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Our pandemic-stricken society cheered the brave first-responders and medical crews who confronted COVID-19 risks every day, thanked grocery workers and tipped delivery people extra (you did, didn’t you?). But one group of essential workers went almost unnoticed: The child-care providers who made it possible for those essential workers to keep things running.
This generally low-paid industry took hits in every way. Demand and revenue plummeted while safety-related expenses raised costs. Caregivers who stayed open sometimes couldn’t find enough employees because of fears of infection, and other times, those who worked were indeed infected. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 women who became unemployed during the pandemic were put in that position not because of lack of jobs but because they couldn’t find child care.
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In an emotional phone call to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), a mother pleaded with county officials to reopen schools and playgrounds – but her appeal was seemingly ignored.
In a video posted to social media by UTLA Uncensored this week, LA board members ate and checked their phones as an upset parent begged for the classrooms to be reopened.
The crux of her plea was for the school board to abandon the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) union, and focus on the needs of southern California children.
Oakland Education Association attempts to defuse anger over reckless return to schools
Oakland teachers returned from spring break this week to find no significant preparations for a return to in-person instruction in place. With students expected to return to classrooms on Monday, there is growing anger among teachers over the unsafe and rushed plans pursued by the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and Oakland Education Association (OEA). Basic issues like work schedules and precisely which students are returning were left up in the air and have been determined haphazardly on a site-by-site basis this week.
With signs of a new surge of COVID-19 developing in California, the OEA executive board has cynically put a vote of “no confidence” in OUSD before its membership. This is a diversionary tactic, which was also employed by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in February as they pushed through their miserable deal to reopen the third-largest district in the US. Instead of or
Chicago Public Schools, teachers union prepare to reopen high schools
As COVID-19 cases rise in the Midwest, with the most alarming spike in Michigan, the seven-day average COVID-19 positivity rate in the city of Chicago has once again climbed to 5.4 percent. Genetic testing indicates the latest surge is being driven by the B.1.1.7 variant, which is estimated to be 50 percent more transmissible than the wild-type of the virus. As a result of the surge in cases, hospital admissions in the state of Illinois began to tick up last week.
On Thursday, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Alison Arwady said, “We cannot be letting down our guard yet. At an individual level, it is high risk right now to be out and about and gathering in Chicago. Why are these cases on the rise? Honestly, they’re on the rise because people are feeling like we’re done with COVID and they are just staying home a lot less.”
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