Covid 19 & Schools Rant Edition 1/23/2022

The episode examines the relationship between schools with the state and local governments during the pandemic. It also makes the case as to why the overall pandemic response has been the greatest public policy failure in American History. 

Transcript

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Welcome back to education matters New York. This is your host Wayne Ackles. Before I get into today's show, a couple of announcements. First, there may not be a full episode next week, I have some work commitments that may keep the full recording out of the mix. I hope to have at least the first installment of reclaiming your life ready to go for next week. And a reminder that the reclaiming your life segments are shorter episodes, probably no longer than five minutes, that will be small life hacks that help you take back some of your life and set guardrails and boundaries for your work life balance. We all can use those. And I know that that was an issue, even pre pandemic. And I know for many of you, since the pandemic is started, that space between work and home has become a little bit blurrier. So hopefully that will give some ideas to help again set those guardrails and boundaries for you. So on to today's episode, I've tried to restrain myself about codes impact on schools, since starting this podcast, because I really did want to focus on the good work the schools do. But I felt that it was time to do that and talk a little bit about COVID impact. And this episode actually almost happened a couple of weeks ago, in response to the Chicago Teachers vote to move to remote learning and the accompanying conversation and consternation that came about as a result of that. But I decided to hold off because there was a lot going on in that particular piece in terms of not that I felt like I had to give it the right justice that it needed. I would also have to explain the role of teachers unions and the difference between, say the schools here in New York and other states. And so I held off on that. And in stead. What prompted this? Well, whether it's a rant or not, you'll have to decide was last week, the week of the 12th. There was a move in the change in guidance on extracurriculars, and quarantining and isolation that was sent to school. And I finally decided that this would be a good time to talk about the impact of the pandemic on schools, and talk about that, from my own experiences. And especially the relationship between the local governments and schools during this time. As I do that, I'm going to try to be as a political as possible, and will condemn actually members of both political parties, especially when I speak about the connection of schools, to some of the political entities that we had to work with or still working with, with the pandemic. So let's kick this off. This pandemic has been the worst public policy failure in American history, bigger than 911, bigger than Pearl Harbor, and bigger than the Great Depression. Why do I say this? For starters, over 800,000, American citizens are dead. Warning signs from around the world were ignored. One of those that struck me one of those warning signs was occurring in late January, early February of last year when China was building hospitals, for COVID patients, and that's strictly what those hospitals were built for. Now, for a moment forget that China's an authoritarian nation, and the potential that an authoritarian nation would make this kind of hospital building public. I think it's important to just take the news at its face value that a major player on the world stage, saw what was happening and reacted in this manner. And we weren't alone in the fact that we waited and watched. And to be clear, I don't want this to be a history lesson on the outbreak, and I won't be getting into a detailed history. You can fact check me later but It's important to talk about some of these events, because they do give context. And the context matters. So bear with me. Also, I want to make it clear that I get no joy in saying that this is the greatest public policy failure in modern American history. I'll return to that point at the end, and make that case a little bit further, I promise. But I want to, again, focus on the connection of the pandemic in schools. And in order for the information to make sense, I want to break down the pandemic into three phases. Phase one, which is the early lockdown, which will say from March 2020, to June 2020. Phase two will take us from the summer of 2020, to the end of the school year 2021. And phase three, which is this current school year. Also, for background and some context, I want to lay out the relationship that schools have with different levels of government, especially under normal, more normal circumstances. This will be incredibly broad strokes, and again, helps fill in how that relationship would normally look. So let's start with the federal government. Federally schools have limited direct interaction with public schools, they establish some of the legal and eligibility guidelines for access, such as special ed programming 504. And Title Nine accesses, which is Title Nine refers to access for sports and funding, based on gender. Most of the direction and funding that schools get comes from the state and the local level. And what I mean by local level, the district level. State laws and regulations guide broadly what schools can and cannot do, while leaving a certain amount of latitude for districts to make some policy decisions about the day to day operations. This is why many new Board of Education members are frustrated that they don't have more power to affect change on a school district, because a great deal of what is policy and law has been predetermined by what has been passed down from the state level. Finally, the county typically has no policy, say, over a district. And usually the connection between the county and a district there's a small financial piece, depending on the size of the county. But again, largely that financial connection is much bigger from the state and the local tax base. So this is an incredibly broad sense of federalism, if you will, in terms of how the school systems and local governments interact with each other. And to really understand that you have to take a look at it in specific issues, because depending on the issue, a, whether it may be discipline, or special education requirements, etc, you get a little bit more nuanced and a little bit better flavor of how the different areas of government interact with schools. Now, for public health, on the other hand, the federal, state and county players all have a great deal of policy power. And that's very important. And really schools. By and large, we don't we're not in the health policy business. And I'm going to come back to that point throughout this. Which I think you could probably gather as part of where this is coming from. So one of the metrics that I would point to, in terms of why this was such a great public policy failure is one that is difficult to quantify, in a measurable stat, like the number of fatalities. But many of us have experienced this. And this was the lack of a coordinated response, both in action or policy or recommendations. This started almost immediately and I'm going to focus, what does it look like with schools with a few examples here? In the early days of phase one, it was pretty clear, we were all in lockdown. That was a term that was referred to during this time. And schools pivoted to fully remote. And we all lived in the land of Zoom, zoom meetings, Zoom classes, Zoom experiences, for social events, etc. And I wanted to take a moment, just to make a quick shout out to my West Jenny peeps, I was never prouder of a group of people collectively that I worked with from top to bottom as I was with how the staff and my administrative colleagues at WestJet, he made that switch, essentially overnight, to an entirely different way of conducting public school. Had to share that, because again, when I look back, that work was done incredibly quickly and incredibly thoughtfully. And there were a lot of people that played a big role in that. And I wanted to share that here from the beginning. So we've made this pivot in the early days of the pandemic. But as time went on, the first cracks of unified policy began to emerge. And this began around May, with graduations, because as it was clear that this pandemic was not something that was going to end, in two weeks and three weeks in a month, it became clear that there had to be some guidelines as to what was going to be allowed for graduations. And what started to happen is that time got closer to graduations, politicians started to pit school communities against school leadership, the state began to release graduation guidelines. And as those guidelines were released, parents around the state began to push back. And as a result of that pushback, the response I can remember very well. And this came from both the the governor and the county executive at the time. And I'm going to paraphrase a little bit. There. The paraphrases aren't too far off, from what was said, either in public or in collective meetings around these and I believe both of these statements actually were public comments. One of them was that one of the statements made was that schools are full of smart people, and they can figure it out. And the second one that I remember from that time period, is talk to your local superintendent and principal. And both of these were in regards to graduation and related events. So let me say yes, we do have a great deal of smart people in schools, but we don't make public health policy. And the second, take it up with your local superintendent or principal. Are you kidding me? Again, schools don't make public health policy. We were bound by law, and the threat of losing our licenses and livelihoods. If we went against the limits imposed by the state, there was no appealing to change the parameters, there was no wiggle room. And those making those statements knew that. And let me say that second statement, especially, it was cravenly political, expedient and cowardly, full stop. But schools and communities found ways to pull off pretty fantastic graduations, under not the greatest circumstances. And again, I want to give a shout out. We did a nine hour graduation ceremony. That was pretty amazing. And my principal that was in charge of seniors and the senior advisor did some incredible things to help make that happen. And there were a lot of other people as well, but they really led that charge and did some pretty fantastic stuff. So let's get into phase two. Phase two began in mid summer, as we all waited to see the state regs for the reopening of school as well A great number of schools, we approached it with a combination of in person and remote days as well as limiting cohort interactions, etc. Those guidelines that we followed and and how we set up our school, our school day to meet, you know, there was some initial pushback, but generally parents were fairly understanding. And the fissures began to show early again, this time, much more subtly. And state and federal guidelines were being released as how school should open. The American Pediatric Association established some guidelines that were slightly different. And, again, it was some nuance, but people saw that nuance, and they were like, Well, wait a minute, is our schools opening as safely as they could. And it caused people to have questions. Now, once school was open, the real work began, and that was keeping school open, especially once the colder weather and holiday set in. And I think it's important at this stage to talk about the fact that, and I can only speak to the experience that we had at West Jenny, we did not have transmission within the school building that we found. During the school year, the masking and the social distancing, you know, the layered approach was working. But as the colder weather said in in the holidays, and people gathered as they would, there was more transmission, everyone remembers that surge from a year ago. But as that happened, one of the things that began to show was the approach. And it wasn't just during that winter surge, but throughout that stage of the school year, really the entire school year, the approach was different. county by county, whether it was how schools interacted with their communities for things like contact tracing, or the rules that say extracurricular sports were conducted. And these differences I saw, in my case, myself and other administrators, and I'm going to go on Dugu County, were acting as contact tracers for Onondaga County. And what had originally been pitched to schools were her was that we would provide the list of students, and the health department would be the ones that would do the contact tracing, well, that changed. And that became kind of a major place that we spent our time was doing contact tracing, I remember making a lot of calls, evenings, just again, Hey, your son or daughter has been exposed, they need to quarantine, we're telling you this on behalf of the Health Department. And as a result, you know, you should be waiting for a call and official call from the health department were kind of giving you a heads up. So it was kind of pseudo contact tracing, but you know, still pretty time consuming, etc. When I spoke to my colleagues in Monroe County, for instance, and who were in similar size schools, etc, and said, hey, you know, how are you guys keeping up with the contact tracing and all that and they would kind of look at me funny, and they said, Well, we're not doing that. It was more of they gave the list etc. So they gave the list in the Health Department took it from there. Which kind of surprised me and this is not me crabbing about that role. I think in some ways, it made a lot of sense, because we could get the information out quickly. And usually, we we were the first wave, if you will, that could, again, get the information out there. And then the county, you know, would follow up and kind of backfill. So I'm not crabbing too much about that. But again, it was very different. And the bigger point is, is that that unified approach, how was it there was so different from county to county. The second thing was in extracurriculars, and this is the thing that really, really boggled my mind. And I remembered that as the winter season approached, one of the things that struck me was how the sport of wrestling was approached. Now, I wrestled in high school, and you don't get any more closely in probably any sport than you do when you're Russell. You share the same area With a fellow human being for a period of time, and there's just no way to avoid that. Now, section three and Onondaga County, there was a delay in terms of how and when rustling happened. Monroe County, Section five, on the other hand, rustling largely happened with mass etc, very different approaches. And that's a little bit troublesome. But again, that shows the point I'm trying to get at it how very distinct these approaches were and how separate they were, again, not a unified approach. What I want to say to in terms of the county and other approaches, etc, is, I don't want to say I don't want to talk down on a Duggar County, for instance, because that was where I was working, we had a really good partnership when it came to getting information from them. We had fantastic access to testing once it was available to us. The bigger point of all of this is just how different the responses were one county to the next. And when you have a large urban center, like Rochester, like Syracuse, and their counties are approaching things in such vastly different ways, that raises a lot of questions in terms of a unified approach. So let me bring you up to this year with phase three. And I have to say at the outset that In fairness, I am not in a school building anymore. A lot of this comes to me anecdotally and what I've seen in the news, but also knowing how schools have worked and having friends and colleagues that are on the inside of schools, you know, I feel I can still speak to it with some authority. So here we are, the 2122 school year, and schools are largely open minus the closures due to staffing shortages, whether it's substitute teachers or bus drivers. Largely kids are in classrooms at their normal capacity with masks. And, again, what I saw first was the Chicago decision to go to Ramal. Net raised a question and I'll come back to that in a minute. But what finally kind of forced me to do this do this ramp was the guidance that was released on January 14, which was an FAQ about extracurriculars and isolation and quarantining. So what made the news was this line right here. In the document, extra curricular act after school activities, individuals 12 years and older who are eligible for a booster but not boosted and who have been exposed to an individual with COVID-19 cannot participate in extracurricular after school activities. And aside from school attendance for instruction and travel to and from school must adhere to a five day quarantine at home. fully vaccinated, five to 11 year old children are not eligible for booster and are not restricted from extracurricular or after school activities. So when that first hit the news, and I call it kind of the, the pieces of it, and I processed it right away, I saw this was going to lead to conflict and put especially school administrators, whether they were school principals, or athletic directors in the crosshairs because there are oftentimes people of different ages that are participating in things. And I could I could just hear the phone call when you mean my child who was exposed but so and so same child exposed, but couldn't be boosted can continue to participate. Really would cause consternation and and concern. But the part that as I read this, and I think also got other people's attention was at the very beginning of the document our school is required to do contact tracing when students or staff test positive for develop symptoms of or are exposed to COVID-19. No schools may work with their local health departments to ensure that members of the school community including staff, and teachers who test positive for develop symptoms of or are exposed to COVID-19 have access to To the information they need to take appropriate steps to protect themselves and others. This may include isolating, quarantining, notifying close contacts, staying home well, etc. goes on in the next paragraph to stay to say when known close contact with someone who tested positive for his symptoms of COVID-19 occurs on the school campus. For example, in a classroom, school should at least notify parents and guardians of affected students exposed to and should refer to the information provided by the state or local health department. Now, again, schools probably by and large, have been doing that. And it sounded very similar to what we were doing last year, frankly. And it was interesting to see some of the reactions. And the local Rochester news here who DC, Jen looky had a couple of comments. One was from the Ontario County Health Department Head who said, that's between the school and the parents that relationship is there, not with the local health departments. This is incredibly frustrating to hear that because this should be a partnership. And it feels like well, you know, you're on your own, yet again. And I understand that the relationship is there. As I said earlier, it makes sense for schools, maybe to take the lead on that. But again, there has been this sense throughout this pandemic that a lot of this work is, you know, it's sort of like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, pointing in two different directions, pointing at other people other than who you think might be doing that work. Now, Jamie Farr, who is the superintendent in Canada was also quoted in that article, he basically said, you know, they are no longer able to contact trace, they can't keep up. And the same can be said with schools. were barely keeping up. And this. And we receive notices like this notification, that not only do we have to keep doing what we're doing, but we're adding another layer to it. And that's more work for all of us. And I can hear his frustration, because that has been the case throughout the pandemic. Others have looked to schools, again, we are not a public policy, or excuse me, a public health policy institution in schools, we take our lead from others that are supposed to be in charge of that. And again, as I said, earlier, in this piece, the Chicago schools decision to go to remote learning after the holidays in response to the Omicron spike, that was in direct contact contrast, excuse me with something from the Philadelphia pediatric hospital, which said that there was a need for students to be in school. And this is what has continually happened in the media and with politicians is you have one organization being pitted against another. And this lack of a unified approach has been lost throughout this. So that brings me back to what I had promised, from the beginning. Why this overall pandemic response was the greatest public policy failure in modern American history is what I said I would come back to, and as I mentioned, at the beginning, the number of lives loss, you can't minimize that last count I heard was somewhere in the neighborhood of 850,000. That's terrible. But what I fear is worse than that terrible loss of life and the economic impact that we've experienced. And those are both very measurable effects. Whether it's the number of folks that have passed away, or the impact on unemployment, etc. What is less measurable is a result of this disorganized this unified and politicized. Action, and the politicized politicization of any sound policy attempts to control the pandemic. This is further eroded public trust and systems that we need and we still need to trust going forward. And frankly, this is also eroded trust in each other as Americans with different political points of view. Was there room for honest policy disagreement during this? Well, of course there is there always is. But what didn't happen? In some of these events during the past going on almost three years now, there hasn't been a pulling together in a very public manner, government, the medical community and state governors for a unified message. At least even if the resources weren't available, a unified message would have been incredibly helpful. And again, I point back to the fall of 2020. When there was some, they were nuanced, but they were different guidance that was coming from the American Pediatric Association and the CDC guidelines. At the beginning, I mentioned some pretty cataclysmic events that have been noted as public policy failures, mainly 911, and Pearl Harbor. The difference with those is that we largely pulled together and made progress against a common enemy. In this case, that lasted about three months. When I used to teach both public policy for Syracuse University, and the typical participation in government class, sometimes called pig, I would share a quote that has been attributed to both Alexis de Tocqueville and Joseph Demetris they're both roughly contemporaries of each other and quoted in the Pali psi world. Democracies get the governments they deserve, or democracies get the leaders they deserve are the two quotes and they're attributed to both of them. I know this democracy deserves better. And I look forward to and I'm hopeful for those better days. And with that, I will wrap up today's episode of education matters New York. Thank you for your time. Continue to stay warm during this winter weather and be well and we will see you soon with future episodes. Take care now.