#onlywhenitssafe vs. #openschoolsnow

Teachers unions and school districts are in a tug of war, and parents are caught in the middle. Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images Diana Muhammad, who teaches PE and dance in Chicago Public Schools, was "unsure," "uncertain" and "reluctant" about her district's plan for in-person classes starting Monday, January 25th. At a Chicago Teachers Union press conference in early January, she said the plan felt "rushed." And then things got really scary. "Over the winter break, my life was devastated when my daughter, who was sick with various symptoms all over the place for an entire week, woke up one morning and could not see." Her daughter ended up in intensive care for a week, she said. It turned out to be a case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. That's an extremely rare, and very dangerous, complication of COVID-19 found in children, particularly in Black and Latino children. Noting this disparate impact, and the fact that Chicago Public School students are about 90% nonwhite, Muhammad said, "Now I am seriously concerned about us rushing back without having a well-thought-out plan." The idea that opening Chicago's school buildings in February 2021, 11 months after they shut down, constitutes "rushing back" would be news in most of the country. As of the third week of January, 58% of students nationwide were in districts with at least some in-person learning. That's according to the organization Burbio, which scrapes a selection of school websites for the data. Burbio estimates that about a third of the country's students have not had a single day in school since last March. This includes much of the West Coast, the Mid-Atlantic and some big cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Atlanta. In some of those districts, trying to open up for the first time right now is like spitting into a freezing wind (without a mask). [Read More Here]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- On to the news… Data from K-12 schools that reopened for in-person instruction in the fall show little evidence that schools contributed meaningfully to the spread of COVID-19, according to a [new article]( published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association. The overview from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, authored by three of its scientists, represents the clearest view yet of the facts behind what has become a heated debate over when and how schools should reopen. [Read more here.]( — [Cory Turner]( NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor Is President Biden’s pledge to reopen most K-12 schools in his first 100 days too optimistic? "No, I think it's strong leadership," Miguel Cardona, Biden’s pick to lead the U.S. Education Department, told Connecticut Public Radio. With many U.S. schools still shuttered or operating on a limited basis, and millions of children learning remotely (or trying to), the stakes are high for Cardona. [Read more here.]( — [Cory Turner]( NPR Ed Correspondent & Senior Editor — Eda Uzunlar, NPR Ed Intern House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took aim Thursday at Republican leadership for placing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on the House Education Committee despite her questioning of school shootings. Greene's views garnered fresh attention this week when CNN [reported on a video]( showing her in 2019 accosting a survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Greene has said that shooting, which left 17 dead, as well as the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 26 dead, including 20 children, were both staged events. [Read more here.]( — [Claudia Grisales]( NPR Congressional Reporter Colleges across the country are having trouble balancing their books, and the sector has recently seen a rash of mergers and acquisitions. While that may be good for the institutions involved, it's often bad news for students. [Listen here.]( — [Stacey Vanek Smith]( The Indicator Co-Host & Planet Money Correspondent — Paddy Hirsch, Supervising Editor, The Indicator from Planet Money And before you go, something to give you hope... LA Johnson/NPR Learn to teach your kids about civics with a new comic by NPR illustrator [LA Johnson](. Based on interviews from this Life Kit [episode]( the comic offers ways to show your kiddo that civics is a vital part of learning, and it exists all around us. [Read the full comic here.]( See you next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. 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