Randi Weingarten Wants To Erase Her School Closure Campaign, But We Have The Receipts
The American Federation of Teachers president's pandemic track record is nothing but an advertisement for anti-classroom learning.
Baltimore students who failed this year will still pass; Maryland lieutenant governor warns: 'It's going to be even worse'
Baltimore students who failed this year during the coronavirus pandemic will not be held back. Instead, they will receive a passing grade and graduate to the next level, the city's school board recently announced.
Baltimore students who failed classes during the 2020-2021 school year will still pass on to the next grade will not be penalized. The announcement was made during Tuesday's virtual school board meeting.
"As we approach the end of the 2020-2021 school year, we all recognize that students have experienced incredibly significant challenges and interruptions in their learning," said Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises. "With that in mind, the district has developed a fair and straightforward process for evaluating and recording students' progress in the current school year."
"In all of these instances we want to emphasize the word 'yet," Santelises said. "Not completed yet. No credit yet."
"Community and school members have been evaluating grading methods that reflect the 'unique circumstances' that 'Black people have faced,'" Fox News reported.
Baltimore City Schools Chief Academic Officer Joan Dabrowski said during the meeting that the district is committed to its students and recognizes "the challenges they have faced this academic school year."
"We are going to avoid the punitive approach to failing students and the default reaction to unfairly retain students," she said. "Instead, we are going to … commit to our students as we plan for a multi-year academic recovery."
Pre-K, kindergarten, and first-grade students will have no changes to the grading system. For grades two through five, any student who received an "unsatisfactory" grade would have it changed to a "not complete" grade. Students who failed middle and high school levels would receive a "No Credit," which means that the students didn't actually pass their school course, but would still advance to the next grade level. Failing students would be given an opportunity to complete their "NC" classes to earn credits over the summer.
Maryland's Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford sounded the alarm about the possible negative implications of passing children to the next grade who failed this year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's so much learning loss that occurred this last year as well as just people falling through the cracks, I think that we are just pushing a problem down the road that we are all going to deal with and in another couple of years," Rutherford told WBFF-TV. "I think it's creating a major challenge going forward."
Rutherford pointed out the flaws in the Baltimore school system's decision to pass all students regardless of merit.
"I understand that they're not going to get a failure on their transcript, but they won't get credit. It's almost the same thing," Rutherford noted. "I don't see how you can move to the next grade if you're not getting credit."
"We've already had a challenging situation with many of our school districts, particularly Baltimore City, and it's going to be even worse" Rutherford warned.
A 2019 report found that Baltimore City Schools were the third-most funded school system in the United States with $16,184 being paid per student. Despite the money pouring into Baltimore's education system, the report ranked Baltimore as the third-lowest performing large school system in America.
May 25, 2021School Board Meeting (Live) www.youtube.com
LA teachers union voted 'overwhelmingly to resist premature return,' slams reopening plan as 'propagating structural racism'
Classrooms in the second-largest school district in the nation will continue to be dark for the immediate future after the powerful United Teachers of Los Angeles voted "overwhelmingly" not to return to in-person learning until they deem work conditions to be safe.
The UTLA announced on Friday that its "members have voted overwhelmingly to resist a premature and unsafe physical return to school sites." Of the UTLA members, 91% voted not to return to classrooms until certain "safety criteria" are met.
The teachers refuse to return to classroom learning until Los Angeles County is out of the purple tier. According to California's "Blueprint for a Safer Economy" restrictions, purple tier regions are areas that have "widespread" COVID-19 infections. In order to get out of the purple tier, a county needs to have fewer than seven coronavirus cases per 100,000 and less than 8% of positive COVID-19 tests. Most of the state of California is in the purple tier, and has been for months.
The Los Angeles teachers union also states that they won't reopen schools until "staff are either fully vaccinated or provided access to full vaccination." California entered Phase 1B of its COVID-19 vaccination effort this month, which allows coronavirus shots for individuals who are age 65 and older, those who work in agriculture, food, emergency services, childcare, and education.
Before they return to classrooms, the United Teachers of Los Angeles also demanded that "safety conditions are in place at our schools including PPE, physical distancing, improved ventilation, and daily cleaning."
"This vote signals that in these most trying times, our members will not accept a rushed return that would endanger the safety of educators, students, and families," said UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz said.
On Thursday, both chambers of California's Legislature nearly unanimously passed a school reopening. The bill does not require schools to reopen, but holds back approximately $2 billion in grant money until districts return for at least part-time in-person learning by March 31. The school will lose 1% of the grant money for every day after April 1 that there is not in-person education, according to the Daily Wire.
The United Teachers of Los Angeles responded to the reopening plan by labeling it as "a recipe for propagating structural racism."
"If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier and healthier school communities that do not have the transmission rates that low-income black and brown communities do," Myart-Cruz said. "This is a recipe for propagating structural racism and it is deeply unfair to the students we serve."
"We are being unfairly targeted by people who are not experiencing this disease in the same ways as students and families are in our communities," the UTLA president added. "If this was a rich person's disease, we would've seen a very different response. We would not have the high rate of infections and deaths. Now educators are asked instead to sacrifice ourselves, the safety of our students, and the safety of our schools."
The Los Angeles Unified School District has over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines on how schools should reopen in February, which clearly stated that school reopening should not be conditional on having teachers and faculty vaccinated.
In July, Dr. Robert Redfield, then-director of the CDC, cautioned about the psychological damage that lockdowns and remote schooling could inflict on children.
"But there has been another cost that we've seen, particularly in high schools," he said. "We're seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We're seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."
The former CDC director also said in July that he would "100%" have his grandchildren go back to school.
Last month, the nation's fifth-largest school district proclaimed that it wanted to reopen as "quickly as possible" after a rash of student suicides. Clark County School District in Nevada experienced double the number of student suicides in nine months this year compared to all of last year.
Following a worrying number of child suicides and suicide attempts, the city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against its own school district to reopen.
'Propagating structural racism': LA teachers union head blasts state's school reopening plan — and 'white, wealthy parents' for rushing return
The president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles blasted California's school reopening plan Monday, characterizing an element of it as "a recipe for propagating structural racism" — and also called out "white, wealthy parents" for "driving the push" to reopen schools too soon.
What are the details?
UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz uttered her words just hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Democratic lawmakers presented their reopening plan — a year after the state shut down schools over the COVID-19 pandemic, Politico said.
More from the outlet:
The much anticipated school reopening plan finalized over the weekend does not require schools to open but instead offers $2 billion in financial incentives for those that open before April 1. The proposal offers grants to schools that open transitional kindergarten through second grade by the end of March, as well as at-risk students in all grades. That includes districts in counties that are still in the state's purple tier, with infection rates higher than what teachers unions have said are too unsafe for reopening.
Myrat-Cruz pushed back hard on the money aspect, saying lower-income communities will suffer because they already have higher infection rates.
"If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools that do not have the transmission rates that low-income black and brown communities do," she said. "This is a recipe for propagating structural racism, and it is deeply unfair to the students we serve."
Los Angeles Unified is the second largest district in America with about 600,000 students, Politico said, adding that it's by far the largest in the state with roughly 10 percent of California's public schoolchildren.
"We are being unfairly targeted by people who are not experiencing this disease in the same ways as students and families are in our communities. If this was a rich person's disease, we would've seen a very different response. We would not have the high rate of infections and deaths," Myart-Cruz said. "Now educators are asked instead to sacrifice ourselves, the safety of our students, and the safety of our schools."
She said the union wants staff fully vaccinated from COVID-19 or be provided full access to vaccinations before schools reopen.
Myart-Cruz also said "some voices are being allowed to speak louder than others. We have to call out the privilege behind the largely white, wealthy parents driving the push for a rushed return."
Special UTLA News Statement 3/01/2021 youtu.be
More from Politico:
Newsom's push to get shots into the arms of teachers, along with steadily decreasing case rates across the state, has more and more districts moving up their timelines to reopen. California began Monday to designate 10 percent of the state's vaccine doses for teachers and other on-site school staff, speeding up distribution across counties. [...]
While the plan offers extra funding to schools willing to reopen to the state's youngest students regardless of local virus case rates, it does not apply pressure on older grades until counties hit the less restrictive red tier. Under the plan, once counties move into the red tier — with daily case rates below 7 per 100,000 residents — schools eligible for the grant funding must open to all elementary grades, plus at least one grade in middle and high school.
The deal speeds up the clock and more strictly ties the grants to in-person instruction than what the Legislature proposed previously. If schools do not open by the end of March, they will start to lose a percentage of money for each day they remain closed starting April 1.
The outlet said Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner didn't respond Monday to a request for comment on the state's plan, adding that he's criticized earlier versions of the state's reopening plan and has "mostly aligned himself with the union's positions in recent months."
School board VP: 'Forcing' teachers back to class before they're vaccinated is 'a very white supremacist ideology,' akin to 'slavery'
A California school board vice president argued that "forcing" teachers back into classrooms before they receive COVID-19 vaccinations "seems like a very white supremacist ideology" and is akin to "slavery."
Chardá Bell-Fontenot, vice president of the La Mesa-Spring Valley Board of Education, sparred with numerous board members during Tuesday's virtual meeting and even appeared to accuse district Superintendent David Feliciano of "racism" after he found some of her comments "offensive."
What are the details?
The primary issue was setting a date for teachers to return to in-person instruction. While it appeared most of the individuals at the meeting — Bell-Fontenot's video thumbnail was not onscreen, but her voice could be heard — were in favor of setting a return date, Bell-Fontenot was opposed to making a decision at the meeting.
While one of the proposals involved giving time for teachers to get vaccinated, at least one board member insisted that waiting wasn't necessary. Bell-Fontenot took issue with the idea of "forcing" teachers to return to classrooms without being vaccinated, which she said "seems like a very white supremacist ideology" and akin to "racism."
Similar to the Oakley school situation, she's seems unaware that the meeting is being recorded. "If our meeting wer… https://t.co/4oaDq5jceN— Jorge Ventura Media (@Jorge Ventura Media)1614236946.0
Several outlets said Bell-Fontenot did not respond to their requests for comment.
"We don't have to give anybody any date!" Bell-Fontenot hollered at one point. "We don't have to do anything that we don't want to do right now. That's what you don't understand. I don't know where you're getting your information, or who's telling you that we have to make a decision today, but that is not how this works."
When a board member argued that a survey indicated 70% to 80% support for returning to school, Bell-Fontenot replied, "Who are the 70 to 80 percent, and where are they? I would like to know geographically from which school sites, which language groups, and how they conducted this feedback. Where? Please give it to me before I can make a decision. I can't make one. I cannot make one. And I will not make one."
When one individual said Bell-Fontenot could abstain from voting, Bell-Fontenot shot back, "There's no reason to be nasty with me." And again, when it was put to her that she's "welcome" to vote no, Bell-Fontenot replied, "I know what I'm what I'm welcome to do, you guys. I do. And I know that what we're doing is wrong."
Throwing down with the superintendent
Amid the debate, Bell-Fontenot said, "None of you guys even know what you're talking about right now. This seems like a mess. We should not be voting on this tonight. You guys don't have all the information that you need. ... You're speaking from your heart, and that's fine." She added that a decision on a teacher return date should be pushed to the next meeting.
Then Superintendent Feliciano stepped in.
"I take great offense to the statement that no one on here knows what they're talking about right now," he told Bell-Fontenot. "I don't believe that to be the case at all."
"I wasn't talking about you, David," she replied. "I was talking about my fellow board members, especially the new ones."
"I'm not speaking about me, either," Feliciano answered. "I'm talking about your fellow board members."
"They can speak for themselves if they have an issue with me; they can tell me," Bell-Fontenot told the superintendent. "But you don't need to speak for them, David."
"I can speak for them if I choose to," he replied.
It should be noted that while snippets of Bell-Fontenot's arguments at the board meeting appear on the latter videos, a complete audio recording of the meeting can be found here. The relevant portion starts at the one-hour, fifteen-minute mark.
Feliciano also called Bell-Fontenot's words "offensive."
"Don't say you can speak for others, that's not appropriate," Bell-Fontenot told him. "And it's disrespectful. Like this is the second time you've disrespected me, David."
When board President Rebecca McRae tried to move on and get Bell-Fontenot and Feliciano to discuss things in private, Bell-Fontenot hollered, "No, it doesn't need to be private! ... Racism doesn't need to be private, Becky!"
Bell-Fontenot also didn't seem to know the board meetings are recorded for the public, and when she was told they actually are and how to access them, she complained they aren't "easily accessible."
She also asked those at the meeting to "please stop trying to make me seem like I don't know what I'm talking about, and like I'm dumb." Bell-Fontenot added that she was "offended by the smirks on you guys' faces."
'Racism' challenged
Another individual at the meeting said she didn't understand why Bell-Fontenot was "so upset."
Bell-Fontenot replied, "You may not know me, but I'm not upset at all."
The individual, a woman, went further and said, "I'm Hispanic, and I have four adopted children. We look like the U.N. So, that's why when ... you're throwing out the racism, I don't understand that."
Measure passes
In the end, the board voted 4-1 in approval of Feliciano's push to reopen the district's classrooms, KNSD-TV reported, adding that a "hybrid" plan will begin April 19.
Entire California school board resigns after officials caught on hot mic trashing parents who wanted to reopen schools
An entire school board in northern California resigned after a video of the officials bashing parents went viral. In a virtual meeting, the school officials ridiculed parents who wanted in-person public education to resume. The video grabbed nationwide headlines.
Shortly after the video surfaced online, a petition sprung up that called for the resignation of the school board members, and quickly amassed thousands of signatures. The president and three other members of the Oakley Union Elementary School District resigned on Friday after they were caught on a hot mic leak lambasting parents who want schools reopened.
President Lisa Brizendine, as well as Kim Beede, Erica Ippolito, and Richie Masadas, all resigned after becoming infamous on the internet for trouncing parents, including insinuating that they're drug users.
The district's superintendent, Greg Hetrick, announced the board's resignation on Friday and disavowed the "truly inappropriate comments."
"The comments made were not in alignment with our vision and are definitely not what any of us stand for as leaders," Hetrick told Fox News. "I know that we lost trust with the community. I will not make excuses for what happened or why it happened."
Hetrick said that the departing school board would temporarily be replaced by members of the Contra Costa County education board, according to Mercury News. The school district is about 50 miles east of San Francisco.
Brizendine issued an apology after announcing her resignation as president of the school board.
"I am raising a 10-year-old with special needs and having him home during this pandemic, while also holding down two jobs to support my family has been a huge stress," Brizendine said. "I suffer with many of the same things that parents are going through from mental health issues to regression. My remark was callous and uncalled for and for that I am truly sorry."
However, during the viral video, Brizendine didn't seem to show empathy toward parents who are struggling to balance their new stressful pandemic lives where they have taken a greater role in the education of their children.
"It's really unfortunate that they want to pick on us because they want their babysitters back," Brizendine said of parents in the video, which she thought was a private conversation with her peers, but was being broadcast to the public and recorded. She also insulted teachers by calling them "babysitters."
School board member Richie Masadas seemed to suggest that parents are upset that classrooms are closed because children being home interrupts the adults smoking marijuana. Masadas said his brother is a cannabis delivery person, "and the clientele were parents with their kids in school." He allegedly noted that the parents were angry because could no longer "smoke up" now that their kids are home.
Oakley Union trustee Kim Beede reportedly went on a profanity-laced tirade during the eight-minute video.
"Are we alone? "B****, if you're gonna call me out, I'm going to f*** you up. Sorry, that's just me."
Beede, Masadas, and Ippolito issued an apology.
"We deeply regret the earlier comments that were made in the meeting of the Board of Education earlier this week," the joint statement by now ex-board members reads. "As trustees, we realize it is our responsibility to model the conduct that we expect of our students and staff, and it is our obligation to build confidence in district leadership; our comments failed you in both regards, and for this we offer our sincerest apology."
Ashley Stalf, whose 6-year-old daughter attends a school in the district, reacted to the school board openly disparaging parents.
"We meet regularly with the board as parents and we're constantly sending in letters and emails and telling them our griefs and our strife's over distance learning," Stalf told host Steve Doocy on "Fox & Friends." "It seems as of late that they mocked us, that we're just complaining and we have nothing better to do."
Stalf asked, "What are their true intentions, if they feel so freely that they can talk, you know, on a mic that may or may not be hot, what's truly being said behind closed doors?"
Parents are frustrated since public schools in California have been closed for in-person education for months.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, declared earlier this month that schools shouldn't reopen until the massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic stimulus plan is passed.
Oakley Union Elementary School Board Meeting www.youtube.com
LA Times editorial board tells city's superintendent of schools 'to put on his big-boy pants' and reopen schools
To say that parents nationwide are tired of the mixed messages they're getting from school district leadership, the state governments, and the teachers' unions would be an understatement.
But parents are easy to ignore. American school districts have been doing it for decades.
From New York to Chicago to Portland, elected leaders are instead cowering to teachers' unions and refusing to get teachers back in classrooms even as state and federal health officials repeatedly declare that it's safe to return to in-person instruction.
In Los Angeles, teachers have been fighting going back to work for months now — and the cries of parents and students seemingly have been ignored by the bigwigs of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
However, one group in L.A. that is harder to ignore just jumped into the fray on the side of parents: the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.
In a Wednesday editorial, the paper declared that the city's school district "is officially out of excuses for keeping elementary schools closed" and that the superintendent "needs to put on his big-boy pants" and tell educators to get back into the classroom.
The paper noted that despite the fact that schools across the country have reopened with little risk and that elementary students are "far less likely" to get COVID or infect others and that there have been zero surges caused by reopened schools, L.A. Unified schools (and many others throughout California) have remained shuttered.
According to the paper, Superintendent Austin Beutner can finally open schools now because the county's infection rate has fallen to the point where it is "officially safe" for every elementary school in the county to open.
Yet, Beutner — who has been in an ongoing struggle with United Teachers Los Angeles — still does not have any immediate plans to reopen, the Times said.
"There are no more excuses. Further delay is unacceptable," the paper declared.
Beutner has been acquiescing to UTLA's demands — getting school buildings ready for teachers and students, updating testing availability, and implementing an elaborate tracing regimen, not to mention pushing to get teachers vaccinated before returning (which public experts have repeatedly said is not necessary) — yet the union continues to stand in the way.
The Times has a message for Beutner: Get tough with the unions and demand that teachers get back to work — or understand they could find themselves out of work.
From the Times:
It's not easy to go against UTLA, as Beutner learned during a bruising strike two years ago. But at this point, the superintendent needs to put on his big-boy pants, reopen schools and demand that teachers return or risk their jobs. Union leaders in turn need to realize that not only are students done a tremendous disservice by the continued closures, but most parents vehemently want their kids back in the classroom. The union is jeopardizing its own popularity if it continues to put the needs of students and families last.
It's also time for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, the paper said, to "fall in line with the CDC" and get kids back into schools.
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