Dear ones,
The two most encouraging pieces of news I’ve encountered this week concern the anti-poverty measures contained in the stimulus legislation that passed the Senate last week and Biden’s speech on Sunday about voting rights.
In his remarks to commemorate Bloody Sunday — when a young John Lewis and hundreds of voting rights activists faced a frontal assault by state troopers in Selma, Alabama — the president discussed the shameful gutting of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby v. Holder (2013):
“The late Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg wrote that the decision was like ‘throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm,’” Biden added. "Today, we have a hailstorm, not a rainstorm.”
Biden issued an executive order to “direct federal agencies” to make voter registration information more available, to update vote.gov, to improve access to voting for service members, to educate those incarcerated about voting rights, and to “establish a Native American voting rights steering group.” What his order does not and cannot do — because of the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision — is prevent the passage of state legislation to suppress voting.
Biden is set on protecting voting rights from the onslaught of Jim Crow-style legislation in the states. Given the reluctance of moderate Democrats to alter the filibuster rule, it will not be easy to find [a] path forward. That said, Biden made clear he is determined to find a path to success — just as he did on the covid-19 rescue bill.
Tucked into the rescue legislation is an anti-poverty measure that has the potential to provide significant relief. Given the tremendous hardship that many millions of Americans are currently facing, the guaranteed income for families under the new law is big, happy news:
More than 93 percent of children — 69 million — would receive benefits under the plan, at a one-year cost of more than $100 billion.
The bill, which is likely to pass the House and be signed by Mr. Biden this week, raises the maximum benefit most families will receive by up to 80 percent per child and extends it to millions of families whose earnings are too low to fully qualify under existing law. Currently, a quarter of children get a partial benefit, and the poorest 10 percent get nothing.
In addition to addressing the absurdity of providing no aid to the poorest families, the new program involves monthly checks rather than an annual tax refund, which is an important difference for families with lower incomes. There is no good explanation for our nation’s failure to tackle the persistent problem of child poverty until now, but I will permit myself to rejoice that we are finally taking this important step. The work ahead will be to extend the benefit, which is only funded for one year.
Yesterday’s big local news also centers on young people: NYC high schools will reopen to in-person instruction on March 22. The actual numbers of students set to return is about 55,000 and the expectation is that about half will be able to attend five days. The same staffing issues that made hybrid instruction challenging in the fall are still present in many schools. Parents have many concerns: some are upset that they may not be offered another opportunity to opt into hybrid instruction; some are upset that hybrid instruction does not provide the consistency of the remote program; others have complained that the quality of in-person instruction has been poor because of the staffing issues. Many families are upset that more energy has not been expended to improve remote instruction, especially when most students will continue remote throughout this school year unless the DOE changes the policy on opting back in.
The MORE Caucus (of the UFT) noted on Friday that over 250 elementary and middle schools were closed, including 40 schools closed for 10 days. These closures, in response to new cases of COVID, are part of the stress of reopening. The mayor has said that his administration is revisiting the rule that causes a school to close when two unrelated cases are reported in the same building.
Health experts agree about many of the issues involved in reopening schools. Concerns about mental health are widespread and the subject of strong agreement:
“The mental health crisis caused by school closing will be a worse pandemic than Covid.”
Uzma Hasan, Division Director Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Saint Barnabas Medical Center
“Education is absolutely essential for child health and development. Young children are not a driving force in community spread of Covid; non-masked, non-distanced adults gathering indoors are.”
Brian Campfield, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
The problem, of course, is that failing to manage community spread means that opening schools is much safer in the abstract than in reality.
Overwhelmingly, health experts agree that adequate ventilation is important, with 70% calling it very important. The agreement on maintaining distancing of six feet was similarly broad.
There are many young people delighted at the prospect of returning. I expect that many teachers have mixed feelings; every teacher I know misses seeing their students, overhearing their banter, even reading their handwriting. Most of us want to be a whole person rather than a head in a Zoom rectangle, even if it means locating clean pants that fit.
We will be back in action tomorrow. Have a good day!
with love,
L