Time for Shutdown 2.0

Recently, 150 public health experts called on the federal government to shut down all non-essential businesses across the nation. Listen to and follow these scientists' and doctors' advice. It is long past time for Shutdown 2.0.
Actually we never had a real national shutdown, just as we have never had a national mask mandate. We did have a brief slow-down-to-contain phase. This failed to contain the virus because we could not contain our desire to get back to normal life. But life is not normal and we cannot simply wish normality into being.
We must contain the virus and that means accepting a truth bomb. All but essential workers need to stay home for an extended period. We need to dial way back on our social and work activities. This is how other countries have managed the virus and it has worked fairly well. They have flare-ups but they are manageable.
This shutdown needs to be comprehensive and simultaneous. It does little good to shut down some states and not others; to have bars open in one state but open next door. Folks will just go next door. This needs to be federal and include restrictions on interstate travel.
Reopening schools is a hot topic right now. How can we do it safely? Right now, we can't. Just can't.
But take the short term pain right now of closing for a month and in-person school may become possible. Otherwise, we condemn ourselves and our fellow Americans to many months of climbing death tolls, exhausted healthcare workers, many thousands of people with long term post-Covid health problems, a devastated economy, and millions of destitute unemployed people. Is this really what we want? Why would anyone want this?
An extended shutdown, painful as it sounds, is the fastest, cheapest, least disruptive way to handle Covid and open the door to a post-Covid (or at least contained Covid) future.
The federal government and states' governors need to do what is right for the American people - and the economy. Follow the example of other industrialized countries who had the good sense to shut down early in their outbreaks, provide income for citizens to keep food on the table and bills paid, enforce the lockdown and then slowly, carefully emerge. Many of these nations are reaping the rewards of their national sacrifice by reopening schools, lifting gathering limits, relaunching sports.
All this requires qualities that are, to put it kindly, not seen in abundance in our federal government just now, qualities like empathy, compassion, logic, courage. The current plan of having no plan cannot be allowed to continue. We tried to skip the hard part and just go back to pre-Covid life.
It will likely take a lot of us joining our voices with those 150 experts to demand our government do the right thing, shutting down the country to shut down Covid.

No substitute for logic in school opening debate

I have been a substitute teacher in my school district for several years. Let me drop a truth bomb on you about how a Trump-wished full re-opening would work.

It won't.

It's that simple. Not much is certain or simple these days but that is. Remember the old physics adage about the irresistible force and the immovable object? Except *3 is not the irresistible force he thinks he is. He cannot wish Covid-19 away. None of us can. The virus must be tamed, which will take effective leadership, science, lots of money, public-spiritedness, smarts, and creativity. Add pain and determination. Only then can we all, including schools, get back to something like normal.

Here are just a few of the logistical issues related to staffing - Schools would have to massively increase faculty, janitorial staff, and bus drivers. Classes would need to be *much* smaller. I have subbed classes with 30 students in a room. That won't work. It won't be safe for students or faculty.

Who is going to teach these much smaller classes and where? We will get to the "where" a bit later. It is hard for some schools to attract and keep enough good teachers in the best of times. Now many teachers nearing retirement age or who have health problems will not want to return to the classroom. Who will take their place?

Subs like myself often fill in not just for teachers out a day or two for illness or a meeting, but longer term until the school can find a new certified permanent teacher for that spot. There are not enough of us to go around on a good day, due to low pay and utter lack of respect from students. Many of us are older and we do not want to expose ourselves to Covid any more than our permanent counterparts. I doubt we will be able to fill the staffing void even if we are brave enough to set foot on campus, which I, for one, am not.

Janitorial staff will be another personnel issue. I don't think I have ever served on a campus that had sufficient janitorial staffing to keep a school even moderately clean, with restroom supplies stocked. And that was before Covid turned us all into germaphobes. Many more cleaners will be needed to constantly decontaminate surfaces and keep restrooms and handwashing stations stocked.

Transporting kids to school, whether on staggered days or shifts throughout the day will require a lot of bus drivers. We can't have kids crammed together on busses for two hours and that is how long the ride takes for some. We will need many more drivers and more busses, as well as mechanics to keep those busses going as these overused machines often break down. We will also need crews just to decontaminate the buses between sets of riders.

Physical space is another issue. Where will these smaller classes be held? Schools in my district don't have empty rooms. I have seen classrooms jerry rigged in hallways because schools don't have the space they need. I have conducted classes out in the "portables" that many campuses have because they cannot afford to add on permanent space. I have seen dyslexia teachers have to take her materials around the school all day to teach her students in whatever classroom *is* vacant at that time due to its regular occupants being PE or at lunch. Getting students safely from one room to another between classes will be another major issue. Keep them all together in one classroom all day? They get antsy after 30 minutes. This would also limit/remove enrichment activities like art, which typically has its own room.

Where is the money for increased staffing and hazard mitigation going to come from? School budgets were beyond tight before Covid. Now districts will have far less money and many more expenses. How is that math going to work?

In short, school is going to have to be hybrid online/onsite if it is onsite at all. Our districts are going to need much more financial support, regardless of how education is delivered in the fall.