Michigan’s largest teachers union is demanding more transparency from districts about COVID-19 cases, amid confusion and frustration about state health laws that err on the side of privacy even amid a pandemic.

Last week, Michigan acknowledged at least 14 COVID-19 outbreaks at state schools and universities, but state and local state health officials and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have resisted calls to release details.

Instead, public health departments have told Bridge they are working with school districts to notify those who have been in direct contact with confirmed cases. That’s because there’s no statewide requirement for broader notifications of cases at schools with outbreaks, giving districts discretion on whether to inform pupils or parents.

Source: Teachers: Michigan must improve transparency on coronavirus outbreaks at schools | Bridge Michigan

The taxes on the Seaquest, just one of the DeVos family’s 10 yachts, would bring more than $2 million a year to Michigan.

MICHIGAN — Health professionals in schools are more needed than ever during the pandemic. But Michigan school nurses each serve an average of well over 6,000 students.

Schools have been critically underfunded for decades, explained East China School District teacher Kimberly Eberhard. And that underfunding has had consequences in preparing for the pandemic.

“Education has been neglected for decades and now everyone will discover how bad it has been,” said Eberhard.

And school nurses are one of those underfunded areas. That has something to do with the priorities of America’s chief education official.

Source: If Betsy DeVos Paid Taxes on Her Yacht, 250,000 Michigan Students Could Get a School Nurse

A new study of the federal CARES act funding found that private and charter schools received SIX TIMES the amount of funding as public schools from the federal coronavirus program. This may actually, as the report states, be an underestimate.

Source: Private and Charter Schools Received Six Times as Much COVID Funding As Public Schools | Diane Ravitch’s blog

Despite colleges dropping their testing requirements because of the coronavirus, students continue to sign up for the exams, believing that a score is the key to admission.

Source: Even the Coronavirus Can’t Kill the SAT and the ACT – The Atlantic

Teaching is one of the few things in life that is not concerned with now.

It is essentially about the future.

We put all this time and energy into helping kids learn. Why?

Not so that they’ll be able to do anything today. But so that they’ll be able to do things tomorrow.

Sure they may be able to read better or solve math problems, but the reason we want them to know that isn’t so much about what they’ll do with it as adolescents. It’s how those skills will shape the people they grow up to be.

It’s an investment in their future and ours.

We take a bit of today and invest it in tomorrow.

And during a global pandemic that can be especially hard.

Source: The Everyday Exhaustion of Teaching During a Global Pandemic | gadflyonthewallblog

Pewamo-Westphalia Community Schools Superintendent Jeff Wright said he can still hear the sounds of students bustling back into the farm community’s middle/high school Aug. 24.

From his office in a district that straddles Ionia and Clinton counties, Wright could hear laughing as students reconnected with friends and teachers they hadn’t seen in more than five months, since Michigan’s school buildings were shuttered in March to try to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Source: How a few coronavirus cases ended classes at a rural Michigan school | Bridge Michigan