WHILE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER continues to resist imposing a statewide mask mandate for Massachusetts schools, new poll results show strong public support for such a measure. According to a new survey from the MassINC Polling Group, 81 percent of Massachusetts registered voters say they strongly support or somewhat support a policy requiring masks for anyone […]
schools
Posted inEducation
Uncertainty continues to plague school reopening debate
ONE OF THE most disturbing of the shockingly wide range of symptoms experienced by people with COVID-19 is often described as “brain fog,” a lingering inability to think clearly that can extend to difficulty tackling even the most basic tasks of daily life. But the challenge of not always being able to sort things out […]
Posted inEducation
Role of school rapid testing debated
IT WAS THE end of March when the state’s Department of Public Health began reporting more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus daily. Schools were shuttered, students were home, and infrastructure to gauge and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 did not exist. The phrases “rapid testing” and “contact tracing” were unknown by the American public. […]
Posted inEducation
‘Breakfast after the bell’ signed into law
WITHIN THE NEXT two years, it will become much easier for an estimated 150,000 low-income children in Massachusetts to eat breakfast in school. Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday signed a bill dubbed “Breakfast After the Bell,” which will require high poverty schools to offer breakfast after the start of the school day. “We have too […]
Posted inEducation
Parents take stock of the school year that was (or wasn’t)
SCHOOL’S OUT FOR the summer. Is school out forever? Parents hope not, describing very mixed experiences with the remote learning experience that began in March. The MassINC Polling Group recently surveyed 1,502 parents statewide and found there was no single story that describes what parents went through from mid-March to June, but rather thousands of […]
Posted inEconomy
Massachusetts Phase 3 reopening plan is hardly ‘Vigilant’
ON MONDAY, MASSACHUSETTS entered Phase 3 of its reopening plan, which Gov. Baker’s people have code-named “Vigilant.” It includes movie theaters, gyms, entertainment venues, casinos, and larger gatherings. This is on top of indoor dining, which recently reopened. We’re doing this as we watch COVID-19 numbers spike all around the country in states that were […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
In the Berkshires, a school crisis – and opportunity
IF NECESSITY IS the mother of invention, we are busy in the Berkshires figuring out new approaches to school challenges we are facing. Berkshire County has seen a decline of more than 20 percent in school district enrollment since 2000, with another 10 percent-plus decline anticipated over the next decade. This has gone hand in […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Missed meals
IN 2009, FIRST Lady Michelle Obama famously took a shovel to a plot on the White House lawn and turned it into a garden, announcing her intention that schoolchildren should eat healthier food and exercise more in order to combat obesity. Even in the wake of the enactment of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, there […]