Live data from Hacker News

As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

reuters.com

281–290 of 553 posts

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#281
This sucks. Parents are setup for failure with demanding jobs and low wages. They need more time with children. Public school used to be small classes... now they are basically useless and do more harm than good for the majority.

Things are going to get worse unless there is a huge reversal with education, nutrition and the idea of success in life.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#282
post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The teachers I know have been working harder under lockdown than they did during in person.

There's often a large disconnect between teacher's union leadership and membership. Probably not unlike most union compositions in the US.

I don't follow in context. How would union leadership be avoiding work by reopening schools?

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US federal gov’t spends about 3x as much on those over the age of 65 than it does those under the age of 18 (including transfer payments to parents of those children)[0]. Personally, I think that should be flipped, but kid’s don’t vote. [0] https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/cbofiles/ftpdocs/23x...

I'm assuming you mean the US spends 33% as much on those under 18 as it does on those over 65 (otherwise your comment about voting makes no sense)? If so, it seem sensible for the government to spend more on the elderly, simply because they cost most and there is nobody else to pay for it. People under 18 typically have one or two parents to care for them. Older people don't have parents and don't necessarily have fa…

I feel like the comment about voting makes perfect sense? They’re saying that children don’t vote, but old people do, so of course it’s the latter group that gets the most resources - they vote, so they have power over politicians, so politicians cater to them.

That said, I think you have a good point with the rest of your comment.

Edit: Oh I think I see the confusion now. Did the grandparent change their comment? At any rate, my understanding is that they’re saying that for each dollar the government spends on a child, it’s spending three dollars on a person over 65.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#284
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Covid barely spreads through children. It spreads through travel and large gathering of adults.

There's pretty much no evidence for that. Kids are asymptomatic and the virus is so out of control that it's difficult to track down the graph of infections from kids is all. Additionally teachers and school staff tilt pretty heavily to high risk groups. Watching so many of the adults die in their life would absolutely give kids depression too.

Maybe it's a pet peeve of mine but the onus is not on public health institutions to prove or disprove a negative. Saying "There's not evidence of the virus _not_ spreading in Cohort X" is an almost impossible position. If you have evidence to show it's spreading, then present it, and make public policy decisions based on said evidence. If you don't have evidence, then you should not be making policy.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Rest of their lives" is a pretty bold and, frankly, made-up thing to say about an illness that has barely existed for a year.

If that bothers you, replace it with "Having one or both parents spend the rest of their children's lives in graves isn't exactly great for kids either." > frankly, made-up thing The CDC disagrees with your opinion. From the CDC's "Long-Term Effects of COVID-19" article[1]: > The most commonly reported long-term symptoms include: > Fatigue, Shortness of breath, Cough, Joint pain, Chest pain > Other reported long-term…

Much like it is literally impossible to prove antibodies for COVID-19 last for greater than a year, because the illness has not been around long enough to prove such a thing, it is also impossible to prove COVID-19 symptoms can last greater than a year.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this fact makes it even more shocking how bad the US public education system is. How can it so effectively continue to fail to provide social mobility at scale? Where is all this money being spent? Not at least on teachers' salaries, I guess?

I've always found the statement "how bad the US public education system is" and ones like it to be far too simplistic. It's a country of 350 million people, with perhaps the most staggering differences in educational outcomes of any developed nation on Earth. Where I grew up in New England and in many of the surrounding areas, public education was incredibly well funded, teachers were paid very, very well relative to…

I am willing to agree for the most part.

My observations are mostly from CPS in Chicago-land so take that into consideration. The issue, and a glaring one at that, is that no one with money will let their kid go to public school if they can help it regardless of official political positions they hold, which tells you something.

To me that says that for those schools, education is not the goal.

Naturally, it is not all their fault. There are sorts of issues that are socio-economic in nature ( how much time a parent can devote to reading aloud to a child? can they hire a tutor? ).

I don't think I completely agree that we should focus on external factors only ( although we should look into them ). I am saying we should understand where that money disappears into. My house taxes are ridiculous and the statement I get suggests its mostly for schools. Where exactly is it going if it is not having appropriate results?

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if US really cared about children they would ended the humanitarian crisis in Yemen... so far 85 000+ children under 5 starved to death and they saying 400,000 are going to if this blockade doesn't end.

It's up to the U.S. to fix every single problem?

[deleted]

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's pretty much no evidence for that. Kids are asymptomatic and the virus is so out of control that it's difficult to track down the graph of infections from kids is all. Additionally teachers and school staff tilt pretty heavily to high risk groups. Watching so many of the adults die in their life would absolutely give kids depression too.

Maybe it's a pet peeve of mine but the onus is not on public health institutions to prove or disprove a negative. Saying "There's not evidence of the virus _not_ spreading in Cohort X" is an almost impossible position. If you have evidence to show it's spreading, then present it, and make public policy decisions based on said evidence. If you don't have evidence, then you should not be making policy.

Here's direct evidence: school closures are one of the most effective government interventions.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6531/eabd9338

What I have an issue with is people stating crazy stuff like "covid barely spreads through children" even though they have no real data on it.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this fact makes it even more shocking how bad the US public education system is. How can it so effectively continue to fail to provide social mobility at scale? Where is all this money being spent? Not at least on teachers' salaries, I guess?

I've always found the statement "how bad the US public education system is" and ones like it to be far too simplistic. It's a country of 350 million people, with perhaps the most staggering differences in educational outcomes of any developed nation on Earth. Where I grew up in New England and in many of the surrounding areas, public education was incredibly well funded, teachers were paid very, very well relative to…

So you're saying that the largest source of funding for primary and secondary public schools is the local government (state? county?), as opposed to the federal government? And that as such your place of living is the deciding factor for the quality of public education available to you?

Areas with poor people in them also gather less tax money, meaning they can't provide the residents with quality education, meaning those areas perpetuate poverty.

Re: As U.S. schools shuttered, student mental health cratered, survey finds

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this fact makes it even more shocking how bad the US public education system is. How can it so effectively continue to fail to provide social mobility at scale? Where is all this money being spent? Not at least on teachers' salaries, I guess?

I've always found the statement "how bad the US public education system is" and ones like it to be far too simplistic. It's a country of 350 million people, with perhaps the most staggering differences in educational outcomes of any developed nation on Earth. Where I grew up in New England and in many of the surrounding areas, public education was incredibly well funded, teachers were paid very, very well relative to…

Dozens? More like thousands. School districts tend to fall along city or county lines, and there are around 3000 local government units in the US. Cut that in half to guesstimate the number of school districts, and you’re still in the thousands order of magnitude.

Edit: There are 3142 “counties and county equivalents” in the US. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_by_U.S._state...

Post reply on HN