Well, we have an answer to the question posed below—what should the Chicago Public Schools do? The decision has been taken out of the CPS CEO’s and the mayor’s hands. Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker has directed all schools in Illinois to remain closed until March 30. CBS Chicago reports:
CHICAGO (CBS) — As concerns over the spread of the coronavirus continue to mount, Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday he is ordering all public and private schools in Illinois to close for nearly two weeks, starting Tuesday.
“This is the right thing to do to protect our students, and their teachers, and school workers, and parents,†he said at a press conference Friday afternoon at the Thompson Center.
Pritzker said schools would be open on Monday so teachers could distribute remote learning lesson plans to students. The governor said, for now, schools are expected to reopen on March 30.
“We will close all K-12 schools, public and private, statewide,†Pritzker said. “I understand the gravity of this action and what it means for every community in our state.â€
The governor also stressed no school district would see its state funding cut as a result of his order to close. He also said the Illinois State Board of Education was working with schools and food banks to deliver two meals a day to the families of students who qualify for free school lunch.
Pritzker’s announcement came just hours after Mayor Lori Lightfoot had said she was not yet ready to close the Chicago Public Schools, and the governor was not pressuring her to do so.
I find his directive to “deliver two meals a day to the the families of students who qualify for free school lunch” interesting. The National School Lunch Program is a federal program. I seriously doubt that home delivery is presently included in its provisions and I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t take some scrambling by the Congress to make sure that those lunches qualify. My point is not that I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. I do. But there are differences among what’s right, what’s legal, and what’s practical. Especially for a state with the worst credit rating in the nation and that already can’t pay its bills.
They just closed schools here in slice of heaven too. State Declaration of Emergency etc.
Re: meals for poor kids, they could just reactivate the list of summer feeding sites.
I’d like to throw out a hypothetical.
How many people think the Corona19 virus will kill 35,000 people (10 year average) or 60,000, the high. If you don’t, how do you justify the self immolation of the US economy and sudden demand for absolute certainty and total risk mitigation when you were silent for every year of your life up to now with respect to other flues.
If you think it will result in 60,000, or more, are you prepared to acknowledge that the country, and you, chose to be ill prepared for an event such as this…….for at least 50-60 years. And are you prepared to design for worst case scenarios? From what programs are you prepared to drain resources?
How about other diseases? How about vehicular accidents? Crime? Oh, how about illegal immigrants and the deaths they have caused. How about lenient judges who let recidivist criminals out?
Why does zero tolerance only exist for corona?
The 35k or 60k figure is in a country where millions get a flu vaccine.
From the studies I’ve seen the average mortality rate for Covid-19 is at least 4 times that for flu. Combine that with no vaccine, inadequate testing and the ease of infection then we could easily be looking at hundreds of thousands of deaths on the low end.
So IMO the temporary “self immolation†of the economy is the only weapon we have to stop the spread and reduce the number who will ultimately die. What will be the economic hit of doing nothing and just letting it run it’s course? I don’t know but I’d rather print money and keep the economy afloat for a few months while we huddle in our homes rather than risk millions on the dice roll that this is just a bad flu.
Anyway, I’m back from the hospital (long story), but on the topic of schools, here locally the district will offer grab-and-go “brunch bags” to any student that wants them at a few schools in our district. Even though school is “canceled” I don’t think it’s actually canceled as far as federal and other funding goes, as there will still be some online education. So meals will continue to be provided, albeit in a less convenient and once-a-day alternative pick-up manner.
But this could be an artifact of how Colorado funds education since there is much more state-level control than many other parts of the country.
Aggressive measures that contain the outbreak now actually benefit the economy.
We already know what an out of control outbreak looks like, China and Italy. The shutdowns in response were far more disruptive economically.
“Why does zero tolerance only exist for corona?”
Because it’s novel. Are we prepared for a response to global thermonuclear war? Could just conceivably happen. When the idea was novel, Sears was selling fiberglass fallout shelters at the State Fair to bury in your backyard and people were buying them.
Threat is real, but no longer novel.
So let me get this straight. If “only” 50,000 people die in spite of the extreme measures we are on the way to taking you are thinking we over reacted. We should repeat this sometime and see what happens with no efforts at testing and mitigation? OK. lets start with Florida.
Steve