Top Three Takeaways – December 2nd
- The default position should be as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school and get them back to school. These were the words spoken not by President Trump or Governor DeSantis but once again on Sunday by Dr. Anthony Fauci to ABC News. And the “default position” as Fauci articulates it, is in fact backed up by science. Which incidentally is one of the subjects with the greatest current discrepancies in learning with those educated online as opposed to within the classroom. While generally South Florida’s news media has been quick to be critical of Governor DeSantis’s pandemic decisions, especially regarding forcing the hand of the education establishment to open their doors to students at the start of the school year, the science and now the facts, solidly support his decision(s). It should be noted that the teacher’s unions, which literally represent the science teachers in our state, were wrong. How wrong?
- Low...The quote from Dr. Fauci regarding the transmitting rate of COVID-19 among school aged children. That’s right. Not only haven’t Florida’s schools been “super spreader” epicenters for the virus, they haven’t been anywhere else either. Why? Because as Dr. Fauci cited to ABC News, transmission rates among school aged children are low. And how low? According to state records only about 2,000 COVID cases have been diagnosed by children attending school. Of them, almost all are believed to have contracted the virus outside of school. To put that in perspective, the total number of students who’ve been diagnosed with COVID-19 while attempting to attend school in Florida this year is the equivalent of the number of Floridians diagnosed with the virus in about 6 hours of any recent day. There’s hard evidence that it’s actually safer for students to attend school for education! The very education the Florida Education Association sued the state attempting to stop.
- 40%…The current percentage of students using online education as opposed to classroom education in Florida. Given everything I just shared with you and facts from a related story today illustrating that the average Florida student using online education in lieu of the classroom is performing 5%-10% worse than usual and has now fallen the equivalent of half a grade behind where they should be...There should be a clear priority for parents as well and the default position should be that priority. Florida has made significant gains educationally in recent years. We’re at risk of sacrificing that in the name of a virus which isn’t being spread at school.
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