August 11, 2020

"Like all the rich people leaving locked-down locales, parents removing kids from locked-down public schools have scared public officials."

"If just 10 percent of public-school kids homeschool or join a private school for two years, that is a watershed moment for the social undercurrent of animosity towards public schools.... This is dangerous to Democrats’ political dominance because the education system tilts voters their way through cultural Marxism, and because public education is a huge source of Democrat campaign volunteers and funds. Now Democrats have detached people from their conveyor belt. The consequences will be huge."

From "Why Democrats Have Started To Cave On Reopening Schools/The pressure to reopen schools is on everywhere now that New York is doing it. This means something else big: Their hard opposition to school reopenings is politically devastating for Democrats" (The Federalist).

That article links to "East Coasters are Snapping Up Vacation Homes Amid Coronavirus/Sales in resort and rural areas are surging as homebuyers look for getaways from Covid" (at Mansion Global). That shows the incredibly nice houses in beautiful places that the rich people of New York City have bought and relocated to. If they live there, they can send their children to school there. What a fantastic advantage!

81 comments:

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Well if 10% is the threshold then get ready for a revolution. The operative current number is above 25%.

Mr Wibble said...

The Kung Flu has exposed how many institutions are run by incompetents.

Mattman26 said...

The kids who end up abandoning the public schools (and do not return) will be just the ones the public schools (and the kids who remain in them) need.

Lucid-Ideas said...

There are several sites I visit that are replete with various examples from twitter, Fbook, and other social media of public education teachers specifically saying that educating the young is part of the long march for social justice, advocacy, and lgbt rights.

Huge numbers of examples of this. They actually say this if you only have the motivation to look.

Lucid-Ideas said...

It isn't a conspiracy theory any longer. The entire education system, with its armies of admin-isterial busy-body do-nothings is chock full of leftists acolytes and zealots, mostly because 'those who can't do teach' (although for the administrative side they can't and don't even do that).

Restructuring or doing away with public education altogether would cut the strength right out from under them. I firmly believe this. At a minimum, I intend that my children will never set foot in any public education institution, and you better believe I fully intend to research the hell out of home-schooling.

Public education today is so far removed from anything the enlightenment thinkers of the 18th and 19th centuries who advocated for it could've thought of. If they were to see it today it would be anathema, and I guarantee you they'd agree with me.

Temujin said...

Yes- parents are learning two things: (1) what their kids are actually being taught, and it is nauseating, and (2) that the money they are paying to educate their kids is wasted in the public schools. The Wuhan virus has exposed the Democrat Party's dark underside- education. It is where the rot in our country begins. And where it will end when enough parents decide that school choice for their kids is as least as important as having a choice of grass-fed or pasture raised, grain-fed beef. Duh.

As for people leaving cities for other locales, it's not just the rich doing it, though they are always going to be the ones featured at 'Mansion Global'.

Birches said...

I'm homeschooling my kids this year. I know three other families that are as well...yep, that's about ten percent of my friend/school group locally. Most of my friends from college also pulled their kids.

Iman said...

Spreading that blue disease...

MartyH said...

My brother’s a HS teacher. Despite school starting in less than two weeks, they have no idea how many students are coming back. He expects significant layoffs because of home schoolers. He said that the school district has approved some really good resources for those who wish to home school.

Also, teachers’ reluctance to return to the classroom even for distance learning rubs me the wrong way. (My brother can’t wait to get back in his classroom.)

tim in vermont said...

The Democrat press such as their newsletter, the New York Times, have been all in on re-opening schools for many weeks now, maybe months. I always assumed it was for the same kind of reasons for which they supported the protests. Because COVID is less important to them than the movement.

It’s like if you explain to a warmie how nuclear power is pretty much the only viable solution, they will then say “Well global warming isn’t really that bad.” This has been shown by interviews with “environmentalists” BTW.

Sebastian said...

The Dems played their "for the children" trump card wrong.

But the battle, if there is one, is by no means over, since in many districts Dem unions and officials and voters will maintain a stranglehold on the system. Remains to be seen if officials are sufficiently "scared" to reform anything.

JAORE said...

There have been a number of remarkable reversals in left leaning officials and media outlets recently. One assumes internal polling is just awful. Awful enough to incur the wrath of the extremists that make up a large percent of their party.

Let us hope this polling is true and translates to votes in November for the rational/normal (R) party.

rehajm said...

On the real estate- I've never seen anything like it. In Big Sky MT they are just about out of existing home inventory at YC and existing home/condo valuations have doubled since the start of the year. In South Carolina my new neighbors from New Jersey bought their house sight unseen. Buildable lots sit while there's almost no inventory of available homes. Builders here are saying their suppliers are going to run out of dimension lumber in September. Like, NONE at any price...

Mark said...

Unless private, some of those upstate and rural schools are not the well funded suburban schools these folks are used to.

Kevin said...

Bluff called.

rehajm said...

You could tell the polling was bad because Cuomo et al started backtracking on schools a few weeks ago.

ga6 said...

25% diversity, sell the house...Wonder if Lileks has listed yet.

gerry said...

What a fantastic advantage!

If they screw over New York City and its school system, it's a bonus for us, the fly-over people.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


"That article links to "East Coasters are Snapping Up Vacation Homes Amid Coronavirus/Sales in resort and rural areas are surging as homebuyers look for getaways from Covid"

Yeah, it's Covid they're looking to get away from.

policraticus said...

We will be homeschooling/pod schooling our children this year. It is not our first choice, but the process and restrictions being proposed by our local public primary school are absurd. ABSURD. Add to that our distaste for the "distance learning" our children received in the wake of the shut down and we feel we have little choice. I don't entirely blame the school system for their failures from March till June, they were dealing with a brand new reality without any time to prepare. I feel like they tried. But, our kids lost the last two semesters of their education in 2020. We can't risk any repetition of that nightmare. Our kids need to learn, and I have no confidence the school system will do that job.

We live in one of those places seeing a property buying frenzy from wealthy folks who want to escape from covid-19. All I can say is, good luck. This place is usually pretty barren and remote in the winter, covid-19 will make it even more so this year. The first nasty nor'easter that blows sleet sideways down the streets for three days and howls through the electrical lines, moaning 24 hours a day and floods the streets so you can't leave your house might make them rethink their investment.

tcrosse said...

This offers a fine opportunity for big-city schoolteachers to migrate from their urban shitholes to follow the wealthier students, and for the teachers unions to organize them. Win-win.

Professional lady said...

Our local school district is starting off with remote learning. The Catholic and other private schools in our area are filling up fast.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

We can expect to see a new push to outlaw home schooling from the left soon, and private schools as well since they are "unfair."

The teachers and their unions are incredibly tone deaf. I know of at least one company that does k-12 education online because I saw an ad. And they claim the teachers are certified. A quick search on the internet shows at least half a dozen more. The only advantage public schools have is that they are a place to park the kids while the parents go to work and you're being forced to pay for them anyway. Teachers are squandering support for public education by throwing hissy fits about going to work while blue collar workers continue to make society function. It turns out that public school teachers aren't essential after all.

MD Greene said...

Has anyone considered the effect for poor children? Three Catholic elementary schools in majority-Black cities in my county -- schools that were less expensive than private preps and supported by scholarships provided by people in the pews -- closed for good in May. So did a majority-minority Catholic high school that sent 100 percent of its graduates to colleges of one type or another, year after year.

Those kids' families cannot even afford to move to lower middle-class cities to get their kids into "okay" schools, let alone to nice estates in the Hamptons.

Screw the political parties and the public school monopoly. Let the funding follow the child to the school that a parent chooses. And require those hoity-toity "public schools" to admit a range of students.

Leland said...

My children are grown, so whether schools open or not are not a direct issue to me. However, there is so much more in the politics. I figured out back in March that once the schools closed and parents started to homeschool, that bell was rung. The ringing got louder as teachers thought it cute to post social media items about parents dealing with their awful kids. Now, teachers are threatening to not teach unless given federal money, hazard pay, and most importantly a ban on charter schools?

Teachers union just proved they don't care about education. They only want to use children as political bargaining chips. Send your children to public schools if you want them used as human shields against you.

Kai Akker said...

I don't get it. What about masks? What about pets? What about inconveniences to someone, or to someone's chauffeur? What about obstacles to socialism? What about Republican racism? What about Trump's imperialism and fascism? What about Mitch McConnell's devious plans in the Senate? What about 1619?

Ohhh. The Federalist. A different Althouse source.

Skeptical Voter said...

new York City has a 4% tax on income--which is in addition to New York State's 9% income tax.
I think that the NYC tax applies to residents of the city. Now if you're a high dollar earner in NYC living on the Upper East or West side, why not move out out to Connecticut or the Hamptons or the Hudson Valley? You immediately save that 4% tax. Of course if DeBlasio and company change that tax to income earned in the city, that move out strategy won't work. I think Philly's city income tax focuses on income earned in the city.

Still you have to put up with the commute--but if you can work remote, why not move out to some safer, more bucolic space?

Narayanan said...

Mr Wibble said...
The Kung Flu has exposed how many institutions are run by incompetents.
-------------============
more than that - these institutions designed to their specifications.

Roger Sweeny said...


10% is a watershed moment? When it comes to schools, there is almost as much wishful thinking on the right as on the left.

Joe Smith said...

So you're saying that rich people have options?

Jeez, lefty politicians (and union leaders) are really dumb.

As someone who has teacher friends and relatives, I say let the teachers starve until the unions are crushed.

I've been tired of the bullshit for many years now, but this pandemic has really kicked my disgust for politicians into a whole 'nother gear.

Karlito2000 said...

We live in a mountain community in Colorado. There is nothing for sale in the old part of town. Real estate sales for the past two months have set records. Broker friends report sales that are made in cash, sight unseen as well as cases of closed contracts being bought out for low six figures.

New home building is booming on the outskirts of town. Real estate has always been boom and bust here but we are in the midst of a boom that exceeds anything that we have seen in the 40 plus years we have been here.

ConradBibby said...

"Of course if DeBlasio and company change that tax to income earned in the city, that move out strategy won't work."

Correct, but that's when the employer moves the whole business out of the city.

Original Mike said...

"Blogger Mark said..."Unless private, some of those upstate and rural schools are not the well funded suburban schools these folks are used to."

Well, that would be a problem if the problem with public education was money. It's not.

Craig said...

Don't worry. Even though they will no longer be paying taxes... thanks to social media, the rich white liberals will still be able to virtue-signal about how much they care! Thank goodness!

Michael K said...

razy Jane said...
Has anyone considered the effect for poor children?


Sorry, but anyone who thinks the teachers unions or the NY Times cares about poor people isn't paying attention.

You do remind me to check on my high school in Chicago. It is now all black and I wonder how it is doing.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

School choice, unemployment bonus, Black voting, law and order, right to work, burdensome regulation, 2nd Amendment, tax holiday, attempted coup, Congressional paralysis, student loan deferment, 1st Amendment, gun rights, education, free speech.
OR
Speech codes, racial quotas, permitted rioting, gun confiscation, recession, virus panic, cancel culture, fascist mobs looting and burning, weak leadership, China coddling, swamp supremacy, urban decay.

Birkel said...

Without control and absolute power, whatever will Democratics do?

Will Cate said...

New residents are pouring into South Carolina. Big surge.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Open schools does not mean acceptable schools. They are going to be jail for children. My good friend teaches first grade and reports that the plan is no recess, no lunchroom, no toys, no learning centers, no moving about the room, masks for everyone, no PE, no music, no art: NO FUCKING WAY would I send my kids into that.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I’m at the point now where if you are a person who advocates for anything but returning to normal life so this thing can run its course while advising Tim and Ken to stay home, you are a combination of evil, stupid, and deluded and you are my enemy.

Jupiter said...

"The Kung Flu has exposed how many institutions are run by incompetents."

If that wasn't already evident. But Kung Flu has also exposed how most of the advantages of city life assume a freedom of movement and socialization that is vulnerable to a pandemic. We have no solution to this problem, nor any reason to think it won't happen again, soon. The thing that makes this time different is that we have the internet, which makes it possible to obtain most of the advantages of socialization without the exposure to contagion. People are considering their options.

John henry said...

Southern New Hampshire University has been doing distance education for a variety of disciplines at Associate to Master's degree levels since at least the 70's (When they were New Hampshire College)

They started out contracted to the military to help servicemembers on ships and remote locations get degrees. They had a couple dozen satellite campuses at one time.

I taught in class at a satellite for 22 years. I then taught online for another 5.

They have it down to a tight science. I think, having taught both ways, that the online was even more academically rigorous than in class in terms of what was required from students.

And professors. Even though I had 22 years experience with them, I had to go through an 8 week course, as rigorous as any academic courses I ever took, to qualify to teach online. (No pay for taking the course)

No zoom or webex. Not practical because I had students from China, Vietnam, Russia, New Zealand as well as the US.

My point is, I believe strongly that distance education can be effective. What I've seen and read of the courses cobbled together for the spring semester didn't impress me much.

I think it also requires a good curriculum development department and motivated students. I don't think you universally get that in K-12.

My son and daughter in law are homeschooling this year. The kids 12 &16 have been in a private school that is reopening but there is so much BS they will have to go through, my son doesn't think it is worth it.

John Henry

cubanbob said...

Roger Sweeny said...

10% is a watershed moment? When it comes to schools, there is almost as much wishful thinking on the right as on the left."

I don't know what this watershed moment is that you speak of. However it is not an unrealistic expectation that parents who are homeschooling their kids will be getting pissed for paying taxes for a service they are not getting. Especially if those 10% are really pissed and thus very motivated to vote.

Dr Weevil said...

A friend in Charlottesville says that New Yorkers are desperately grabbing up all the available housing there, so it's not just "resort and rural areas". A smallish city with a low crime-rate and a major university is also attractive: you can get 100 different cheeses in the stores and (once things open up), visit nice used-book stores and see some live music and theater - nowhere near as much as in New York, of course, but more than the zero you would find in most Virginia towns. I can get about 8 kinds of cheese where I am.

One more bit of anecdotal evidence: I live in a small town across the Blue Ridge from Charlottesville in an 1859 mansion subdivided into 6 apartments. (I drive to Charlottesville now and then to stock up on cheese.) A neighbor couple in their '50s just moved out and I asked them if it was a "midnight flit" because the landlord hadn't put his "Apartment Available" sign out in the front yard. They laughed and said no they weren't skipping out on the rent, and they assumed he'd rented it, but didn't know anything about it. It turns out that the landlord's 20-something daughter and her husband are "temporarily" relocating from their tiny apartment in Manhattan where they do some kind of high-tech work, and her dad is helping them out by supplying an apartment. The husband won't be arriving for a few weeks, so I don't know if they'll be working from home or not. Even if they keep their apartment there, it won't be easy to pop into NYC every week or two for business: there are no convenient plane or train connections and it's a 6-hour drive each way, with tolls. There may be a Megabus or equivalent from Charlottesville, but I don't know if those guys are still in business with all the colleges closed.

Kathy said...

Parents are also learning that many options for educational materials exist outside of what schools provide. These options often are more rigorous and better designed than what public schools offer. Homeschooling is not new and really isn't fringe anymore. But most people outside of homeschooling know very little about what's available. (Homeschoolers get more social opportunities than kids in school unless they deliberately avoid them, for instance.)

Freeman Hunt said...

The times have exposed a strong preference for daycare. Apparently without the daycare element, many people would prefer not to deal with public schools.

hawkeyedjb said...

rehajm said...
On the real estate- I've never seen anything like it. In Big Sky MT they are just about out of existing home inventory at YC and existing home/condo valuations have doubled since the start of the year. In South Carolina my new neighbors from New Jersey bought their house sight unseen.

Most unfortunate. People from shithole cities/states take their degradation with them, wherever they go.

Floris said...

How many people are there who can afford a $2,000,000 second home but are also sending their kids to public schools?

Jupiter said...

"I’m at the point now where if you are a person who advocates for anything but returning to normal life so this thing can run its course while advising Tim and Ken to stay home, you are a combination of evil, stupid, and deluded and you are my enemy."

Keep your shirt on.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

hawkeyedjb said...

Most unfortunate. People from shithole cities/states take their degradation with them, wherever they go.

Non-shithole cities need implement Insty's Welcome Wagon plan.

Craig said...

I do laugh at the conservative parents who complain that the teachers are feeding their kids Democrat propaganda, yet demand that the schools be re-opened.

I'm Full of Soup said...

So Follow Da Money especially when it affects govt jobs programs [hattip to Glenn Reynolds] like the public school system.

bagoh20 said...

Remember voters: they refused to educate our kids before and after Covid, and the only thing that made them reconsider was the prospect of losing power over you and your children. They don't care about you, your kids, or their duty to you. You are a pawn, and an ATM to them, a guarantee of life long support for them. All they really care about is getting Democrats elected who will continue to make you pay more and more for less and less. Anytime "it's about the children", it isn't.

Bruce Hayden said...

“ On the real estate- I've never seen anything like it. In Big Sky MT they are just about out of existing home inventory at YC and existing home/condo valuations have doubled since the start of the year. In South Carolina my new neighbors from New Jersey bought their house sight unseen. Buildable lots sit while there's almost no inventory of available homes. Builders here are saying their suppliers are going to run out of dimension lumber in September. Like, NONE at any price...”

A bit west of Big Sky, in NW MT, in March, I bought the subdivision that we live in. I thought at the time that it might have been a mistake, at least, to have paid so much. I finally got 4 (of 20) lots on the market a bit over a week ago. Got an offer $2k below list on Sunday, countered by splitting the difference, and that counteroffer was immediately accepted, before I got home from the Realtors’ office, where I had signed the counteroffer. 19 more to go, and at that point, I will have made about a 25% profit. And I will have the land and utilities to add another 20 lots. Plus a couple estate lots. I had originally been interested in just the undeveloped lots, and had to double my bid to include the existing lots. I was figuring that I could justify finishing out those new lots in maybe 5 years, after the next recession hit, and the existing lots had been sold off. But the bank would only sell the whole package. Half was due at the end of March, and the other half at the end of July. Turns out that I was $9 short on interest, and owed the title company another $50. Finished paying that yesterday. Yeh! In any case, I may be able to pay off the entire thing from just the existing lots.

Here, as with Big Sky, there was practically no inventory of empty lots (and almost none with the city water and sewer that my lots have). So, my timing looks to have been prescient. Maybe. We are pretty remote - about 100 miles from the nearest Walmarts and Costcos in four directions. Winters tend to be a bit milder than most of the rest of MT - the HOA only needed to plow once last winter. But I am not sure how well we would do over the winter. The local schools are supposedly decent, despite not being that big. We are talking HS graduating classes smaller than for the prep school that my kid attended in Denver.

ga6 said...

Michael K said: "my high school in Chicago."

Michael: well mine had a murder out front yesterday, Hirsch, 7741 S Ingelside, class of 1961. Across from Grand Crossing Park the scene of a Mothers Say mass shooting a couple of yers ago.

bagoh20 said...

Las Vegas real estate is hot too. They are still building at the end of every paved road, and yet there is little inventory. Prices have not dropped at all, and with these interest rates, it's very competitive for buyers. We are experiencing a tsunami of flotsam from the pacific coast.

whitney said...

There have been some real bright spots in this whole virus mess and the destruction of the public schools is definitely one of them. Professional sports also, so wonderful that that's going. And now they're getting rid of college sports. Fantastic! It's good to see the real good things that are happening here

bagoh20 said...

In the end after years of consideration, the reason I finally left L.A. was that I came to accept that the people there would never stop voting for idiots and crooks, and then keep giving them extraordinary powers to screw over working people. It's even worse in New York. Any city that could elect DeBlasio after seeing what someone like Giuliani could do is just hopelessly lost and will get what it deserves.

Birkel said...

Remember the time (You know, the last 40 years?) when conservatives were saying these problems were manifest?

And Democratics like Althouse just told us we were losers who had lost, and splooge stooges to boot, who should accept that Democratics had won and were going to continue to win?

Do you like your winning, Althouse?
Does rioting suit your fancy?
Indoctrination mills working for you?
Do you honestly expect your promised benefits (pension and so forth) to be paid by the Democratic Woke Workers Party?

Pay attention because the people who have been correct continue to be correct.
You are well and truly fucked.

bagoh20 said...

The people in flyover country may have been insulted by that idea, but they never wanted them to stop flying over to actually stop by, and definitely not to move in.

Bruce Hayden said...

Interesting the timing here. My partner’s boy sent me a link yesterday to a story on a Tucson TV channel where he was featured talking about how they were getting ready to open the local school districts there, and how their district had made remote learning much easier for the students and their teachers. Their district is decently wealthy, and well prepared. They had made sure, well before the pandemic, that all the students had computers and Internet access, and had being working on getting all of the teachers and students well connected.

A proud moment for his mother, who is notoriously techphobic. I faced the problem over the weekend that her 3G flip phone had lost use of its microphone, and was not going to work much longer with AT&T, which was rapidly moving to 5G. She demanded a bare flip phone, which is a problem anymore, since almost all of their phones are smart phones. I had to teach her how to answer my iPhone yesterday, since she needed to be able to call in emergencies. No doubt, she immediately forgot everything once her son activated her backup phone. No surprise, we use one of my iPads whenever one of her grandsons wants to FaceTime her. It is funny, because that son of hers figured out a way to give his neighbors Internet access, and makes almost as much running his own mini-ISP as he does from the school district.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Las Vegas real estate is hot too”

Californication gone rampant. NV apparently just enacted mail in balloting, in order to prevent the Republicans from ever, again, gaining control over the state.

h said...

They'll be able to vote (for Biden) in both jurisdictions -- NY and the new home -- right? I know that is not legal, but what mechanism would ever catch them?

PhilD said...

So either they believe that opening schools is dangerous in which case they are wiling to commit murder for political reasons
or
they were lying all the time.

Pick your poison.

The Minnow Wrangler said...

Freeman Hunt said...
"The times have exposed a strong preference for daycare. Apparently without the daycare element, many people would prefer not to deal with public schools."

I know Penelope Trunk is kind of a weirdo, but she has been saying for years that the main purpose of schools is to provide daycare (and social services). It's no wonder most modern schools look like prisons or mental institutions, since that is basically what they are.

Just think of all the money paid in property taxes to support local public schools, with the expectation that your kids would have somewhere to go each day while you are working. Now think about what you and your family could do if you had that money and could decide for yourself what to do with it...one parent could stay home and take care of/educate the kids, while saving a ton of money on work wardrobe, commuting, before & after school care, days missed because of sick kids, etc. I realize this would not be a solution for single working parents.

The Minnow Wrangler said...

No one is more cynical than I about the "value" of public education. In my opinion it destroys children's initiative and any interest they ever had in learning, and the "socialization" they get by being confined with their own age group destroys their moral foundation.

Michael K said...

bagoh20 said...
In the end after years of consideration, the reason I finally left L.A. was that I came to accept that the people there would never stop voting for idiots and crooks, and then keep giving them extraordinary powers to screw over working people.


I beat them out of Orange County, which used to be conservative except the Mexican enclave of Santa Ana. In 2018, using ballot harvesting, the Democrats replaced all the GOP Congress members. Got out just in time.

Michael K said...

a6 said...
Michael K said: "my high school in Chicago."

Michael: well mine had a murder out front yesterday, Hirsch, 7741 S Ingelside, class of 1961.


My cousins went to Hirsch in the 1920s and 30s. Mine is a Catholic school and has had a couple of the kids murdered.

tim in vermont said...

You can’t imagine how much that comment hurts, Pants.

Just kidding.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Not intended to hurt, Tim. Be an adult and stop sulking and looking for insult. I’m just stating reality. You need to get out of the way and stay safe while the rest of us try to keep society from completely coming apart in irreparable ways.

It’s not just about school, although that’s a big part of it. It’s about all the many many ways we are fraying at the seams.

Narayanan said...

Craig said...
I do laugh at the conservative parents who complain
----------============
they diligently conserve their few working brain cells

tim in vermont said...

Look Pants, I am not sulking, nor am I looking for an insult. I honestly don’t care what you think of me. Pandemics suck. Have you read any history on them? I like to read history, I have read in the past books like Gods, Germs, and Steel, books on the plague, the history of what happened to the American Indians, all of this before COVID. I read tons of stuff. The main takeaway from reading about pandemics is that pandemics suck and wishing them away doesn’t really work.

Volcanoes like Krakatoa suck, lead to famines, famines suck. Asteroid strikes suck, pretending that they are not happening is not a strategy. We are not a protected species, special pet of God, defended against all bad things by His hand. Sometimes bad shit happens, and this is one of those times. I do find it fascinating how people seen to indulge in magical thinking. If we get rid of the masks, “I am not going to wear your fear!” as one person put it, that the problem will magically go away. To me, even if they are marginally successful, that’s better than most of what else is on offer. You seem to think they only slow the inevitable thinning of the herd.

I am fine. I can take care of myself. If you don’t want to read contrary information, like the emergence of this new inflammatory syndrome among children linked to COVID, don’t read my posts. Use a blocker app. Then you can be extra certain that you are right.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

tim in vermont said...

If you don’t want to read [utter BS], like the emergence of this new inflammatory syndrome among children linked to COVID, don’t read my posts.

FIFY

And I'll take your advice on that, Tim

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Freeman Hunt said...
The times have exposed a strong preference for daycare. Apparently without the daycare element, many people would prefer not to deal with public schools.

Well, yes. You can't have moms in the workforce in any significant numbers if the schools aren't watching their kids

bagoh20 said...

This is the first pandemic in history where the response caused more damage and death than the disease.

And, what pandemic of the past comes anywhere near the low mortality that this one does, even including the wildly inflated numbers which even the counters themselves will tell you count dying WITH Covid not dying OF Covid. That distinction is more important than anything else we need to know. If we did the same stupidly unscientific numbers with Herpies, it would be the worse pandemic in the history of the Earth counting nearly all deaths as Herpies deaths. This is a pandemic in name only, and who benefits or thinks they do from convincing us that its severity is worse than it is? I know Democrats do, hospital administrators, health departments, teachers and anybody else who doesn't want to work, Trump haters, and interestingly all the people who get paid while their fellow Americans get bankrupted.

Those people willing to fight this tyranny are the true patriots of our time. They are rare, incredibly brave, and willing to take abuse from citizens and their government, much like the founders of this rare experiment. Some are risking complete ruin at the hands of bureaucrats and petty tyrants, and they do it anyway. I am truely impressed by these people, and I envy their courage and wish them safety and success. They want nothing but freedom and the right to pursue a living.

William50 said...

Tim in Vermont said.....Pandemics suck.

I may be wrong (my memory fails me sometimes) but I'm pretty sure that I read a while back that the CDC has down graded Covid19 and it is no longer considered a pandemic.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The control is so near total, it's taken for granted.

Education is an afterthought.

Larry J said...

When the lockdowns began last March, several categories of people were deemed essential. This included some health care workers (ER and ICU, primarily) but not others. Grocery and home improvement store workers were deemed essential but not most other retail workers. Truck drivers were essential (even if many truck stops and rest areas were closed) but not most restaurant employees. All this summer, teacher unions have gone out of their way to declare themselves non-essential. They are then upset that many parents are taking measures to educate their kids outside of the public schools. It’s as if parents care more about their kids than they care about teachers. Why, the nerve of them! /s

PluralThumb said...

Public schools are competitive.
Absolutely can not blame public school staff as per the Union is a second head focus. Have to have at least two heads to multitask and try to live a life. Understaffed and overpopulated with kids. It's like police in kindergarden from my perspective. I did not want to learn as a kid and ride a skateboard instead.
Finished my H.S. diploma as per staying out of trouble, but could not reach a degree in a City College as per distractions.
Nurses, the police department, the fire department, the emergency medical response, even crossing guards are understaffed. And the reward is maybe some peace after retirement. Public schooling is limited. Not all doom and gloom as per the goal is similar. A family and a house, moving forward to a better future. The progression of public schooling is limited vs. academia. But, a house is a house. A home ? I'm not up to family nor a house. Left home behind a while in time.
Great Ellios microwavable pizza.
Yes, the teachers were amazing even with character differences. Strengths or flaws.
No regrets in that respect.

Nichevo said...

Birkel, let me try to answer for her.

Do you like your winning, Althouse?<--Yes
Does rioting suit your fancy?<--Yes
Indoctrination mills working for you?<--Yes
Do you honestly expect your promised benefits (pension and so forth) to be paid by the Democratic Woke Workers Party?<--Hell Yes, though the heavens fall

Pay attention because the people who have been correct continue to be correct.
You are well and truly fucked.<--She's a woman, she prefers to be well fucked. That's why she's so high on teh ghey, she figures everybody else should like being fucked too.

Craig Howard said...

it won't be easy to pop into NYC every week or two for business:

Ah, but think of all the cheese.