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Federal health officials have nuked a major barrier to schools fully reopening, to the delight of many school districts, the displeasure of teachers’ unions, and the (cacophonous mixed reaction, sound of glass breaking) of parents.
- The CDC dropped a hotly anticipated revision to its guidelines for schools on Friday, scrapping the six-foot social-distancing recommendation for elementary-school students in favor of a three-foot minimum distance. The three-foot rule also applies to middle and high-school students, as long as coronavirus transmission in the larger community is under control. Teachers and other adults who work in schools are still advised to maintain six feet of distance, and all of this only works if everyone’s wearing a mask.
- That change is meant to pave the way for more school districts to reopen for full-time, in-person learning, and because CDC documents are no longer ghostwritten by Jared Kushner in a lab coat, there’s data to back it up. A study on schools in Massachusetts published last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases found similar infection rates among staff and students at schools with six- and three-foot distancing requirements. The CDC released the results of additional studies on Friday that point to the importance of universal mask-wearing in schools.
- In the eyes of some school leaders and health experts, the Three Feet Era is overdue: Health officials in Illinois and Massachusetts have already said that three feet of distance between students is fine, as have the WHO and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The two largest teachers’ unions in the country are less convinced, noting that there hasn’t been enough research on how closer contact will affect transmission rates in urban schools, which tend to be older buildings with poorer ventilation and more crowded classrooms.
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If the larger school-reopening debate is any indication, parents’ opinions on the move will likely be divided along familiar lines.
- While the discourse often flattens the debate down to “parents fight for schools to reopen, teachers’ unions resist,” there are stark class and race divisions at play: Black parents across the country have largely resisted the push to reopen schools. In a December CDC report, 62 percent of white parents agreed that schools should reopen this fall, while less than half of Black parents agreed. A Pew Research survey in mid-February found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults were more likely than white adults to say that the health risks of reopening should be a major consideration, while white adults were more likely to say that the risk of students falling behind academically should be a top factor.
- It stands to reason: The pandemic has torn through Black communities leaving disproportionate damage in its wake. According to CDC data published in September, Black young people accounted for 29 percent of coronavirus deaths among people under 21—twice the percentage for white youth. Black kids under 18 also face a risk of hospitalization nearly four times higher than that of white kids. Add that pandemic perspective to generations of racism and inequality in public schools (not to mention the health-care system), and it’s no wonder Black families are more apprehensive.
The new CDC guidance has broken down one key barrier to getting kids back into schools, and the Biden administration’s push to vaccinate teachers could help resolve another. The process of regaining vulnerable families’ trust—by making underfunded schools not only safer in a plague, but more equitable overall—might be a longer-term project.
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We’ve been telling you all about Jason Concepcion’s new podcast Takeline, but he ALSO has a brand new Crooked Youtube series—ALL CAPS NBA. It’s funny, it’s fast-paced, if you’re familiar with Jason’s work, it’s exactly what you know and love about him.
Find ALL CAPS NBA—as well as full Takeline video episodes—at youtube.com/takelineshow, and smash that subscribe button.
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We regret to inform you that the White House is (still) for narcs. The Biden administration has reportedly fired, suspended, or marginalized dozens of White House staffers who admitted past marijuana use. In response to the report, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that “only five people” were “no longer employed,” without noting how many were disqualified, suspended, or sent into remote-work exile. The Biden administration had issued new guidelines in February meant to ensure that marijuana use wasn’t an automatic disqualifier for applicants, which Psaki said had indeed allowed for more flexible hiring, but which evidently didn't weed out (sorry) the problem entirely. Given the growing number of states where marijuana is legal and Democrats’ push to pass sweeping reforms at the federal level, the fact that recreational marijuana use is still a barrier to working in the Biden White House is both baffling and disappointing.
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- The names of the four remaining victims of the Atlanta shootings have been released: Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Yue, 63.
- President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Asian American community leaders in Atlanta on Friday to discuss racist violence against the AAPI community and honor the victims of Tuesday’s shootings.
- Crabapple First Baptist Church, the church attended by the Atlanta gunman, condemned the shootings on Friday, as the killer’s evangelical ties came under further scrutiny.
- Former lobbyist Nicolette Davis has accused Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) of sexual misconduct. Reed has reportedly been considering a challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY).
- Judge Peter Cahill has denied a defense-team request to move the Derek Chauvin trial out of Minneapolis. The court is now just one juror short.
- Amazon workers in multiple cities have begun exploring possible unionization efforts, inspired by the campaign underway in Bessemer, AL. Those efforts are in their early stages and could fizzle out, but labor experts say it could also signal a multi-front campaign to improve working conditions at Amazon, even if the Bessemer vote fails.
- Former Florida state Senator Frank Artiles has been arrested for paying a guy $45,000 to run as a sham candidate and siphon votes away from the Democratic incumbent, who ultimately lost by just 32 votes.
- Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are trying to fire everyone on the Tennessee Historical Commission because they voted to get rid of a bust of KKK leader and Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest in the state capitol. Another brave, intellectually consistent stand against cancel culture!
- Today in Headlines That Sound Like They Were Written by Your Phone's Predictive Text, Mar-a-Lago has been partially closed due to a coronavirus outbreak.
- Good afternoon.
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The post-2020 election freakout about Donald Trump’s gains among Latino voters may have been a little overblown. A recent Gallup poll found that President Biden’s approval rating among Latino adults is at 73 percent, while battleground-state polling by Priorities USA found that Biden’s new voters were nine points more likely than Trump’s new voters to vote in future elections when their 2020 presidential candidate isn’t on the ballot. Many of the Latino Trump voters may have been Trump voters exclusively, and not permanent converts to the GOP. That’s not to say that Democrats don’t need to do a better job of organizing in Latino communities ahead of the next election, or that we will ever trust a poll again, but it’s a helpful bit of perspective.
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During the Trump administration, over 5,500 migrant families were systemically torn apart by the cruel practice of family separation. The ACLU was there from the start, filing a national class-action lawsuit that successfully blocked the policy. And as a result, thousands of families have been reunited.
However, many families remain separated to this day. Our latest report shows the parents of hundreds of children have still not been found – and the irreparable trauma inflicted upon all the families is everlasting. That's why the ACLU is urging the Biden administration to undo the damage and provide support to the families harmed by this cruel practice. Are you with us? Sign the petition today.
The work to undo family separation must be an urgent priority for the Biden administration and a task force on family separation is just the start. The ACLU is urging the Biden administration to commit to reuniting all the families in the U.S., provide them immediate protections from deportation and support a pathway citizenship, and make systemic changes to end family separation for good.
Add your name to the ACLU’s petition and urge the Biden administration to take action now.
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100 million shots: ✅
In the last few weeks, the Washington Supreme Court has barred mandatory life sentences without parole for anyone under 21, and struck down the state’s statutes criminalizing drug possession.
Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) has signed a law allowing early voting on Sundays.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) have introduced a bill that would put $500 billion towards shifting U.S. transportation away from fossil fuels.
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