The Detroit News. Aug. 19, 2020.
Deal cheats schools that take on new students
The Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have agreed on a framework for how schools can approach the upcoming school year. That’s somewhat miraculous, given the tumultuous relationship between the governor and GOP lawmakers. But the pact could harm schools that have taken on new students during the pandemic.
On the positive side, schools now know they have flexibility to open schools how they see fit, whether online only, in person, or a mix of both. The deal leaves those decisions at the local level.
Schools also have additional certainty regarding testing expectations and how they will be allowed to count students for per-pupil funding purposes and meet seat-time requirements in a virtual world. It’s good that accountability won’t be tossed completely.
But there’s still plenty of concern. Though lawmakers put together some logistical benchmarks, they have yet to address the 2021 fiscal year budget, which begins Oct. 1. School districts could face significant cuts in light of an estimated $3 billion shortfall due to COVID-19. A federal bailout can’t be counted on.
The biggest shortcoming in the legislation is the negative financial impact on schools that have taken on new students since the pandemic started. School choice proponents are extremely disappointed lawmakers agreed to a funding mechanism that allows districts to base their student counts largely on last year’s enrollment.
It is fundamentally unfair to schools, including cyber charter schools that have taken on new students. State funding is directly tied to a district’s student enrollment.
School choice is a lifetime for families trying to figure out how to deal with the pandemic.
The legislation allows districts to base 75% of this school year’s student count on last year’s numbers; 25% of funding will be tied to this year’s count, taken officially on days in October and February.
Given the disparate ways districts responded to the pandemic and distance learning in the spring, charter schools - and cyber charters - are reporting considerable new interest as parents seek options that meet their needs. Other districts are likely seeing similar trends.
Schools that have taken on more students, however, could now be facing financial hardship.
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The Mining Journal (Marquette). Aug. 20, 2020.
Additional jobless benefits are better than nothing
There is some additional relief on the horizon for Michigan residents - not what many were hoping for, but still better than nothing.
Michigan has applied for federal funding to provide an additional $300 a week in unemployment benefits amid the coronavirus pandemic - less than the $600 boost that expired last month but still more than the maximum $362 weekly payment the state dispenses.
President Donald Trump this month signed an order extending the added weekly benefit after he and Congress were unable to agree to a broader new pandemic relief plan. States can choose a $300- or $400-a-week option, though they would have to chip in $100 toward the higher amount.
“This program will provide some much needed support for families that are struggling to put food on the table or pay their bills, but it’s a short term Band-Aid that falls short of what’s needed,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday. “A robust congressional recovery package that meets the scale of this crisis is what’s needed to help individuals who have lost work as a result of the pandemic get through this unprecedented time.”
The state Unemployment Insurance Agency estimated that about 910,000 residents will get the extra $300. They will be paid retroactively to Aug. 1. It was unclear when the payments will begin or how many weeks they will cover.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has said the additional funding may last roughly five or six weeks depending on how many states participate. Michigan’s unemployment rate was 14.6% in June, sixth-highest among states.
Hopefully, this will keep many of our fellow residents from missing bills or eviction as the pandemic continues to ravage our state economy. We appreciate this effort by state officials and believe there is a bright future on the other side of this mess.
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Traverse City Record-Eagle. Aug. 23, 2020.
Mich. faces another COVID data debacle
This must be some cruel form of COVID-19 déjà vu.
State health officials confirmed this week they either can’t or won’t learn from their mistakes.
Leaders with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, in a baffling repeat of their handling of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes, last week refused to release details related to 14 schools where health departments reported coronavirus outbreaks.
Not school names. Not district names. Not the number of cases at each. Not total cases found. Not even the counties where the outbreaks occurred.
It’s an alarming obfuscation as parents, teachers and the lion’s share of our state’s 1.5 million students prepare for a new school year.
A list of districts and schools that have potential problems with COVID-19 seems like important information to disseminate to families facing decisions about how and when to return to school.
It’s also the kind of information common sense tells us would be important to make widely available and in realtime. Considering schools and children, under normal circumstances, act as accelerators for contagious illnesses, wouldn’t data on infections in schools be especially important to the public during a pandemic?
At first, the murkiness appeared intentional, as department officials proffered privacy concerns as their grounds for withholding even basic information about the outbreaks. They also offered the now-familiar “trust us, you’ll be contacted if you’re exposed” line.
The “ignorance is bliss” approach simply isn’t something we, or anyone else should tolerate from any public health official at this juncture.
State leaders, since Wednesday, evolved their response in the face of calls for transparency. It’s now clear they’re operating on a dangerous mix of intentional obstruction and systemic incompetence.
The state’s chief medical executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, told Bridge Magazine on Friday that MDHHS will release information on infections in schools in the coming weeks, but not before the agency has a chance to revamp outdated reporting systems that make such disclosures difficult or impossible.
“In the upcoming weeks, we’ll be able to post information, at least by school, on our website,” Khaldun told Bridge. “So if a parent is interested in seeing if there’s any outbreaks associated with their school, we are able to have that information on our website.”
Khaldun’s pivot from previous positions taken by her department is important progress. And it echoes the widespread struggle public health officials have faced as they were woefully unprepared to respond to a pandemic outbreak of a communicable disease.
Still, we find ourselves wondering what MDHHS leaders were thinking? After the nursing home data debacle, how did they put themselves in such a position again?
If this is a case of inadequate data collection systems, why not say so up front - why try to hide an inadequate reporting infrastructure?
Nobody should’ve been surprised summer break would end and students and teachers would be called back to school. Likewise, public health officials should’ve anticipated widespread interest in COVID-19 infections in our schools.
Now, we’re left hoping MDHHS officials learn from their follow-up missteps during the nursing home debacle when they provided data late, and in such poor condition it was untrustworthy and unusable.
For all our sake, we hope the third time is the charm.
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