Monday, March 8. Here’s what’s happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.
Jesuit High School has been teaching its students on campus for months, and screening them daily since October. That first day of screening was so chaotic that the principal called it “Black Monday.” About 40 active infections have turned up since then, though cases have dropped to zero in more recent weeks. Now things at the all-boys Catholic school in Sacramento have gotten considerably brighter.
For the record:
1:39 PM, Mar. 09, 2021A previous version of this newsletter reported that students, faculty and staff at Jesuit High School in Sacramento are tested for the coronavirus every day; they are tested twice a week. The newsletter also reported that school officials had identified 40 active infections in their first day of testing; they have identified a total of 40 infections since testing began in October.
Equity is also an issue. Rates of transmission and deaths are higher in Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged communities, often the same areas where schools have smaller budgets, fewer resources, larger classes and problems like old buildings with poor ventilation. At the same time, though coronavirus cases among children have been rarer and less severe than for adults, evidence is mounting that children are not only susceptible but also can suffer long-term health consequences. Authorization for a vaccine for use on children is probably months away.
Claudia Briggs, spokeswoman for the California Teachers Assn., said forcing quick openings with incentive funding may “penalize” communities where rates of transmission are still high, or where plans have already been put in place for later returns. While the new state funding will help put safety measures in place, she points out that private schools may already be benefiting from wealthier families and neighborhoods where
The Reverse Gold Rush: Is the California Dream Fading Away?
A U.C. Berkeley Institute of Government Studies poll from September 2019 revealed that over half of California’s voters, across all income and ethnic demographics, have now considered leaving. According to the poll, 46% of those considering moving were older conservatives deeply concerned over the state’s increasingly progressive political culture, and 71% of those moving were concerned about the high cost of housing.
U.S. Census Bureau numbers show that the middle-and-lower classes are leaving California at an even higher rate than the wealthy. The Manhattan Institute reported in July 2020 that due to declining blue-collar jobs and expensive consumer costs for electricity and housing (the highest in the nation,) “since 1990, Los Angeles’ Black share of the population has dropped in half… A recent poll found that 58 percent of African Americans express interest in leaving the state; 45 percent of Asians and Lat