This week there’s a new chapter in the long saga of Betsy DeVos’s fight against loan forgiveness for students bilked by fraudulent for-profit colleges. To get us up to date, let’s take a quick look at the whole sad tale.
Source: Betsy DeVos Really Really Really Really Really Hates Loan Forgiveness.
The risk of contagion is highest in indoor spaces but can be reduced by applying all available measures to combat infection via aerosols. Here is an overview of the likelihood of infection in three everyday scenarios, based on the safety measures used and the length of exposure
We turn our clocks back at 2 am Sunday. Here’s why.
Source: Daylight saving time 2020 ends Sunday: 8 things to know about “spring forward, fall back” – Vox
Kindergartners and their parents and teachers struggle with the pandemic. When the focus is on problems with children learning online, whether a child will succeed, it might help to revisit what’s developmentally appropriate for a kindergartner.
Many reports are raising concern about learning loss in kindergarten. “What Kindergarten Struggles Could Mean for a Child’s Later Years” is an example. It tells of the concern parents and teachers have with young children mastering online instruction and learning.
Reporters, parents, and teachers need to avoid ginning up anxiety about children learning in kindergarten. Kindergarten used to be about play and socializing. Pushing children to retain information too early, drilled online, could make a child feel they’re slow, or like there’s something wrong, and they might not like learning.
During this strange time, children miss out on socializing and playing together, but fretting about learning loss is overdone, and these articles often lean towards pushing young children back into the classroom when it might not be safe.
It could help to reconsider kindergarten expectations.
Source: Kindergarten Pandemic Learning Fears Should Not Be Tied to Screen Time and Rigid Drilling
During a visit last month to a private school in Michigan, amid a global pandemic that has disrupted every aspect of American life, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called remote learning “a tragedy.”
As a veteran educator who has spent years exploring the vast possibilities of blended learning and educational technology, I wholeheartedly disagree. But even if her assessment were true, shouldn’t it be her responsibility to help address the problem?
Fortunately, my state and national unions — the Michigan Education Association and National Education Association – have stepped forward to fill the void.
Source: Opinion | Dear Betsy DeVos and Michigan lawmakers: Here’s what educators need | Bridge Michigan
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continues to duck responsibility for keeping students and school employees safe from coronavirus, telling an audience gathered Tuesday for a right-wing conference that it’s not her job to track school districts’ COVID-19 cases or reopening plans.
DeVos, known by experts as “the worst” education secretary in U.S. history, told attendees of the Milken Institute event that she’s “not sure there’s a role for the Department of Education to compile and conduct that research.”
DeVos’ comments come as Michigan and other states are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases. There are new or ongoing breakouts in 84 schools across the state, according to Bridge Magazine, with 435 students and staff testing positive.
Despite the new outbreaks, President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders, including state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, have called for schools to reopen immediately — regardless of the risk posed to children and school employees from the virus, which has killed about 7,500 Michiganders.
“Donald Trump’s disregard for science has already cost 200,000 American lives during this pandemic,” NEA President Becky Pringle wrote in a recent letter. “Secretaries Alex Azar and Betsy DeVos are accomplices in this malicious incompetence.”
“It is appalling that they have risked the lives of students and educators in running roughshod over the CDC’s apolitical process for providing vital health guidance to the American people,” Pringle said. “How many students and educators will we lose to COVID-19 before this administration prioritizes science over partisan politics?”
To learn more about how DeVos and her allies are putting Michigan children and families at risk, visit www.mea.org/firedevos.
Source: DeVos: It’s not my job to protect schools from COVID – Michigan Education Association