蜜桃影视

This is our weekly briefing on how the pandemic is shaping schools and education policy, vetted, as always, by AEI Visiting Fellow John Bailey. Click here to see the full archive. Get this weekly roundup, as well as rolling daily updates, delivered straight to your inbox 鈥� sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter.

The U.S. Surgeon General Warns of a Mental Health Crisis Among Young People: and . Among the recommendations:

• Recognize that mental health is an essential part of overall health.
• Empower youth and their families to recognize, manage and learn from difficult emotions.
• Ensure that every child has access to high-quality, affordable and culturally competent mental health care.
• Support the mental health of children and youth in educational, community and child care settings.
• Address the economic and social barriers that contribute to poor mental health for young people, families and caregivers.
• Increase timely data collection and research to identify and respond to youth mental health needs more rapidly.

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December 10, 2021 鈥� The Big Three

Schools Are Closing Classrooms on Fridays. Parents Are Furious: Via .

• “A few of these districts have closed with very little notice, sending parents to find child care, as well as summon the wherewithal to supervise remote learning. Beyond the logistics, many parents are worried that with additional lost days of in-person school, their children will fall further behind.”
• “But for many schools, the remote learning days 鈥� an option that did not exist before the pandemic 鈥� are a last-ditch effort to keep teachers from resigning. They are burned out, educators said, after a year of trying to help students through learning loss, and working overtime to make up for labor shortages.”
• “Battles in the classroom 鈥� from mask mandates to debates over critical race theory 鈥� have also taken a toll, said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the country鈥檚 second-biggest teachers鈥� union. ‘What you hear from teachers is that it鈥檚 been too much,’ she said. ‘And they鈥檙e trying the best that they can.’鈥�
• “Last Friday, Theo Eggebrecht, 17, a senior in the arts track at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, did not have any at-home supplies for two of his arts classes that day. He said his science teacher did not show up for online class. Instead, Theo spent several hours doing chores, petting his cat and scrolling through TikTok. 鈥業鈥檓 a senior, this is one of my last years of education,鈥� he said.”

Audit Shows Georgia Students Fell Months Behind: The most detailed report I’ve seen a state undertake: It covers learning loss, learning recovery and details on how funds are being spent on different activities (e.g. tutoring and mental health). and .

• “By the end of the 2021 school year, students in majority-white schools were, on average, four months behind in math and three months behind in reading, according to the audit. Students in majority-Black schools were, on average, six months behind in math and reading,” .
• “Although the percentage of virtual students decreased during the 2020-21 school year, most Asian-American students (58%) and almost half of Black students (49%) opted to remain virtual when schools offered an in-person option. Twenty-eight percent of Hispanic students and 15% of white students chose to remain online when given the choice to return.”
• “Of 112 school system survey respondents, 85 indicated that they reduced the number of instructional days by delaying the start of the school [year] (75 systems), extending the December holiday (19 systems) and/or eliminating school days throughout the year (16 systems). Only 24 of the 85 systems (28%) offset some missed time by extending the school year and/or adding other instructional days throughout the year. The remaining 61 systems did not make up days, impacting approximately 850,000 students.”

White House Releases Plan to Combat Delta and Omicron Variants: / /

• Two noteworthy items for schools:
  • It seems like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finally getting close to releasing guidance for test-to-stay programs.
  • The administration will issue a new 鈥淪afe School Checklist鈥� to give schools guidance for how to get as many of their staff and students vaccinated as possible.
• Plan components:
  • Boosters for all adults
  • Vaccinations to protect kids and keep schools open
  • Expanding free at-home testing for Americans
  • Stronger public health protocols for safe international travel
  • Protections in workplaces to keep economy open
  • Rapid response teams to help battle rising cases
  • Supplying treatment pills to help prevent hospitalizations and death
  • Continued commitment to global vaccination efforts
  • Steps to ensure we are prepared for all scenarios

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Omicron

Omicron Partly Evades Pfizer Vaccine’s Protection: Two reports out, both done with unbelievable speed.

• First a (and ) from :
  • “Laboratory experiments found that Omicron seems to dull the power of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but also hinted that people who have received a booster shot might be better protected,” the reports.
• Second, a from Pfizer:
  • “‘,’ BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said on a conference call. It may make sense to give boosters even sooner than now recommended, as early as three months after the first two doses.”
  • “Still, two doses may prove effective in preventing severe illness from COVID-19, [Pfizer and BioNTech] said, because immune cells are able to recognize 80% of parts of the spike protein that the vaccine targets,” the reports.
  • “鈥楾hese preliminary data appear to show the Pfizer vaccine does in fact protect against Omicron, and that鈥檚 very good news,鈥� , director of Boston College鈥檚 Global Public Health and the Global Common Good program.”
• Go deeper: breaks down the results, as does . summarizes the South African study.

Early Reports Suggest Omicron May Be Less Dangerous

• 鈥淯.S. health officials said Sunday that while the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, , which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations,鈥� the AP reports.
• : 鈥淭hus far, it does not look like there鈥檚 a great degree of severity to it. But we have really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe or it really doesn鈥檛 cause any severe illness, comparable to Delta.鈥�

Is Omicron Ominous?: Asks

• “The short answer is yes.”
• “The immune escape property of Omicron, with potential to override our vaccines, is the central concern and can be met 3 ways: (1) booster shots, (2) an Omicron-specific vaccine and (3) a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine which would theoretically be variant-proof.”
• “Early reports from South Africa indicated the possibility that cases were more mild, requiring less hospitalizations and oxygen supplementation. But the population assessed was predominantly young, had prior COVID or were vaccinated. We can hope this is the case but will not really know the answer to this question until much larger numbers of people aged 60-plus, those without prior infection or vaccination, or several months out from vaccination, are studied.”
• “Fortunately, there are no data to suggest Omicron is associated with more lethality or severe COVID than prior variants.”

Omicron is Spreading More Than Twice as Quickly as the Delta Variant in South Africa: Via the and

• “Doctors in South Africa say they have seen a dramatic rise in the number of children under 5 who need to be hospitalized with the COVID-19 Omicron variant.”
• “鈥楾he incidents in those under 5 is now second-highest and second only to the incidents in those over 60,鈥� said Dr. Waasila Jassat with the South Africa Institute of Communicative Disease. 鈥楾he trend that we’re seeing now that’s different to what we saw before is the particular increase in hospital admissions in children under 5 years.鈥�”

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Federal Updates

Food and Drug Administration:

U.S. Education Department:

Federal Communications Commission: The Senate voted 68-31 to confirm . She’ll be the first female chair in the agency’s 86-year history.

• Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden鈥檚 second nominee to the FCC, faces a .

Broadband Provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: I wrote an contained in the infrastructure package. Key parts of implementation will fall to states, that have to develop plans and prioritize projects. Some states are well positioned to leverage these funds, and others will need some additional capacity, creating an opportunity for philanthropic support.

Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund Spending: Burbio has now tracked from over 1,600 districts that make up 39% of K-12 students.

Very Merry: The White House and Google teamed up to let you .

$350 Billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: A new created by Results for America and Mathematica 鈥� based on the spending plans of 150 local governments and tribal nations across the country 鈥� shows some early trends in how jurisdictions are investing or plan to invest their recovery funds:

• 75% are investing to address the negative economic impacts of COVID
• 72% are investing in public health
• 69% are investing to expand services to disproportionately impacted communities
• 61% are investing to replace lost revenues
• 56% are investing in housing

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City & State News

California:

• Alberto Carvalho named next L.A. schools superintendent;听observers warn of 鈥榩olitical black hole鈥� that awaits
• .
• Marin County parents after knowingly sending a child with COVID-19 to school and sparking an outbreak.
• 听 signaling problems ahead.
  • “Shifting 34,000 students 12 and older into independent study would be challenging 鈥� especially as the district鈥檚 independent study program, called City of Angels, has been beset by staffing shortages and confusion after it was inundated at the start of the school year with about 10,000 students, a number that grew to 16,000.”
  • “The 34,000 total by itself would make up one of the 25 largest school systems in California.”

New York: David Banks鈥檚 appointment to NYC schools chancellor welcomed in several circles

Illinois: ? The Belleville News-Democrat has a searchable database.

Kansas: after fleeing nativity scene.

Kentucky: Louisville Courier Journal has .

Louisiana: .

Pennsylvania: because 16 bus drivers tested positive for COVID-19, had symptoms or were exposed 鈥� and the district doesn’t have any drivers to cover the routes.

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COVID-19 Research

Young People Recover Quickly From Rare Myocarditis Side Effect of COVID-19 Vaccine: . Of the 139 teens and young adults, ranging from 12 to 20 years of age, researchers identified and evaluated:

• Nearly every case (97.8%) followed an mRNA vaccine, and 91.4% occurred after the second vaccine dose.
• Onset of symptoms occurred at a median of two days following vaccine administration.
• Chest pain was the most common symptom (99,3%); fever and shortness of breath each occurred in 30.9% and 27.3% of patients, respectively.
• About 1 in 5 patients (18.7%) was admitted to intensive care, but there were no deaths. Most patients were hospitalized for two or three days.
• Nearly 18.7% had at least mildly decreased left ventricular function (squeeze of the heart) at presentation, but heart function had returned to normal in all who returned for followup.

We Opened the Schools and … It Was Fine:

• “The Delta surge began long before classes resumed, and looking at the state-by-state data, you鈥檇 be hard-pressed to find bumps that can be pinned on the beginning of the semester.”
• “Schools aren鈥檛 the problem. They never have been.”
• “One of the frustrating things about the pandemic has been our inability, even at this late date, to understand why surges occur. They hit communities with mask mandates, and communities without.”
• “What is pretty certain, however, is that schools are not to blame. 鈥� They haven鈥檛 done nearly as much damage as bars, restaurants and indoor events (including kids鈥� birthday parties), which never seem to receive the same amount of attention.”

FDA Authorizes AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 Antibody Drug: The drug helps to in individuals who have weak immune systems or a history of severe side effects from coronavirus vaccines.

FDA Clears Use of Lilly’s COVID-19 Antibody Therapy for Kids: Via . More via :

• “The authorization is the first for an antibody drug to treat young children, including newborns, who have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to the virus and who are at high risk of developing severe cases including hospitalization or death.”

New Plant-based Vaccine: Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline announced 鈥溾�� from a global trial using what they say is the world鈥檚 first plant-based coronavirus vaccine.

The Benefits of Vaccinating Kids against COVID Far Outweigh the Risks of Myocarditis: Via

Revisiting COVID-19 Policies:

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Viewpoints

Should I Get a Booster?:

Messaging: I want to specifically call out the of Emily’s newsletter because this is so important, particularly at this moment when pandemic guidance news fatigue is so high.

• “It鈥檚 not that the message currently being sent is wrong. The advice that we are getting 鈥� on boosters or anything else 鈥� is usually based on the best knowledge at the moment. The problem is that it鈥檚 too often delivered with an air of certainty that the knowledge doesn鈥檛 support.”
• “This would be fine if people were amnesiac robots. If everyone woke up in the morning, forgot everything from the day before, checked the current guidance and seamlessly took up that guidance, then the strategy of changing the guidance every day would be great. It would let you incorporate even small changes in knowledge in a seamless way.”
• “But people are not amnesiac robots, and our trust in guidance is based on consistency and understanding. In this world, we need messaging with more nuance, messaging that does a better job of explaining why the guidance is what it is and why it might change.”

An Idea for This Moment: Districts Can Pay Families to Help Get Students and Schools Back on Track: Via

More Students Flunk This High School Course Than Any Other: Blog post by .

Anticipating the Top 2022 Risks in Politics & Policy: .

Parent Opinions:

• Although Black parents’ comfort with their children returning to school has increased over the past couple of months, they remain less comfortable than white parents.
• Both Black and white parents experienced a decrease in willingness to vaccinate their children. Hispanic parents are currently the most willing to vaccinate their children.
• School parents 鈥� regardless of race or ethnicity 鈥� generally are positive about how local school boards are handling matters in K-12 right now. Black and Hispanic parents are much more likely to give the Biden administration high marks when compared with white parents. Hispanic parents are the most likely to give good grades to their state鈥檚 governor and legislature.
• Among Black parents, interest in learning pods has held steady this month, with about one-third still indicating they have some level of consideration.
• Black parents continue to express very high levels of support for education savings accounts, school vouchers and public charter schools.

Schools Need Support to Reinvent Themselves. Will Philanthropy Step Up to Help?:

Schools are Back in Person, but Quarantines, Health Concerns Have Students Missing More Class:

Resources: Via Education Resource Strategies

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…And on a Lighter Note

Just the Best:

The most adorable 鈥業 love you鈥� face off between brothers. 鉂わ笍

鈥� Karine Jean-Pierre (@K_JeanPierre)

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ICYMI @The74

Weekend Reads: In case you missed them, our top five stories of the week:

• Supreme Court: 鈥楨qual Treatment, not Special Treatment鈥�: Conservative Supreme Court Justices Appear Ready to Strike Down Religious Barriers to Public School Choice Funding
• Pandemic Recovery: 鈥楾ry Everything to Find Them鈥�: Districts Launch New Efforts to Get Chronically Absent 9th Graders Back in Class
• School Safety: ALICE, America鈥檚 Most Controversial Active-Shooter Training that Teaches Kids to Fight Back, Saved Dozens of Lives in Oxford HS Attack, CEO Claims
• Critical Race Theory: Republican Bill that Limits How Race, Slavery and History Are Taught in Texas Schools Becomes Law
• Case Study: A Massachusetts Town Boosts Students鈥� STEM Learning by Letting the Students Do the Talking, 鈥業t鈥檚 Real Life鈥�

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to 蜜桃影视.

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