The New York Times - USA (2020-08-07)

A6 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2020

Tracking an OutbreakPlanning for the Fall

WASHINGTON — Republicans
and Democrats in Congress say
they agree that a new stimulus
package must include billions of
dollars to help schools struggling
financially and logistically to re-
sume education this month and
next.
But the parties are digging in
over profound ideological differ-
ences, especially the divide be-
tween Democratic demands for
public education spending and a
Republican push to channel fed-
eral dollars into vouchers that
families could use at private
schools willing to open for in-per-
son classes.
Caught in the middle are the na-
tion’s educators — public and pri-
vate alike — who say their class-
rooms are becoming collateral
damage in the protracted stale-
mate.
“The longer we have to wait for
support, the more precarious re-
opening becomes,” said Sonja
Santelises, the chief executive of
the Baltimore school system, who
announced a virtual start to the
school year but is hoping that fed-
eral aid can help classes begin in
person early next year. “It’s unfor-
tunate, quite frankly, that as a na-
tion we have now made schools a
political football. That is going to
have a long-term impact, without
a doubt.”
Money for schools has biparti-
san support. Democrats included
about $100 billion for elementary,
secondary and higher education
in the $3.4 trillion stimulus pack-
age the House passed in May. Sen-
ate Republicans included $105 bil-
lion for schools in the $1 trillion
stimulus plan they unveiled last
month.
But the Republican package
sets aside at least 10 percent of its
K-12 funding for private and reli-
gious schools and would make
good on Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos’s long-promised Ed-
ucation Freedom Scholarships,
which would provide federal tax
credits for donations to state-
based scholarship programs for
private schools.
Republicans also want to tie
some of the education aid to the
reopening of schools for in-person
classes, a position favored by
President Trump and Ms. DeVos.
Teachers’ unions and some pub-
lic education boosters say those
provisions show that the Trump
administration is more interested
in using the coronavirus crisis to
push for school privatization than
in saving public school districts.
“The Republicans are using
teachers and students like bar-
gaining chips,” said Randi Wein-

garten, the president of the 1.7-

million-member American Feder-

ation of Teachers. “They’ve been

successful at creating chaos,” she

added.

The Democrats’ proposal con-

tains no money for private

schools, nor does it tie federal aid

to in-person classes. It contains

$875 billion for state and local gov-

ernments, whose fiscal health,

supporters say, is key to assuring

stable funding for public schools.

But private and religious educa-

tors say Democrats are not recog-

nizing the existential threat facing

their schools. While many private

schools have received small-busi-

ness loans through the federal

Paycheck Protection Program,

the pandemic’s hit to their bottom

lines has been so brutal that some

schools have no choice but to close

their doors, including Speaker

Nancy Pelosi’s alma mater, the In-

stitute of Notre Dame in Balti-

more.

Last week, the U.S. Conference

of Catholic Bishops wrote to Rep-

resentative Karen Bass, Demo-

crat of California and the chair-

woman of the Congressional

Black Caucus, urging Congress to

support federal emergency relief

funds for Catholic schools in ur-

ban areas that are in “crisis.”

More than 130 Catholic schools

have already announced perma-

nent closures in Chicago, Phila-

delphia, Baltimore, Boston, New

York and elsewhere, the bishops

wrote. The letter asked for Con-

gress to designate emergency

funding for direct scholarship aid

to low-income private school fam-

ilies.

“As the impact of the coro-

navirus has disproportionately af-

fected the Black community, the

same is true for our Catholic

schools that serve predominately

Black communities, and we are

imploring your help for these fam-

ilies who have sought a Catholic

education for their children,”

wrote Bishops Michael C. Barber,

Shelton J. Fabre and Joseph N.

Perry.

Nathan J. Diament, the execu-

tive director for public policy for

the Union of Orthodox Jewish

Congregations of America, said

private schools, which rely on tu-

ition and donations during a deep

recession, were facing acute chal-

lenges.

“This needs to be looked at as

an emergency response in a crisis

situation,” Mr. Diament said.

“This is more akin to Hurricane

Katrina and Superstorm Sandy

than the typical discussions we

have about federal support for ed-

ucation.”

Leading Democrats have said

they want to take care of public

schools first.

In negotiations with Mark

Meadows, the White House chief

of staff, and Treasury Secretary

Steven Mnuchin, Ms. Pelosi and

Senator Chuck Schumer of New

York, the Democratic leader, have

increased the amount of aid they

believe needs to go to public

schools.

Initially Ms. Pelosi included

$100 billion for schools in the

House bill; now Democratic lead-

ers want four times that amount

— $430 billion for public educa-

tion, including $175 billion for K-

schools and $50 billion for child

care.

“When we had $100 billion in

our plan, we knew it wasn’t

enough, but we had to get a bill

passed,” Ms. Pelosi told Ms. Wein-

garten during a virtual interview

at a teachers’ union convention.

“Your friend Chuck Schumer has

it up to $400 billion, thanks to you.”

Republicans, in contrast, are

not united. During talks on the

party’s Senate proposal, adminis-

tration officials pushed to allocate

funding only to schools that had

opened in person, but the senators

resisted taking the decision on re-

opening away from state and local

governments and school districts.

Republicans settled on proposing

that of the $70 billion earmarked

for primary and secondary

schools, two-thirds of that money

would go to schools that had some

form of in-person classes.

“If what you’re asking is,

‘Should we threaten to cut off

funds to districts that don’t open?’

I’m not supportive of it,” said Sen-

ator Marco Rubio, Republican of

Florida.

Senator Mike Rounds, Republi-

can of South Dakota, is more sup-

portive. Some schools in his state

are opening with separation barri-

ers to keep students in small

groups of about a dozen, and Mr.

Rounds said it made sense to pro-

vide more money for schools that

have the costs of running in-per-

son classes.

Representative Rosa DeLauro,

Democrat of Connecticut and the

chairwoman of the subcommittee

that oversees education spending,

said linking education funding to

in-person instruction was “mind-

less and ill informed.”

“No parent is going to send

their child to a school that is not

deemed to be safe,” Ms. DeLauro

said.

The impasse in Washington is

taking a toll elsewhere.

Elsie Arntzen, Montana’s su-

perintendent of public instruction,

said her agency rushed out the $

million it received in an earlier

stimulus package to help school

districts in her largely rural state,

where most schools have fewer

than 50 students.

Social-distancing rules on

school buses in Montana mean

“double the costs for transporting

safely our students back and forth

to school,” Ms. Arntzen said.

She is urging Congress to give

local school systems flexibility,

rather than dictating spending

from Washington, as districts

brace for the impact of both the co-

ronavirus and the seasonal flu.

“In Montana, we have cold win-

ters, and cold winters sometimes

bring that flu season that is very

hard on all kinds of populations,

whether it be in rural Montana or

on our reservations,” she said.

In Baltimore, Ms. Santelises

said she was worried about hav-

ing enough federal support to re-

open safely. But she is also con-

cerned about the looming budget

deficit that her chronically under-

funded school system is sure to

face from the economic downturn.

“We need some kind of federal

stimulus,” Ms. Santelises said.

“People think that it’s just a dis-

cussion about hybrid or virtual

teaching, but really the long-term

financial viability of school sys-

tems is definitely under great

strain and pressure right now.”

EDUCATORS FEEL IMPASSE

Partisan Stalemate Has Stymied Aid for Pandemic-Stricken Schools

Gov. Kristi Noem visiting a classroom in Sioux Falls, S.D. Some

schools in the state are opening with separation barriers to keep

students in small groups. Left, students marching in Los Angeles

on Monday demanded a safe approach to reopening schools.

ERIN BORMETT/THE ARGUS LEADER, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

By LUKE BROADWATER

Emily Cochrane and Erica L.
Green contributed reporting.

MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS

INDIANAPOLIS — It was the
purple Powerade that convinced
her.
Kennedy Heim’s first day of
high school was last Thursday. By
the weekend, her school in central
Indiana had already closed its
doors, after a staff member tested
positive for the coronavirus and
other employees were required to
quarantine.
Kennedy’s mother got a call
from a contact tracer saying her
daughter, a 14-year-old freshman,
might have been exposed. So on
Monday, they went for testing at
the National Guard Armory, just
down the street from her school.
Wednesday morning, they got the
results: Kennedy had tested pos-
itive.
“I just felt like I had a cold,” she
said. But a few hours later, quar-
antined in her bedroom, with her
mother delivering her meals
while masked, Kennedy sipped on
some grape Powerade and real-
ized she had a classic Covid-
symptom.
“I was trying to hydrate,” she
said, “and I was like, ‘Definitely
can’t taste that.’ ”
As the first students return to
American classrooms, many face
a profoundly altered experience,
where sitting next to a friend on a
long bus ride or unmasking at a
busy table in the cafeteria carries
a heightened level of risk.
Most schools have yet to open,
and a growing number — espe-
cially in the nation’s largest dis-
tricts — are opting to stay online
as caseloads, hospitalizations and
deaths continue to climb in their
states. But in some places, includ-
ing Indiana, Mississippi, Tennes-
see and Georgia, students began

streaming back into classrooms

as early as last week, with quaran-

tines quickly following.

Elwood Junior-Senior High

School in Indiana, where Kennedy

attends, reverted to remote learn-

ing after the positive tests —

which now include at least two

students — were reported, al-

though it plans to reopen.

In North Paulding High School

in Dallas, Ga., a series of widely

shared photos showed students

crowded into packed hallways

during their first days back to

class this week. Few were wear-

ing masks, and there was little

sign of social distancing, generat-

ing criticism and outrage in news

reports and on social media.

A student at North Paulding,

Hannah Watters, was suspended

for five days for posting some of

those images on Twitter, accord-

ing to her mother, Lynne Watters,

who said she filed a grievance

with the school on Thursday.

“I expressed my concerns and

disagreement with that punish-

ment,” Ms. Watters said in a text

message. The school’s principal

could not immediately be reached

for comment, but the district’s su-

perintendent defended its reopen-

ing plans, saying the photos had

been taken out of context.

Elsewhere, though, where there

has been less controversy or rea-

son for concern, the familiar

school day feels, well, familiar.

Some student pioneers told us

what it was like to be among the

first American schoolchildren

back in classrooms this fall.

Jaleah Walker, 16, Corinth High

School in Mississippi

Jaleah Walker had the option to at-

tend her junior year online, but

she had not seen her friends in

months, and she knew her chal-

lenging course load would be easi-

er to manage with a teacher in the

room.

“I wanted a sense of normalcy,”

she said. So on July 27, Jaleah

went back to school in northern

Mississippi — one of the earliest

students in America to do so. She

and her classmates had their tem-

peratures checked before enter-

ing the building, and everyone

was required to wear masks.

Desks were more spaced out,

and there were rules for walking

through the hallways. Students

ate in their classrooms instead of

in the cafeteria.

Despite the changes, Jaleah

said things felt pretty normal, and

it was a huge relief to see her

friends again. “We had been tex-

ting and FaceTiming and just

ready to see each other.”

But by the end of the first week,

a student had tested positive for

the virus. Everyone who had been

in contact with that student was

sent home to quarantine.

“It started to be different as

soon as the Covid positives came

out, because the classrooms got

way slimmer,” Jaleah said.

By Thursday, the school had six

positive cases, the district said. At

her mom’s advice, Jaleah is now

taking her classes virtually.

Austin Lines, 18, New Palestine

High School in Indiana

As the editor in chief of his high

school yearbook and a photogra-

pher for the school newspaper, re-

turning to school is a big story for

Austin Lines.

But reporting in the pandemic

has already been challenging, he

said. The newspaper and year-

book staffs cannot walk around

the school as freely as before, or

march up to strangers to ask them

questions.

He does not know if reporters or

photographers will be allowed at

sports events, either. “It presents

a lot of questions,” he said.

On the first day of school on

Monday, there was already break-

ing news: About 20 students had

to quarantine for 14 days because

they came into close contact with

a student who had tested positive

before school started.

“It makes me nervous for how

quickly everyone is going to be

quarantined and put out of

school,” he said.

Ian Whelahan, 17, Alcoa High

School in Blount County, Tenn.

At his school just south of

Knoxville, Ian Whelahan said, stu-

dents seem evenly split on the

dangers of Covid-19.

“About half try to behave like

everything is normal, and the oth-

ers are paranoid,” he said, adding,

“I’m one of the paranoid ones.”

At Alcoa High, on-campus

classes are limited to one day a

week. “My day on campus is Tues-

day,” Ian said, “so I’ve been to two

classes.” But it is nothing like what

it was before the pandemic.

“The desks are configured so

there is plenty of distance be-

tween them,” he said. “And we

have to wear masks — except

when we’re seated in the class-

rooms, and then it’s optional. And

we’re encouraged to hurry be-

tween classes”

He said some students did not

pay attention to social distancing

requirements, especially at lunch.

“But there is solo seating, which is

what I do,” he said.

Ian said he just wanted to stay

focused on getting safely through

his senior year, “so I can start col-

lege, hopefully when everything is

back to normal.”

Kennedy Heim, 14, Elwood Junior-

Senior High School in Indiana

On her second day of quarantine

on Thursday, Kennedy said that

she was feeling fatigued but that

her case did not seem as bad as

others she had heard about.

“I was a little scared” after get-

ting the results on Wednesday, she

said.

At least three other students

have also tested positive at the

school, she said, but she is not sure

how she might have been infected

— or if she could have infected

anyone else.

“It came out of nowhere, and I

don’t know who else I was

around,” she said. She went to vol-

leyball practice the week before

starting school, but no one came

within six feet of her, she said.

She also diligently wore her

mask during her two days at

school, she said, except while at

lunch when eating. Whenever she

tucked her mask beneath her

nose, she would make sure others

were not nearby.

Kennedy’s mother, Liz Wright,

also started school last week — as

a second-grade teacher. Her

school remains open even while

the high school is closed for the

week, with the students distance

learning.

So now she and her daughter

have quarantined from each other.

“I’m not going to lie, I have been

skeptical about kids getting it,”

Ms. Wright said. “But to be a part

of this pandemic, it is a real thing.

It’s not fun to have to FaceTime

your daughter in the other room.”

FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNTS

Class Is Back in Session, and These Students Say Everything Has Changed

By ADAM WREN

and DAN LEVIN

Kennedy Heim on her first day of school in Elwood, Ind., last week. She caught the virus soon after.

LIZ WRIGHT

Adam Wren reported from Indian-
apolis, and Dan Levin from New
York. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del
Rio contributed reporting from
New York; Lucy Tompkins from
Bozeman, Mont.; and Chris
Wohlwend from Knoxville, Tenn.