Some key reads as kids head back to school | Five for Your Weekend

Happy weekend, everyone!

We’re getting close to the start date at schools across the state, but this year, school looks a little different.

While different schools have opted to take different approaches many have taken to all remote learning to begin the school year. Others, have chosen a hybrid approach.

There’s been a lot of discussion about how the school year will play out and guidance governing the schools. Here’s a short list of some of our most recent education/school-related articles to help you catch up.

• Pittsburgh students criticize universities pushing what some see as COVID-19 ‘liability forms’

• With classes starting soon, Wolf administration issues new guidance for safe school reopening

• Wolf administration recommends schools cancel sports until Jan. 2021

• Three days of talk in Harrisburg yield scant consensus on critical school reopening questions

This article from ABC Action News in Tampa Bay, Fla. offers some tips for families as the new school year begins while the nation grapples with COVID-19.

Cheers to a leisurely weekend,

Cassie Miller | Associate Editor

The warning comes in a three-page letter, sent to potentially thousands of Pennsylvanians, who were in close contact with someone who was positive for the coronavirus.

The letter advises recipients to stay indoors for 14 days since their last contact with the positive individual, to take their temperature twice daily, and to cooperate with the department. The warning comes in the second to last paragraph.

In a statement released Tuesday, Rep. Tom Murt, R-Montgomery, claimed that Rep. Brian Sims, D-Philadelphia, told him in the call that Sims would “ruin” Murt and that Murt was “finished.”

Murt, a seven-term lawmaker, is not running for reelection.

Murt said what sparked the call was unclear, but he speculated it was over a proposal he released this week for an LGBTQ bill of rights.

The remarks, by Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks, came at the end of a three-hour-long hearing on the state’s beleaguered unemployment compensation system.

Cox, chairman of the House Labor and Industry Committee, then spoke for almost ten minutes, arguing that Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration could not be solely focused on public safety as the “driving force behind the decisions we in government are making.”

Government reminders of the best ways to prevent the flu, such as sneezing into your elbows, were “all good and fine,” Cox said.

But, “it’s not the government’s responsibility to pass mandates, to pass orders, to try to keep us safe.”

Now, with less than a month until the school year traditionally starts, most of the money still hasn’t been spent – even though districts are increasingly accepting that remote instruction will be the reality for hundreds of thousands of school children this fall.

Gov. Tom Wolf has total authority to allocate the grant that Pennsylvania received from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, a pot of money created in the federal CARES Act, and controlled by the U.S. Department of Education.

So far, he’s distributed just one-third of Pennsylvania’s award, giving $3 million to preschool programs and $28 million to colleges and universities.

But his administration can’t say when they’ll release the remaining $73 million to K-12 schools or how they’ll decide to dole it out.

Days after the Wolf administration recommended the optional postponement of the fall sports season, a Republican lawmaker says he wants to take that power out of the administration’s hands and give decision-making power back to local school districts.At a news conference Tuesday, Rep. Mike Reese, R-Westmoreland, said the Democratic administration’s abrupt announcement last week “sent shockwaves” through Pennsylvania’s athletic community, and sent the state’s main sanctioning body, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, scrambling to set policy.

“Why now, right before the academic year begins, are schools not able to make their own decisions about sports?” Reese said in a statement issued by his office. “Will similar announcements be forthcoming about regarding other extracurricular activities? These should be local decisions.”

And that’s the week. We’ll see you back here Monday.