I think the issue is somewhat more complex than the article describes. The
working people about whom the author is so concerned, are the people who may
not have computers in their homes on which children can receive the online
substitute for real education which is currently available for most children.
And many of these children were receiving additional services at school like
hot meals , after school programs, medical referrals, social work services,
etc. And their parents may not have the luxury of protecting themselves by
sheltering in place.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2020 11:31 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Reopening schools: A dangerous threat to children
and teachers
Reopening schools: A dangerous threat to children and teachers
https://socialistaction.org/2020/05/20/reopening-schools-a-dangerous-threat-to-children-and-teachers/
By Steve R. Johnson
March 16, 2020
Plans to reopen schools are being questioned by the international working class
as the novel coronavirus COVID-19 continues to spread across the world. These
plans are part of the mad rush of capitalist nations to re-open their
economies, disregarding the health of the children and the working class of
their respective societies.
The novel coronavirus has been shown to be transmissible by children, according
two recent scientific research studies. The first study was recently published
in the journal Science. It analyzed children in Wuhan and Shanghai, China. The
researchers concluded that children were about
35 percent as susceptible to COVID-19 infection as adults, but with the large
number of contacts students have daily with other children while they are in
school, they had 300 percent more chance to become infected.
The study concluded that closing schools could reduce the chance of spread of
coronavirus by 40–60 percent. The second study, led by German virologist
Christian Drosten, tested adults and children. Their research indicated that
children who tested positive are just as infectious as adults.
That schools in the United States, Israel, Finland, France and other Western
nations are opening or are scheduling the re-opening of schools, even when
their respective nations have been unable and unwilling to significantly reduce
the number of Covid-19 deaths in their countries, demonstrates the lack of
scientific planning these nations possess in tackling the pandemic.
Additionally, it shows the intrinsic values of these capitalist nations with
regard to the care and safety of children within their societies. Such a lack
of concern for the future of humanity cries out for universal condemnation.
Montana’s Governor Steve Bullock declared on May 7 that Montana was ‘safe’ for
school reopening. Schools in Three Forks, Troy, Glasgow, and Libby have
re-opened. But the districts did not hold “school” as it is commonly known.
News reports indicate that some schools held “study halls” with teachers
present for tutoring only, while others opened for students without computers
and internet access. Although it is reported that hand washing and hand
sanitizing stations were available at one school, it is unknown what personal
protection measures had been taken to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and to
monitor their effectiveness.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has support this drive. AFT president
Randi Weingarten announced the union’s “Plan to Safely Reopen America’s Schools
and Communities” wherein the AFT linked the re-opening of the economy to the
re-opening of schools. The AFT’s proposal repeated the false notion that “To
gradually reopen, we need to maintain physical distancing until the number of
new cases declines for at least 14 consecutive days.” But in the U.S. the
number of daily new cases of infection over the past two weeks, while slightly
declining, has remained in the range of 23,000 to 26,000! And this “decline” is
based on 90 percent of the population having not yet been tested.
The AFT’s criteria, essentially matched by the Trump administration’s and major
U.S. corporations, for “gradually re-opening” public schools and businesses
more generally, would undoubtedly place teachers, other school workers, and
students in unimaginable danger.
The Trump administration’s focus on re-opening schools and businesses without
having Covid-19 death and infection rates under qualitatively greater control,
and the decision of some US governors to support Trump’s proposals, are tragic
examples of the dire need for working people to organize and fight to challenge
capitalism’s inherent subordination of human life to capitalist profits. The
working class, including teachers and the communities they serve, will
undoubtedly be in the forefront of the struggles for the socialist future.
Opening the economy and opening schools when the coronavirus is far from under
control, is tantamount to sentencing students, teachers and school staff to
years of illness and death due to capitalist greed and its disregard for human
life and suffering.
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Steven Pinker
“It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer.
But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming
naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's
highest callings.
[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]”
― Steven Pinker