February 17, 2021
Top 12 line items include social distancing, avoiding layoffs, supporting learning via tutors & summer school. With the Senate passing a budget resolution early Friday morning along party lines, Congress will now move forward with crafting the Democrats’ relief bill. A key aspect of the American Rescue Plan is providing additional support for the nation’s…
February 17, 2021
President Biden on Tuesday sought to clarify what his administration means by promising to open schools in the first 100 days of his presidency, insisting that “the goal will be five days a week.” Last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Biden’s definition for open schools was in-classroom instruction by a teacher…
February 16, 2021
The pandemic’s disruption of in-person school is causing headaches for students, parents and teachers. But it’ll also trigger long-term economic consequences to the tune of trillions of dollars. The U.S. economy could take a $14 trillion to $28 trillion blow in the long run due to coronavirus-induced learning loss, according to economists’ projections. And the…
February 15, 2021
In November, I reported for NPR on a scientific paper that estimated millions of years of life could be lost due to prolonged school closures in the U.S. — far more, in fact, than might be lost by keeping schools open. The paper has since been corrected and critiqued. The central question it tried to…
February 15, 2021
Clean-energy giant NextEra Energy Inc. announced a plan to electrify thousands of school buses, capitalizing on President Joe Biden’s goal of accelerating the green transition. The announcement comes as Biden moves aggressively to combat climate change in his first days in office, including signing an executive order to replace the entire fleet of federal government…
A group of governors and state education officials are pressing schools to lengthen their days, boost summertime instruction and upgrade tutoring in the coming months to help offset the pandemic’s toll on learning. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam suggested year-round schooling for his state earlier this month. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey dedicated part of his Jan….
Commentary by Jennifer Peck, Partnership for Children & Youth We are excited to see that Newsom’s recent budget announcement included $4.6 billion for expanded learning time, including afterschool and summer learning. We are also encouraged to hear that rethinking the traditional school calendar is being discussed. But with such a huge infusion of cash slated…
Insisting that his district does have a plan to reopen some of its schools, San Francisco Unified Superintendent Vincent Matthews says that the lawsuit filed by the city against the district to force it bring students back to school will only serve to divert energy that should be going to make that happen. A far…
The FFCRA’s grant of additional employee leaves for COVID-related reasons expired on December 31, 2020, and was not extended by Congress. Thus, employees are not entitled to expanded FMLA or EPSL leave even if an employee did not exhaust it before that date. That said, an employer can grant employees the ability to continue using…
February 15, 2021
From School Services of California (SSC) Rest assured that when we published our 2021–22 Governor’s Budget Dartboard with our out-year cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) estimates that are lower than those of the Department of Finance (DOF), we were cognizant of the impact it would have on our K–12 and community college clients, which are in the throes…