My wife is on a school board meeting with her district right now. Her board is making the same call as mine, which is to go 100% online through the first quarter.
Everyone knows how difficult this is for parents, and we also know that online instruction is not equal in quality to what we can provide in person. We also know it's not that simple.
One of the board members cut right to it:
We have to choose between instruction and safety.
I had to delete and redraft. A run-on sentence followed by an incomplete sentence due to typo is especially grievous coming from a teacher who is about to be doing remote instruction for an extended period of time. Mea culpa.
^ That was an even worse one. Mea maxima culpa.
@voltronic Three ruler-smacks to the right-hand knuckles.
@GeorgeG
I went to Catholic elementary school. You're giving me flashbacks.
@voltronic @GeorgeG Good Morning! I went too...I always got that paddle with all the holes in it which I swear the Nuns got a kick out of using because they'd have these sinister grins & looks of satisfaction on their faces as they watched me try to sit down after a paddling😂
As the recession lingered, and I was reduced from a $60k/year job to part time $14k, my childcare expenses exceeded take home pay.
I live in a blue state (obviously),& was fortunate to access a state childcare grant. It was not free. We were damn poor. But I was able to pay a portion of the childcare bill, and the grant paid the balance, allowing me to maintain employment and keep a roof over our heads at the time.
An excellent investment in maintaining a strong workforce, imho.
@BlueStateBabe
I'm so sorry you've had such hardships, but I'm glad to hear you were able to make it.
Well, my point wasn't me (now I'm embarrassed, but thank you)...it was that nationwide economic disaster can happen, and how a state chooses to support its workers can make or break the long term financial independence of its citizenry.
Subsidizing pandemic childcare keeps workers in the workplace, resulting in short term economic stability as well as providing a better possibility for future financial recovery and growth. Both on the personal as well as national levels.
@voltronic ETA: I am not for forcing workers back into the workplace. I wish we could all be protected in a safe, virus free environment.
My response is assuming that returning to work is mandatory for many people - a hard choice in uncertain times, as well as one that is self-defeating if take home pay is consumed by unforeseen childcare costs.
The right will take this opportunity to sing the old “Women should stay home” song.
I can’t help but notice our ever increasing commonalities with the Republic of Gilead.
You must have & keep that baby.
You should be staying home.
I know.
For every small family struggling with a low paying job yet willing to keep working with a bit of help, how many more will be forced onto welfare rolls and shamed for living off the system?
It isn't as if these people budgeted poorly. They work around their children's school schedule, knowing that their kids are in good hands while they work.
And I'll insert here that wealthy professionals generally work while their kids are at school, too.
You’re right.
Help for the working poor is scarce, and very fragile.
Michael Bloomberg singlehandedly destroyed all welfare to work programs for mothers, in NYC. Utterly wiped them out.
Ugh.
I never considered myself a welfare mom - had been a professional all of my working life...but working part time, temporary, for low wages during a recession certainly puts one below the poverty level. And no backup - aged parents and savings gone to autism therapy and the housing of an older, mentally ill child. But, I never saw it as anything other than situational and unforeseeable - kinda like this pandemic, which is why I advocate for subsidized care now.
@voltronic Our Mayor or our Governor, not sure which, has already provided subsidies for essential working parents & daycares here for at least these past two months; my daughters work for an airline & have received free daycare through the resources available here.
Folks in similar situations need to check if they have this aid already available in their community; my daughters didn't know about this until I pointed it out to them. I think I found it through the state or county's HHS dept?
^ Regarding the burden this places on parents:
A parent who spoke at my district board meeting last week shared that she is a single parent, an essential worker, and has difficulty paying for child care even in normal circumstances. She asked the board to make a formal request to the state to subsidize full-time daycare while school buildings are closed.
I don't know what this looks like where you live, but I think it's worth applying this pressure to your state legislatures.