Unsanitized: The COVID-19 Report for Aug. 5, 2020

AFT's Randi Weingarten on Making Schools Safe
Plus, Congressional Maneuvering

 

Classes begin in Godley, Texas, a rural district in Johnson County, on
Wednesday. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

First Response

In many parts of the country, the school year has already begun, either
for teachers setting up classrooms, or in a few cases, for students.
They are returning to a patchwork of different procedures
,
ranging from in-person schooling (in close to 20 states) to online-only
learning to hybrid models. Parents report frayed nerves

having to deal with managing work and children at home, and desperately
want schools to reopen. Student learning is also sacrificed, especially
with the digital divide, without in-person instruction. It's a
terrible situation.

Fortunately it's being planned for in the most chaotic, unprofessional
way. While relative safety in childcare

shows that in theory you could execute schooling safely, the experience
of some summer camps

and schools in Israel

show that dangers exist, not just for kids in school but the entire
surrounding community. But the planning has been haphazard, and runs up
against an immutable fact: just about everything associated with school
safety costs money.

If the classroom is half the size you have to hire more teachers. HVAC
systems have to be overhauled to prevent recirculated air. Everyone
needs PPE, from masks to plexiglass shields. You need mass testing
capacity and hand-washing stations. Some schools have no on-site nurses,
so you have to add those. You might need to double school bus routes to
maintain distancing on transportation. Remote learning has ongoing costs
attached, especially if students need to be outfitted with technology.
None of that money has been authorized yet at the federal level, and
state budgets are completely strapped.

How much are we talking? The American Federation of Teachers did the
math on this

a couple weeks ago. "We figured out you needed $116 billion" for the
extra safety measures, said AFT President Randi Weingarten in an
interview. That's on top of $93 billion to deal with reduced state
support for schools.

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The Democratic plans approach that level. Nancy Pelosi added $100
billion for schools in the Heroes Act, but it included a "maintenance
of effort" clause, which would have required states taking the school
money to backfill K-12 shortfalls with part of the $1 trillion reserved
for state fiscal aid. Patty Murray's Senate plan included $175 billion
for K-12 schools, plus another $100 billion for childcare.

AFT also looked at what amounted to a full reopening. "Let's say you
were trying to do safely what Trump wants," Weingarten said.
"You'd have to add 47 percent more teachers and 47 percent more
space." It comes to $500 to $600 billion. What Republicans have
offered is less than $100 billion, with some headed to private schools.
"They're doing it so close to the start of school that there's no
time to get the money," Weingarten added.

A bigger looming problem is whether insurance companies will cover
school districts if there's a COVID-19 outbreak. If someone dies from
contracting the virus in school, a wrongful death suit would threaten
ongoing operations without insurance protection. This was what
eventually sunk the "arming teachers" concept after the school
shootings in Florida. And it's why schools are among the entities
seeking liability protection in the next legislation.

If they get it, administrators may have far less incentive to institute
full safety standards. And even now, teachers have had to fight.
Weingarten's AFT, along with the NEA and teachers in Florida, sued the
state

last month over premature reopening in the midst of its outbreak. Since
then, 80 percent of schools supposed to open August 10 have pushed back
the start date. The teachers are filing an amended complaint this week
to seek an injunction. "You're starting to see more level-headedness
as opposed to pretend toughness," Weingarten said.

Some places are trying to do it right. In particular Weingarten praised
Montana, where schools reopened in June, although they had little
community spread at the time. She said Newark, New Jersey, where mayor
Ras Baraka is a former high school principal, has been realistic, with a
hybrid model and no more than 25 percent of students in the classroom at
any one time.

Elsewhere, there are likely to be clashes. Teachers and students in 35
cities marched on Monday

for safe schools. Weingarten held out the possibility of what she termed
"safety strikes," particularly if there's an outbreak and a school
district doesn't do anything about it. She cited Chicago as one
district where there's a "real gulf" between teachers and the
school district on safety standards. Many state constitutions require
safe schools, giving teachers an avenue to strike.

Weingarten told me that at the end of June, 76 percent of her members
said they would be comfortable returning to classrooms if measures were
taken to protect them. But that was before President Trump made
"Reopen the Schools!" a rallying cry, forcing an on-the-fly scramble
nationwide before the funding was secured and plans were made.

"The thing that makes our membership so angry about this, how dare
they who have never said a word about poor kids now speak about poor
kids," Weingarten said. "Now they all of a sudden care about
schools."

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Odds and Sods

Here's some Monopolized news: Kelly Candaele interviewed me for
Capital and Main about the book. Read here
.

Here's a nice review at Inside Higher Ed
.

I was on Jacobin Radio talking about the next coronavirus legislation.
Listen here
.

At the Prospect, Bailey Berg has the interesting story of Alaska and
Hawaii, which have enacted almost exactly the same systems for
quarantining visitors. Hawaii has engaged in aggressive enforcement,
while Alaska is working the honor system. The results are...
predictable. Read it here
.
You can read all of our coronavirus coverage at prospect.org/coronavirus
. And reach out via email with tips,
comments, and perspectives.

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Oh God

There's a great deal of optimism based on essentially nothing.
Congressional negotiators and the White House set a deadline of Friday
to
reach agreement on a package, but there hasn't been progress on any
one aspect of what that agreement would be. It's an "agree to try
"
as the Post puts it. It seems like the unemployment extension and
eviction protection are either the main part of the deal or the only
part. But Democrats have been consistent that a narrow deal is
insufficient. Without state and local fiscal aid, we would be back to
the incoherent framework of the CARES Act, which led to resurgent
outbreaks
.

The one positive, I guess, is Mitch McConnell essentially giving up
and
saying he'll stay out of the negotiations and support whatever
emerges. His caucus robbed him of any leverage, preventing him from
passing a partisan bill. So Democrats will provide the majority of votes
in both houses of Congress, and just need the White House to sign off.
That may signal the end of the corporate immunity piece, a McConnell
priority.

Earlier yesterday the Trump administration was floating the idea of
executive orders

to extend enhanced unemployment, stop collecting the payroll tax, and
restore the eviction moratorium. Of those, the first one seems
impossible (the idea is to use $81 billion in unused money previously
authorized, but not for that), the second highly unlikely to be legal,
and the third, somewhat plausible
.
(That Republicans are embracing tenant protections

is something.) But given the pain on the horizon, with mass evictions
and suffering, you
have to wonder whether questions about the power of the purse would take
a back seat to executive action. Who would challenge this? Turns out the
presidency has a lot of tools; Joe Biden should remember that for his
Day One Agenda .

Days Without a Bailout Oversight Chair

131
.

We Can't Do This Without You

Today I Learned

* We have nothing close to real-time data
;
we have vague impressions. (Vox)

* See here, with California systematically undercounting cases

due to a technical issue. (Sacramento Bee)

* Not an ideal time to tighten lending standards
.
(New York Times)

* Virgin Atlantic files for bankruptcy

and Booking.com (one of two major online travel booking sites) plans to
lay off a quarter

of its workforce. (Wall Street Journal)

* SEC now looking into that Kodak insider trading situation
.
(Forbes)

* Florida's unemployment system was designed to make people so
frustrated they wouldn't file
,
says the governor. (CBS Miami)

* We get a jobs report Friday, but this survey

shows a new wave of layoffs and furloughs. (Cornell University)

* Life inside the NBA bubble
.
(New York Times)

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