Yesterday, the Biden administration announced its goal for school re-openings, eliciting groans from many across the country. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the president is aiming to have at least 50 percent of schools open, for at least one day of in-person learning per week, by the end of the month after next. Where does one even begin with this?
White House: Our goal is to have 50 percent of schools open by April 30, 2021 — “at least one day per week” pic.twitter.com/7VNpG9i0Sx
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 9, 2021
First, I suppose children being allowed to attend real school 20 percent of the time, versus zero percent, is an upgrade. But ongoing remote learning for the vast majority of school days is a continued disaster. May I remind you that the top experts – from Dr. Fauci to Biden's newly-installed CDC chief – are repeatedly on the record as stating that in-person learning in classrooms is safe now, even before teachers are vaccinated. What is this "hopefully at least one day a week, almost two months from now" nonsense based on? Because it's not science:
Infection rates in 2nd half of January per Brown study of schools:
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) February 9, 2021
Community: 61/100K
School staff: 63/100K
Students: 32/100K
Basically no added risk to school staff from being in school https://t.co/BZ1nQUQZzI
CDC data has demonstrated that even in communities with astoundingly high levels of infections (cases are falling dramatically across the country right now), schools simply are not significant spreaders. And those cases that have been detected in staff or students were overwhelmingly transmitted somewhere other than schools. Fauci has noted that kids are actually safer from the virus in classrooms than they are elsewhere. Of the three big targets the Biden team have announced, none make any sense. What's the justification for keeping any school closed four-out-of-five days a week? And why would any school wait until basically May for this to happen? But most absurd is the "goal" of all of the above applying in at least 50 percent of schools by the end of April deadline. Why?
If we count hybrid as open, 64.8% of K-12 schools are already open.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 9, 2021
By grade:
K-5: 69.1%
6-8: 61.6%
9-12: 60.2%
Is he ordering *closures* to get to 50%???https://t.co/hQth4npPZD https://t.co/QxpwZu4XER
Almost two-thirds of schools are already at least partially open across the country. Biden's big "goal" was already significantly surpassed by the day it was announced – and months ahead of schedule. What a success! The true objective should be to get all schools open, full-time, as soon as humanly possible. Or at least have the decency to not insult everyone and aim for something that isn't already happening. This is reminiscent of Biden's "100 million vaccine doses administered in the first 100 days" pledge. This would require one million shots per day. On inauguration day, 1.6 million shots were administered in the United States. The president inherited a system that was outperforming his publicly-stated target, literally on day one. They must know what they're doing here, yes? Do they assume no one will call them out, except Fox's Peter Doocy, who they seem to think can be ridiculed and dismissed because of where he works? Meanwhile, the anti-science insanity just won't go away:
Ridiculous. No other workplace is implementing these types of demands and the one in question mostly made up of those at lowest risk of getting, spreading, or being severely harmed by the virus. https://t.co/aE2jfyiu8B
— AG (@AGHamilton29) February 9, 2021
UC Berkeley “students are now unable to leave their room for solo outdoor exercise” due to a COVID lockdown.
— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) February 10, 2021
The story adds that “Counseling and Psychological Services is available for virtual counseling appointments and help finding resources” https://t.co/HFpSebqzB9
Solo, outdoor exercise. Banned. The whole story is just wild. And that's not even the craziest thing happening in the Bay Area. We've been checking in on the San Francisco school board, which has been busy scraping "problematic" names off of schools (don't confuse them with any facts) and very intentionally destroying the most successful high school under their jurisdiction. All district schools remain closed, naturally, yet this is what the "adults" are up to:
They didn’t appoint him, and now the parent group remains all moms which means women must do all the work of the group. And seven hours after the meeting started, they still aren’t talking about how to safely reopen schools.
— Heather Knight (@hknightsf) February 10, 2021
I'll leave you with a tweet that angered some people, but it's accurate:
31% fervently anti-science & anti-students https://t.co/8BiH1Y5jKz
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 8, 2021
If you (a) see the top public health experts attesting that in-person instruction is safe right now, (b) are aware of the known deleterious effects "remote learning" is having on students' academic progress and health, and (c) still want schools to remain closed, you are anti-science and anti-student. Own it.
UPDATE - The media's going to help with this embarrassing propaganda, aren't they?
1.6 million shots were administered on his Inauguration Day. He inherited a process already on track to blow his “goal” out of the water. https://t.co/vllOBqrx9P
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 10, 2021
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