Star Tribune, Minneapolis, April 20
Early-ed programs are feeling the impact of COVID-19
Shutdown has left many hoping for financial help to survive pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reached every corner of daily life. But in one arena, it’s proven calamitous by snatching hope from thousands of disadvantaged Minnesota children in critical early childhood education programs.
These preschool efforts - targeting children under age 5 - are being devastated by the epidemic and demand state government intervention. Minnesota has the means to answer the emergency, if it has the will.
Even before the virus hit, only about 16,000 of the state’s estimated 51,000 young children in poverty received scholarships for early-ed programs. The number of children left behind was a crisis, in and of itself. Minnesota’s school achievement gap is among the largest in the nation.
But now, a second emergency threatens even that limited effort to giving disadvantaged young children a hope of being ready for kindergarten and beyond.
A survey of 629 Minnesota early-ed programs found a third were so strapped for funds that they would not survive “without significant public investment and support that would allow them to compensate and retain staff, pay rent, and cover other fixed costs.”
Twenty-two percent said they couldn’t withstand closing two weeks without substantial government aid. The same percentage had no idea how long they could endure closing.
That was a month ago.
Nearly half of Minnesota early-ed programs have parents who cannot afford to pay fees or copays. More than half the programs have lost income as parents have lost jobs or suffered reduced hours of work.
Early childhood programs across the nation face a similar fate. Nearly 50% of 11,500 child care providers told the National Association for the Education of Young Children that they won’t survive a closure of more than two weeks. Another 25% said they didn’t know how long they could remain closed and hope to reopen in the absence of financial support.
“If we had numbers like that about some key sector of the economy, there would be a rush to save it from collapse,” said Ericca Maas, executive director of Close Gaps by 5, a Minnesota early-ed advocacy group.
“We’ve done that many times in this country,” she said. “We should do no less for a sector that is so important to the economy and our collective future.”
That theme is echoed by another longtime proponent of early-childhood education, Art Rolnick, senior fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
“For the sake of Minnesota’s critical workers, our current and future workforce, and, most important, the well-being of infants and toddlers, I urge the state to increase its funding for early childhood education,” he said.
The expected Minnesota state budget surplus of $1.5 billion, millions of which Democrats hoped to allocate to early education, has eroded as businesses have closed by the thousands and tens of thousands of the state’s residents have lost income and jobs.
Gov. Tim Walz and legislators, on both sides of the aisle, modestly increased money for early-ed scholarships in March. But that was for years ahead, not the here and now. A billion dollars in federal aid is expected to shore up Minnesota’s finances soon. Tens of millions should be earmarked to rescue early childhood education programs.
Advocates stress the move would benefit everyone. Many hospital cleaners, medical assistants, grocery clerks and other essential workers are parents of young children in desperate need of a head start in life.
Aid to those vulnerable children will benefit not only their families, but the rest of us who rely on those besieged essential workers for our own survival.
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The Free Press of Mankato, April 20
Mail ballots for all the safest way to vote
Why it matters: To avoid a repeat of the Wisconsin primary debacle, Minnesota lawmakers need to approve mail-in balloting quickly for the general election.
If you need convincing that mail-in ballots for all voters makes perfect sense in these uncertain times, take a look at neighboring Wisconsin for proof. The National Guard was called in to help when the number of election judges for the April 7 primary dwindled as COVID-19 cases increased.
Just before the primary, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin blocked efforts by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to delay the election because of the coronavirus pandemic and provide mail ballots to all voters. Then the U.S. Supreme Court reversed his order to extend the absentee ballot deadline.
So hundreds of thousands of voters still showed up at Wisconsin polling places because the election was important to them. But being dedicated citizens shouldn’t have meant risking their health and those around them. An estimated 25% of coronavirus victims are asymptomatic, so even if voters felt healthy, it doesn’t mean they weren’t infecting others. Some voters had two-hour waits at the polls.
At a time when social distancing, no mass gatherings and staying home when possible are paramount to keeping the number of seriously ill from flooding hospitals, forcing the polls to be open was irresponsible. And so avoidable.
Minnesota needs to learn from its neighbor to the east and take steps that ensure residents’ right to vote without putting public health at risk. Secretary of State Steve Simon is supporting legislation to make voting by mail possible for all Minnesotans during periods of peacetime emergency due to infectious disease outbreaks.
This is not a new way to vote; already 130,000 Minnesota residents participate in mail-in voting because they live in places with fewer than 400 voters. Unlike absentee voting, the ballots don’t need to be requested if voters are registered. Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah already conduct elections entirely by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests moving toward mail voting in jurisdictions where it is allowed. Voters aren’t the only people at risk. Like in many states, numerous election judges in Minnesota are retired residents who fall into the high-risk category when it comes to severity of illness if the virus is contracted.
Despite some politicians using voting as a partisan football, mail-in ballots are a fair, smart way to safely handle November’s presidential election. A new study by Stanford political scientists - reaffirming and expanding on years of prior research - concludes no party gains an advantage when a state switches to universal vote-by-mail.
Just because we all want the pandemic to be over doesn’t mean it will be. All indicators point to this being a marathon and not a sprint. Many experts are saying cases could crest again in the fall.
As with any aspect of crisis planning, the more we prepare in advance, the better off we are. That applies to avoiding an election that could endanger people’s lives when it doesn’t have to.
Plans for mail-in balloting need to start today. As we can see by Wisconsin’s experience, last-minute decisions make a mess.
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Minnesota Daily, April 17
The culture of competition in the wake of COVID-19
The competitive culture in college hurts more than it helps.
The competitive nature of college begins, for many, in high school. Joining as many AP classes, clubs and sports teams as possible becomes the norm, as does the desire to impress those around you. This behavior only makes itself more evidence in college, as the stakes – a future career – are higher.
Maybe it’s not just for the clout; maybe people just enjoy being busy for the sake of consuming time. But that raises a question: is the proud feeling from admiration worth the anxiety from being constantly on-the-go? For some, maybe. For others, no.
The competitive culture in college hurts more than it helps. Many students juggle being a full-time student, having a part-time job, as well as extracurriculars. Many also balance multiple jobs or multiple clubs. This can be understandably anxiety-inducing.
A study of eight countries done by the World Health Organization revealed that nearly 30% of college students in the U.S. have felt general anxiety in the 12 months prior.
The obvious solution to heightened anxiety would be to take a break from the biggest stressors in your life, potentially classes if that’s what’s best for your mental health. But finding a job post-graduation without a stacked resume and previous experience feels close to impossible, and needing to out-perform peers for those jobs feels crucial.
This competitive nature presents itself in many ways. Friends compare the number of hours they slept the night before, how many coffees they’ve had that day, how late they get home and how much homework they still have to do. As more people attend college and more opportunities are provided, it seems as though the educational standard begins to rise, too. The pressure to go on to receive a Master’s, J.D., Ph.D., etc. has begun to rise, and it won’t be long until that has become the new standard.
COVID-19 has only complicated the matter more. Student groups aren’t meeting, campus has been shut down, and many are out of jobs or internships that they rely on not just for income but also experience. Soon, many will be graduating into an economy that is quickly declining, and our stress is higher than ever. Seniors could be graduating into a job market that sorely needs workers, or they could be taking jobs unworthy of their degree.
The future is more uncertain now than ever, and there is little relief that can be offered. No one is sure how the world will look in two weeks, or even two months time. The end does not appear to be in sight. A problem of this magnitude is not easily fixed. When this pandemic is all over, the solution to heightened anxiety might be to add more mental health professionals and counselors on campus. But, what about an ingrained ideology that fixes students against each other?
It’s the difference between being competent and being competitive. Instead of instilling a “win no matter what” mindset, maybe teachers, parents and colleges should think about how being “good enough” might just be good enough. That’s not to promote mediocrity, or alack of drive, but perhaps not always pushing to be the best will allow us to fully engage in what we’re learning and with the life around us.
The competitive nature of the job market might not ever change, but the way people respond to competitive remarks can. The next time a friend tells you that they only got four hours of sleep the night before show some real concern, rather than tell them that you only got three.
If they say they’re stressed because the five student groups they’re a part of all meet on the same day, ask if they’re really invested in what those groups are doing. Or, if they’re panicked about the fact that everything has been canceled and are worried about what the future holds, listen to understand and empathize. Don’t listen to reply or patronize.
This is only a small, short-term solution. It is a systematic problem that needs a systematic solve. Until that answer is provided, encouraging self-care and discouraging harmful habits is the best we can do.
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