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A Teachers Union Shaped CDC School Guidance. Is That a Problem?
The influence of the union has prompted debate over its role in scientific decision making. BY HANNAH THOMASY June 10, 2021 WHEN THE U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued much-anticipated guidelines for school reopening in February, some critics argued that the nation’s premier health agency had set unreasonably strict standards for schools to follow. But the two largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, long hesitant about reopening schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic, rallied in support of the document. “For the first time since the start of this pandemic, we have a rigorous road map, based on science, that our members can…
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Held Back: Inside a Lost School Year
Thompson converted her daughters’ bedroom into a teaching space. Credit:Cydni Elledge, special to ProPublica Elledge, special to ProPublica Teacher Ashlee Thompson had a lot to worry about this year: A deadly virus. A poor district under threat by the state. And now, a new mandate for her students: Learn to read or flunk the third grade. Editor’s note: ProPublica obtained parents’ consent to feature their children in this story. Ashlee Thompson turned on her camera. At the other end of the screen one morning last September was a third grader she’d never taught. To assess his reading, Thompson showed the boy a string of letters. S B C He made a…
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What cicadas taught me about loss, mortality
By Jordan Hernandez May 25, 2021 Billions of Brood X cicadas are above ground for the first time in 17 years. After a year of loss, distance, and personal grief, it feels especially symbolic. The first time I saw a cicada, I wanted to eat it. I was 10, and well into my second summer in North Carolina after moving there from the Midwest. I had spent the day ripping holes in my denim shorts and playing in sprinklers with the neighborhood kids, and was walking home, barefoot and tired. It looked like a piece of candy. Before I could take a bite, it crumbled between my fingertips with a…
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The Federal Government Gave Billions to America’s Schools for COVID-19 Relief. Where Did the Money Go?
The Education Department’s limited tracking of $190 billion in pandemic support funds sent to schools has left officials in the dark about how effective the aid has been in helping students. After the pandemic shut down schools across the country, the federal government provided about $190 billion in aid to help them reopen and respond to the effects of the pandemic. In the year and a half since millions of children were sent home, the Education Department has done only limited tracking of how the money has been spent. That has left officials in Washington largely in the dark about how effective the aid has been in helping students, especially those whose…
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How Seinfeld (Hilariously) Exposed the Creepy Authoritarianism of Aggressive Do-Gooders
Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) October 3, 2021 The writers of Seinfeld saw how the human instinct to do good can breed a fanaticism that is anything but funny. If you asked me what my favorite Seinfeld episode is, I’d have a hard time answering. There are just too many winners. Many would say the best ever is “The Contest,” the Emmy Award-winning episode where Jerry and company compete to see who is “master of their domain.” And who can forget “The Soup Nazi” or “The Merv Griffin Show” or Kenny Rogers chicken (“The Chicken Roaster”)? Personally, I’ve always been a fan of “The Race,” the one where Elaine is dating a…
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Why Are There Toilet Paper Shortages around the World?
Saturday, March 21, 2020 There are a few explanations for the run on toilet paper, but one basic economic lesson explains the shortage. Americans have seen scarcity, bailouts, price fluctuations, and epidemics before, but one thing seems to set the coronavirus emergency apart: The toilet paper. Shelves where the product once was stored are bare—and not just in the US. The United Kingdom has experienced similar shortages, leading consumers to purchase toilet paper substitutes (at the risk of the sewage system), and an Australian newspaper went so far as to print eight blank pages in a recent issue to be used in case of emergency for, you guessed it, toilet…
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A Boy Went to a COVID-Swamped ER. He Waited for Hours. Then His Appendix Burst.
To have so many ICU beds pressed into service for a single diagnosis is “unheard of,” said Dr. Hasan Kakli, an emergency room physician at Bellville Medical Center in Bellville, Texas, about an hour from Houston. “It’s approaching apocalyptic.”
