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NYC Mayor deBlasio Was Right on School Closures and Government Inertia
I spent two hours last night rewatching the last press conference hosted by the New York City Mayor’s office before they shut down schools, trying to find a quote from Mayor deBlasio where he told confused journalists present why he was so reticent to shut down NYC public schools, despite deafening calls to do so from the public. He explained a truth that few (myself included) at the time could comprehend: When the schools are shut, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get them opened again.
This is a crucial component of a NYC Mayor’s office press conference from 3/13/2020. He succinctly outlines why we never should have shut down schools. Now that we’re a year later, it’s also apparent how right he is about restarting the momentum to reopen them. pic.twitter.com/KIYaRpA6om
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) January 27, 2021
The above video is a supercut of deBlasio’s statements on schools from that press conference, and includes his sound defense of the vital importance of schools; if only we had Democratic politicians talking the same way now.
In one particularly insightful exchange with a reporter who likely was only speaking with those parents in her upper-middle-class social circle who were pressing for closure, he explained that for hundreds of thousands of parents (80% of the district’s kids are below the poverty line), schools provide a critical safety net for basic needs, like meals and childcare. Even at the height of the hysteria before the schools were closed, 600,000+ students showed up for school the last Friday they were open.
Listening to deBlasio explain why he endeavored to protect the schools “with everything we’ve got,” he explained it was because he thought it was likely that they would not reopen for that year, or even the calendar year. At the time, he sounded conspiratorial, but now, he sounds positively psychic. And now, a calendar year later, schools still aren’t reopened and officials are already laying the groundwork for keeping them closed going into yet another school year, come fall, despite the distribution of a vaccine:
Health Chair of the NYC City Council 👇 https://t.co/BhJg0pQs3j
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) January 26, 2021
Similar governmental inertia is visible in my own city, Washington D.C. If you recall, we deployed the National Guard to protect the nation’s capital for the inauguration after a violent riot on January 1/6. But the problem is, the Guard hasn’t left, and there’s no real timeline for their departure. Five days after the inauguration, a friend took this picture of a militarized zone near his office on the Hill:
They’re still here in DC, folks. The gates are up. The checkpoints outside the fences are down, which is nice. pic.twitter.com/Rfs5ikbvVf
— Matt Mehan (@MTMehan) January 25, 2021
And now we’re seeing COVID booming as their stay has been extended to March,
Scoop: The DC National Guard is having its deployment extended until March 31 in anticipation of “civil disturbance” throughout the nation’s capital, according to a memo we obtained. Comes as Guard units are seeing Covid positivity rates of 10-15%. https://t.co/SezAbQtJeS
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 26, 2021
But it could look a lot like “two weeks to stop the spread” where the timeline keeps getting pushed back further and further,
!! Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH): National Guard will remain at US Capitol to provide relief to "exhausted" US Capitol Police and to provide additional security "until we figure out" new Capitol security system
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) January 26, 2021
The theme of inertia is one that has carried us through 2020 and into 2021; we have learned the extent to which the government is incapable of stopping a moving train when it gets it started. And as a result, it seems we’re left with closed public schools and a militarized capital city. If only we had leaders who could state simply, “The immediate danger has passed and we are resuming normal life.” In the absence of that, I’m not sure if we ever will.
Published in General
Every study in every country in the world has found that (a) kids are very resistant to COVID-19; (b) when they do get it, symptoms are invariably mild to nonexistent; (c) kids are very, very poor transmitters–kid-to-adult transmission is vanishingly rare; (d) where schools have been open (even during peak periods of COVID-positive case reports in a particular country/jurisdiction) there are no instances of serious spread in any schools system in the world.
Closing the schools in April can be explained and justified by fear of the unknown. Closing schools last fall was an ideological and political stunt with zero scientific or moral justification.
If you poll parents about closing schools (like with lockdowns) there will be a nearly straight line correlation with income. Rich people are far more likely to say yes, poor and middle to say no. Fear and risk-aversion are now luxury attitudes and proof of class membership.
We are damaging kids and no one will be held accountable for this vile fiasco.
While this may fall into the ‘stopped clock’ category, the reason the schools can’t reopen is because Democrat politicians in Blue cities and Blue states are so beholden to the teacher’s unions, they don’t dare risk their future opposition by forcing the teachers back to work under penalty of huge fines for the unions or even possible jail time for union leaders.
Red states have Blue areas where the local teacher leadership and even district administrators would have been perfect happy to remain closed through all of 2020. Austin ISD wanted to do that in Texas, but was forced to reopen by Gov. Abbott, as smaller school districts in the state returned to classroom (with remote learning/teaching options) in August, and the urban area schools a month later.
As with the reopenings of restaurants, gyms, and other businesses, the status of the schools is a matter of political leadership, and the desire of politicians on the Democrat side either for power or out of fear they’ll be out of power if they cross their main financial backers. And they’re not wrong unless voters in their cities or states collectively decide to change their recent voting patterns and stop electing people either invested in extending shutdowns that have shown no increases COVID safety benefits over targeted reopenings, or who are too timid to challenge those who’ve been moving the goalposts over the past several months on when their taxpayer-supported jobs should return to normal work schedules.
We are destroying a generation. Just Google “youth suicide pandemic.” We’ve inundated our kids with fear. The planet is going to burn up, the police are going to kill you, half of your fellow countrymen are fascists… now we’re going to destroy whatever is left of your youth – no parties, no dances, no sports, no education. It’s cruel.
Straight into my veins. If the past 12 months don’t turn more folks in favor of smaller government, I’m not sure what will.
I’m shocked I tell you. But the military surely anticipated this as they already have a study showing Even a Military-Enforced Quarantine Can’t Stop the Virus, Study Reveals – AIER. And billeting soldiers in parking garages certainly doesn’t fall under typical quarantine measures.
And the NG has been in DC for 3 weeks, with little to no subversive activity. I’d say the DC Police have had the equivalent of a 3 week vacation. How long do they need to recover? As we know, this is all theater.
Edited to add Police after DC.
Inertia (maintaining the status quo) is the default for most organizations. Especially large organizations. Super especially government organizations. Once a government program is started (even on a small scale), keeping it becomes the default, which allows the program to be expanded. Social Security. Medicare. Food regulation. Taxes. How often have we seen a tax introduced on a limited basis (“temporary tax” or applicable only to certain categories) only to see it extended indefinitely (“you’re already paying the tax so you won’t be bothered by extending it in time or to other categories of goods or services”).
Even in my church, the default is now very limited in person activities, such that every proposal for a new in person activity has to be accompanied by (impossible to achieve) assurances that no one could possibly catch a virus at a church activity.
A risk for school closures though is that the public may start asking, “Why do we have government run schools? Why do we require school attendance? What is the public benefit?” And the public may conclude that alternatives might better serve the public. Work camps? Job training programs? Apprenticeships?
Oh come on, Bethany. “Everybody and his dog” knows that deBlasio isn’t SMART. So what is the real explanation?