace reporting. Surprisingly, committee members agreed, contradicting their earlier calls for a “metric” to determine policy. Nevertheless, they voted to approve a return to in-person learning. In reality, this was an economic decision made many months ago.
These and countless other comments exposed the plan as a dangerous and short-sighted capitulation of common sense to powerful financial and business interests, served by the Baker administration and executed by district superintendents and local school boards. The wealthy has a lot riding on the return to work, which depends on the return to school. Otherwise, stock valuations propped up by massive infusions of fictitious capital will plummet even faster than they did in mid-March.
Wall Street continues to feed on death and economic devastation
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/13/wall-a13.html
By Nick Beams
13 August 2020
Amid mass death, economic contractions not seen since the Great Depression, rising unemployment, and impoverishment for millions, Wall Street continues its relentless surge, siphoning up wealth to the heights of society.
Yesterday, the S&P 500 index ended up by 1.4 percent. It briefly climbed above its record high set in February during the day, before finishing within a hair’s breadth of that level. The index has risen 3.3 percent so far this month and is up by 4.6 percent compared to the start of the year.
The Dow rose by 269 points, or 1 percent, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index climbed by more than 2 percent.
Since the crisis of mid-March, when the market plunged and the financial system froze, the S&P 500 has risen by 50 percent on the back of government corporate bailouts and the pumping of trillions of dollars by the Fed and the assurances that it will continue to function as the backstop for Wall Street.
The rise of the US market followed similar developments in Europe, most notably in the UK where the FTSE 100 index rose by 2 percent. This came in the face of data for the second quarter that showed Britain had experienced its worst recession on record. Gross domestic product fell more than 20 percent for the three months, an annualised rate of almost 60 percent.
A breakdown of the rise in the S&P 500 index points to the growth of monopoly and the increasing domination of the high-tech companies, with more than one third of yesterday’s rise coming from the increase in the share prices of just three companies, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.
Together with Alphabet (the owner of Google) and Facebook, these companies dominate the S&P 500. Amazon’s revenue alone has risen by 40 percent for the quarter as a result of the increase in online orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a different story for smaller companies. Companies in the Russell 2000 stock index have reported aggregate losses so far of $1.1 billion compared to profits of close to $18 billion a year ago.
Predictably, as COVID infections and deaths have continued to mount in the US, President Trump has hailed the rise of the stock market as an indication of economic health. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday evening, he said the US economy was “rebounding with a strength like nobody thought was possible… We’re very poised for a great third quarter and very poised for some great stock numbers.”
Amid a continuing health disaster, by far the worst per capita in the world, he claimed the decline in European GDP was 40 percent worse than in the US and “we’ve built such a strong base that we’re able to do things and sustain better than anybody in the world by far.”
But rather than the stock market rise indicating underlying economic health, it is a fever chart of the diseased character of the US economy and its financial system for which Trump is the representative.
Less than five months ago, all US financial markets—including the $20 trillion market for US Treasury bonds, the foundation of the global financial system—froze threatening to set off a meltdown going far beyond that of 2008.
Nothing has been resolved since then. In essence what has taken place is that a debt crisis has been temporarily resolved by the creation of still more debt through the interventions of the Fed.
As a recent article in the Financial Times noted, after spending years warning of the dangers of excessive corporate debt, central bankers have responded to the coronavirus storm in financial markets by creating more of it—a continuation and intensification of the measures put in place after 2008.
“To stave off a debt crisis, monetary policymakers create conditions that allow companies to borrow even more, increasing the potential severity of the next crisis,” the article noted.
So far this year, more corporate bonds have been issued than in the whole of 2019 with more debt expected next year under conditions where the capacity to repay this debt is being weakened.
According to the Bank of America, the ratio of the debt of top-rated US companies to editda (earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortization) hit 2.4 at the end of the second quarter, the highest level in records going back 19 years, and will reach 3.2 by the end of this year.
Even companies whose bonds are rated as junk, that is, lower than investment grade, have been able to cash in. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that one such company, Ball Corporation, a maker of aluminium cans, was able to raise $1.3 billion by issuing a 10-year bond paying below 3 percent—the lowest borrowing cost ever recorded in this market.
With the Fed intervening in financial markets to buy up all forms of debt—from US Treasuries to corporate bonds—companies have gorged themselves on cheap money. In the 12 years since the 2008 crisis, the level of outstanding US corporate bonds outstanding has doubled to $12 trillion.
These figures have far-reaching economic and social implications. On the one hand, they signify that all the conditions are being created for a meltdown of the financial system, leading to companies either going bankrupt or slashing jobs and investment as they struggle to make repayments, with defaults threatening to rip through the financial system.
On the other, they signify a deepening of the assault on the working class already underway.
The Fed can create massive amounts of money through the press of a computer button, adding to the already existing mountain of financial assets. But it cannot create new value. Financial assets, including stocks, do not of themselves embody value. In the final analysis they are a claim on the surplus extracted from the working class in the process of production which must now be increased to meet the demands of Wall Street.
The divergence between the claims of the stock market is indicated by the rise of the S&P index to its record high in the face of the biggest contraction in the real economy since the Great Depression.
The price to earnings ratio of stocks in the S&P 500 now sits at 22.5 compared to the average of 15.5 over the past decade—an indication of the extent of the onslaught on wages, jobs and working conditions that is already being undertaken and which will intensify in the immediate future.
13 August 2020
Amid mass death, economic contractions not seen since the Great Depression, rising unemployment, and impoverishment for millions, Wall Street continues its relentless surge, siphoning up wealth to the heights of society.
Yesterday, the S&P 500 index ended up by 1.4 percent. It briefly climbed above its record high set in February during the day, before finishing within a hair’s breadth of that level. The index has risen 3.3 percent so far this month and is up by 4.6 percent compared to the start of the year.
The Dow rose by 269 points, or 1 percent, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index climbed by more than 2 percent.
Since the crisis of mid-March, when the market plunged and the financial system froze, the S&P 500 has risen by 50 percent on the back of government corporate bailouts and the pumping of trillions of dollars by the Fed and the assurances that it will continue to function as the backstop for Wall Street.
The rise of the US market followed similar developments in Europe, most notably in the UK where the FTSE 100 index rose by 2 percent. This came in the face of data for the second quarter that showed Britain had experienced its worst recession on record. Gross domestic product fell more than 20 percent for the three months, an annualised rate of almost 60 percent.
A breakdown of the rise in the S&P 500 index points to the growth of monopoly and the increasing domination of the high-tech companies, with more than one third of yesterday’s rise coming from the increase in the share prices of just three companies, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.
Together with Alphabet (the owner of Google) and Facebook, these companies dominate the S&P 500. Amazon’s revenue alone has risen by 40 percent for the quarter as a result of the increase in online orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a different story for smaller companies. Companies in the Russell 2000 stock index have reported aggregate losses so far of $1.1 billion compared to profits of close to $18 billion a year ago.
Predictably, as COVID infections and deaths have continued to mount in the US, President Trump has hailed the rise of the stock market as an indication of economic health. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday evening, he said the US economy was “rebounding with a strength like nobody thought was possible… We’re very poised for a great third quarter and very poised for some great stock numbers.”
Amid a continuing health disaster, by far the worst per capita in the world, he claimed the decline in European GDP was 40 percent worse than in the US and “we’ve built such a strong base that we’re able to do things and sustain better than anybody in the world by far.”
But rather than the stock market rise indicating underlying economic health, it is a fever chart of the diseased character of the US economy and its financial system for which Trump is the representative.
Less than five months ago, all US financial markets—including the $20 trillion market for US Treasury bonds, the foundation of the global financial system—froze threatening to set off a meltdown going far beyond that of 2008.
Nothing has been resolved since then. In essence what has taken place is that a debt crisis has been temporarily resolved by the creation of still more debt through the interventions of the Fed.
As a recent article in the Financial Times noted, after spending years warning of the dangers of excessive corporate debt, central bankers have responded to the coronavirus storm in financial markets by creating more of it—a continuation and intensification of the measures put in place after 2008.
“To stave off a debt crisis, monetary policymakers create conditions that allow companies to borrow even more, increasing the potential severity of the next crisis,” the article noted.
So far this year, more corporate bonds have been issued than in the whole of 2019 with more debt expected next year under conditions where the capacity to repay this debt is being weakened.
According to the Bank of America, the ratio of the debt of top-rated US companies to editda (earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortization) hit 2.4 at the end of the second quarter, the highest level in records going back 19 years, and will reach 3.2 by the end of this year.
Even companies whose bonds are rated as junk, that is, lower than investment grade, have been able to cash in. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that one such company, Ball Corporation, a maker of aluminium cans, was able to raise $1.3 billion by issuing a 10-year bond paying below 3 percent—the lowest borrowing cost ever recorded in this market.
With the Fed intervening in financial markets to buy up all forms of debt—from US Treasuries to corporate bonds—companies have gorged themselves on cheap money. In the 12 years since the 2008 crisis, the level of outstanding US corporate bonds outstanding has doubled to $12 trillion.
These figures have far-reaching economic and social implications. On the one hand, they signify that all the conditions are being created for a meltdown of the financial system, leading to companies either going bankrupt or slashing jobs and investment as they struggle to make repayments, with defaults threatening to rip through the financial system.
On the other, they signify a deepening of the assault on the working class already underway.
The Fed can create massive amounts of money through the press of a computer button, adding to the already existing mountain of financial assets. But it cannot create new value. Financial assets, including stocks, do not of themselves embody value. In the final analysis they are a claim on the surplus extracted from the working class in the process of production which must now be increased to meet the demands of Wall Street.
The divergence between the claims of the stock market is indicated by the rise of the S&P index to its record high in the face of the biggest contraction in the real economy since the Great Depression.
The price to earnings ratio of stocks in the S&P 500 now sits at 22.5 compared to the average of 15.5 over the past decade—an indication of the extent of the onslaught on wages, jobs and working conditions that is already being undertaken and which will intensify in the immediate future.
Growing wave of protests across the US against school openings
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/13/scho-a13-1.html
By Evan Blake
13 August 2020
Across the United States, thousands of teachers, education workers, parents and students are mobilizing to oppose the unsafe reopening of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Car caravans, demonstrations and other forms of protest are building wherever schools are slated to resume in-person instruction.
The reopening of schools is taking place in an unplanned, haphazard manner, in which each of the country’s nearly 14,000 local school districts are being left to their own devices. Cash strapped schools are quickly improvising as students return, including in Oklahoma, where teachers this week were given two rolls of paper towels, three boxes of tissues, one 24-ounce bottle of spray disinfectant, and a mask and gloves to carry out daily cleaning over nine weeks.
Predictably there have already been outbreaks at schools in Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Hawaii.
The scientific case against the reckless reopening of schools has been bolstered by a new study from the University of Florida based on capturing and analyzing air samples containing the live virus from hospital rooms. The study confirms that tiny droplets, known as aerosols, produced simply through speaking, can travel 16 feet or more, well beyond the recommended six feet for social distancing. The aerosols can also remain airborne for hours.
A classroom simulation shows that the spread of the virus can be significantly reduced by placing ventilation near a teacher. However, the Government Accountability Office recently found that 41 percent of school districts need to update or replace the ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, and a 2016 report by the Center for Green Schools found that 15,000 schools have indoor air quality deemed unfit for students and staff to breathe.
From the US to Brazil, South Africa, Britain, France, Australia, Germany and other countries, capitalist politicians are demanding that schools reopen in order to force parents back into unsafe workplaces to resume the flow of corporate profit. In the US—the epicenter of the global pandemic with over 5.3 million cases and nearly 170,000 deaths—the drive to reopen schools finds its most homicidal expression.
On Wednesday, the White House issued a press release that stated in part, “The education of children is more than an essential business—it’s a top national priority to ensure America can continue to aggressively compete with the rest of the world.”
Shortly after the press release, a forum was held with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and a panel of teachers, academics, and Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, who is pushing the resumption of full in-person instruction in one of the nation’s epicenters. The aim of the event, titled, “Kids First: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School,” was to promote pseudoscience and downplay the risks of reopening schools.
While cynically feigning concern for students, Trump threatened to utilize the pandemic to defund public education, saying, “I’d like to see the money follow the student,” i.e., to parochial and other private schools. He added, “If a school is closed, why are we paying the school?”
Trump and his Republican allies on the state level express most nakedly the demands of the ruling class, but the return to in-person schooling is a bipartisan policy. Last week New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that “all schools can reopen” across the state, including in New York City, the largest district in the country with 1.1 million students and 135,000 teachers and support staff. In other Democratic-controlled districts like Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, schools are opening online initially or rotating online and in-person learning, but this is largely aimed at dissipating opposition and biding time to reopen fully.
Opposition to the reckless reopening of schools is mounting in the working class, whose interests are dictated by science and public health, not the rise of the stock market. Facing a concerted, bipartisan campaign to vilify educators, create divisions with parents, and use students as pawns in the return-to-work campaign, educators, parents, and students have courageously organized dozens of protests to voice their opposition.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, a groundswell of resistance forced local officials to reverse their plans to provide in-person instruction, as demanded by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. Over 400 teachers opted out of in-person instruction, prompting the school board to change to entirely online instruction at the start of the year. This decision prompted Governor Murphy to announce that he will reverse a previous policy and develop plans for remote learning in the state.
There are growing protests across Nebraska, where Republican Governor Pete Ricketts has promoted the resumption of in-person instruction. On Monday, over 200 educators rallied at Memorial Park in Omaha, and another 100 protested in Lincoln. One teacher dressed as the Grim Reaper held a sign saying, “I can’t wait to meet my kids!”
Roughly 60 educators held a silent protest outside the Papillion La-Vista school board meeting in Papillion, Nebraska on Monday, demanding a halt to the resumption of fully in-person instruction. At the board meeting, parents and educators spoke out in favor of online learning, with Dr. James Wilson, a biology professor, stating, “I have a four-year-old little girl and a 78-year-old pair of parents that I cannot go see starting tomorrow because I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Despite the outpouring of opposition, the board voted unanimously to resume in-person instruction, which began Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Arkansas, teachers protested against Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson’s plans to fully reopen even as the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths have risen statewide over the past month. Dozens of protesters participated, holding signs that read, “The blood will be on Asa’s hands,” “Whose child has to die?” “I can teach from home. I can’t teach from a ventilator,” “School = super spreader event” and others.
The Fayetteville Education Association, a local affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), was compelled to organize the protest due to the immense opposition developing among educators in the state. In less than six weeks, the Facebook group Arkansans For Safe Public Schools has rapidly gained nearly 14,000 members.
In Utah, dozens of teachers protested the resumption of in-person learning in Alpine School District, the largest district, which has roughly 80,000 students. The district is located in Utah County, which currently has the highest rate of infections in the state. The guidelines adopted only mandate that a school closes when 15 or more positive cases are found.
With schools slated to resume in-person learning in Washoe County School District, in Nevada, over 100 educators, parents and students protested outside the district’s school board meeting Tuesday. High school teacher Debra Harris told the Reno Gazette Journal, “This is insane. This cannot be a safe condition during COVID.” She noted that professional development, which is usually focused on lesson planning, was now entirely about hygiene, commenting, “Nothing has been about education because that’s not what’s going to happen this year on campus.”
Facing immense pressure from educators, parents and students, Jefferson Parish Schools, the largest school district in Louisiana with some 50,000 students, was forced to delay the start of the school year by two weeks to August 26. Last week, hundreds protested at a school board meeting. With COVID-19 spreading rapidly throughout the state, nearly half of all students in the districts chose distance learning over in-person instruction.
Brian Williams J.D., a Jefferson Parish schoolteacher, spoke to the WSWS about the opposition to reopening. Describing the school board meeting, he said, “They are clueless about actual conditions on the ground. If they think school is safe, then they should put their jobs on the line, the way our lives are on the line. Promise us it’s safe by offering to resign if you’re wrong.”
Highlighting the connection between the back-to-school campaign and the back-to-work campaign, Williams said, “[These are] low-income, minority communities, essential workers. Jefferson Parish is the hottest spot for COVID-19 in all of Louisiana. Talking about reopening, the only thing you can figure is, they’re so desperate for the children’s parents’ labor that they’re willing to risk our lives.”
While last week’s protest was partially organized by the Jefferson Federation of Teachers, the local teacher union, Williams expressed disappointment with their actions. He said they were “unmotivated, moving very slowly, very hesitantly” and not calling for a strike.
The above protests are a small fraction of the dozens and possibly hundreds that have taken place across the country in recent weeks, in nearly every state.
The central task facing educators is to develop fighting organizations to connect their disparate struggles and prepare for a nationwide general strike to halt the drive to reopen schools. This can only be done independently of the procorporate American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which have rejected the widely supported call for a nationwide strike.
The initiative and active struggle of educators, parents and students must be expanded and deepened as widely as possible. To organize and coordinate these struggles, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) calls upon all those opposed to the deadly reopening of schools to form a network of interconnected rank-and-file safety committees in every school and neighborhood.
These committees must establish connections with the broadest sections of the working class—manufacturing, logistics, health care, transit and other workers—to prepare a common fight against both corporate-controlled parties, which intend to use all forms of intimidation and state repression to force teachers back into the classrooms, regardless of the human toll.
The fight to stop the reopening of the schools will require the political mobilization of the entire working class against both corporate-controlled parties and the capitalist system they defend. Instead of squandering trillions on Wall Street and the Pentagon war machine, the working class must ensure that the resources are made available to provide state-of-the-art online learning for all students, the payment of full wages to parents who must care for their children, free and universal health care and a massive program of regular testing and contact tracing, which is the only way to contain the deadly virus.
We urge all those who wish to take up this struggle to contact us today and follow developments through the WSWS Educators Newsletter.
13 August 2020
Across the United States, thousands of teachers, education workers, parents and students are mobilizing to oppose the unsafe reopening of schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Car caravans, demonstrations and other forms of protest are building wherever schools are slated to resume in-person instruction.
The reopening of schools is taking place in an unplanned, haphazard manner, in which each of the country’s nearly 14,000 local school districts are being left to their own devices. Cash strapped schools are quickly improvising as students return, including in Oklahoma, where teachers this week were given two rolls of paper towels, three boxes of tissues, one 24-ounce bottle of spray disinfectant, and a mask and gloves to carry out daily cleaning over nine weeks.
Predictably there have already been outbreaks at schools in Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Hawaii.
The scientific case against the reckless reopening of schools has been bolstered by a new study from the University of Florida based on capturing and analyzing air samples containing the live virus from hospital rooms. The study confirms that tiny droplets, known as aerosols, produced simply through speaking, can travel 16 feet or more, well beyond the recommended six feet for social distancing. The aerosols can also remain airborne for hours.
A classroom simulation shows that the spread of the virus can be significantly reduced by placing ventilation near a teacher. However, the Government Accountability Office recently found that 41 percent of school districts need to update or replace the ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, and a 2016 report by the Center for Green Schools found that 15,000 schools have indoor air quality deemed unfit for students and staff to breathe.
From the US to Brazil, South Africa, Britain, France, Australia, Germany and other countries, capitalist politicians are demanding that schools reopen in order to force parents back into unsafe workplaces to resume the flow of corporate profit. In the US—the epicenter of the global pandemic with over 5.3 million cases and nearly 170,000 deaths—the drive to reopen schools finds its most homicidal expression.
On Wednesday, the White House issued a press release that stated in part, “The education of children is more than an essential business—it’s a top national priority to ensure America can continue to aggressively compete with the rest of the world.”
Shortly after the press release, a forum was held with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and a panel of teachers, academics, and Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, who is pushing the resumption of full in-person instruction in one of the nation’s epicenters. The aim of the event, titled, “Kids First: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School,” was to promote pseudoscience and downplay the risks of reopening schools.
While cynically feigning concern for students, Trump threatened to utilize the pandemic to defund public education, saying, “I’d like to see the money follow the student,” i.e., to parochial and other private schools. He added, “If a school is closed, why are we paying the school?”
Trump and his Republican allies on the state level express most nakedly the demands of the ruling class, but the return to in-person schooling is a bipartisan policy. Last week New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that “all schools can reopen” across the state, including in New York City, the largest district in the country with 1.1 million students and 135,000 teachers and support staff. In other Democratic-controlled districts like Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, schools are opening online initially or rotating online and in-person learning, but this is largely aimed at dissipating opposition and biding time to reopen fully.
Opposition to the reckless reopening of schools is mounting in the working class, whose interests are dictated by science and public health, not the rise of the stock market. Facing a concerted, bipartisan campaign to vilify educators, create divisions with parents, and use students as pawns in the return-to-work campaign, educators, parents, and students have courageously organized dozens of protests to voice their opposition.
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, a groundswell of resistance forced local officials to reverse their plans to provide in-person instruction, as demanded by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy. Over 400 teachers opted out of in-person instruction, prompting the school board to change to entirely online instruction at the start of the year. This decision prompted Governor Murphy to announce that he will reverse a previous policy and develop plans for remote learning in the state.
There are growing protests across Nebraska, where Republican Governor Pete Ricketts has promoted the resumption of in-person instruction. On Monday, over 200 educators rallied at Memorial Park in Omaha, and another 100 protested in Lincoln. One teacher dressed as the Grim Reaper held a sign saying, “I can’t wait to meet my kids!”
Roughly 60 educators held a silent protest outside the Papillion La-Vista school board meeting in Papillion, Nebraska on Monday, demanding a halt to the resumption of fully in-person instruction. At the board meeting, parents and educators spoke out in favor of online learning, with Dr. James Wilson, a biology professor, stating, “I have a four-year-old little girl and a 78-year-old pair of parents that I cannot go see starting tomorrow because I don’t know what’s going to happen.” Despite the outpouring of opposition, the board voted unanimously to resume in-person instruction, which began Tuesday and Wednesday.
In Arkansas, teachers protested against Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson’s plans to fully reopen even as the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths have risen statewide over the past month. Dozens of protesters participated, holding signs that read, “The blood will be on Asa’s hands,” “Whose child has to die?” “I can teach from home. I can’t teach from a ventilator,” “School = super spreader event” and others.
The Fayetteville Education Association, a local affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), was compelled to organize the protest due to the immense opposition developing among educators in the state. In less than six weeks, the Facebook group Arkansans For Safe Public Schools has rapidly gained nearly 14,000 members.
In Utah, dozens of teachers protested the resumption of in-person learning in Alpine School District, the largest district, which has roughly 80,000 students. The district is located in Utah County, which currently has the highest rate of infections in the state. The guidelines adopted only mandate that a school closes when 15 or more positive cases are found.
With schools slated to resume in-person learning in Washoe County School District, in Nevada, over 100 educators, parents and students protested outside the district’s school board meeting Tuesday. High school teacher Debra Harris told the Reno Gazette Journal, “This is insane. This cannot be a safe condition during COVID.” She noted that professional development, which is usually focused on lesson planning, was now entirely about hygiene, commenting, “Nothing has been about education because that’s not what’s going to happen this year on campus.”
Facing immense pressure from educators, parents and students, Jefferson Parish Schools, the largest school district in Louisiana with some 50,000 students, was forced to delay the start of the school year by two weeks to August 26. Last week, hundreds protested at a school board meeting. With COVID-19 spreading rapidly throughout the state, nearly half of all students in the districts chose distance learning over in-person instruction.
Brian Williams J.D., a Jefferson Parish schoolteacher, spoke to the WSWS about the opposition to reopening. Describing the school board meeting, he said, “They are clueless about actual conditions on the ground. If they think school is safe, then they should put their jobs on the line, the way our lives are on the line. Promise us it’s safe by offering to resign if you’re wrong.”
Highlighting the connection between the back-to-school campaign and the back-to-work campaign, Williams said, “[These are] low-income, minority communities, essential workers. Jefferson Parish is the hottest spot for COVID-19 in all of Louisiana. Talking about reopening, the only thing you can figure is, they’re so desperate for the children’s parents’ labor that they’re willing to risk our lives.”
While last week’s protest was partially organized by the Jefferson Federation of Teachers, the local teacher union, Williams expressed disappointment with their actions. He said they were “unmotivated, moving very slowly, very hesitantly” and not calling for a strike.
The above protests are a small fraction of the dozens and possibly hundreds that have taken place across the country in recent weeks, in nearly every state.
The central task facing educators is to develop fighting organizations to connect their disparate struggles and prepare for a nationwide general strike to halt the drive to reopen schools. This can only be done independently of the procorporate American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), which have rejected the widely supported call for a nationwide strike.
The initiative and active struggle of educators, parents and students must be expanded and deepened as widely as possible. To organize and coordinate these struggles, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) calls upon all those opposed to the deadly reopening of schools to form a network of interconnected rank-and-file safety committees in every school and neighborhood.
These committees must establish connections with the broadest sections of the working class—manufacturing, logistics, health care, transit and other workers—to prepare a common fight against both corporate-controlled parties, which intend to use all forms of intimidation and state repression to force teachers back into the classrooms, regardless of the human toll.
The fight to stop the reopening of the schools will require the political mobilization of the entire working class against both corporate-controlled parties and the capitalist system they defend. Instead of squandering trillions on Wall Street and the Pentagon war machine, the working class must ensure that the resources are made available to provide state-of-the-art online learning for all students, the payment of full wages to parents who must care for their children, free and universal health care and a massive program of regular testing and contact tracing, which is the only way to contain the deadly virus.
We urge all those who wish to take up this struggle to contact us today and follow developments through the WSWS Educators Newsletter.
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