I remember how it was -- JR
Los Angeles Unified School District announces end to indoor mask mandate
The second-largest school district in the country, with over 600,000 students and 30,000 teachers, said masks will now only be “strongly recommended” indoors.
The new policy still needs to be formally ratified by union groups, but is expected to go into effect no later than March 23, district officials said in a press release.
The district’s face-covering policy is now in line with guidelines from the state and those of LA County’s Departments of Public Health.
Most districts in California lifted their mask mandate earlier this week, but LAUSD held off while it met with the teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, to come to an agreement, according to ABC 7.
“I strongly support ending the indoor mask requirement and am committed to continuing to uphold our science-based approach to COVID-19 safety and protocols,” Superintendent Alberto M.Carvalho said in a statement.
“I want to personally thank our students, employees and families for their support and patience. We know some in our school communities and offices will continue to wear masks while others may not. Please consider your situation and do what is best for you or your child. Now that this important issue is behind us,it is time to focus on each students’ full academic potential.”
According to the agreement, the district has agreed to continue weekly PCR COVID-19 testing of all students and staff through the end of the school year – a policy that will be reviewed again in April or May.
LAUSD has also agreed to provide KN95 or N95 masks to all employees who request them. The district also must provide take-home COVID-19 tests to all students and staff “for baseline testing prior to the beginning of the 2022 spring break.”
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UK: Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi plans crackdown on 'Mickey Mouse' degrees - with universities required to publish drop-out rate and graduate job outcomes on every advert
Nadhim Zahawi is planning a crackdown on 'Mickey Mouse' degrees, the Mail on Sunday can reveal. Universities will be required to publish the drop-out rate and graduate job outcomes on every advert they put out for a degree, in the same way loans have to be upfront about APR, under plans being considered by the Education Secretary.
This would apply to both physical and online adverts for courses and aim to ensure students are not 'misled' when applying, insiders said.
Mr Zahawi wants to see tighter criteria for entry to university and curbs on courses that do not deliver good job prospects while saddling young people with debt.
A government source said the aim is to tackle universities cynically offering degrees as 'silly' as 'David Beckham studies' while knowing they are unlikely to lead to better career or earnings prospects for young people. They pointed out that some Management degrees have a drop out rate of more than 50 per cent.
Ministers are currently discussing proposals to introduce a 'no C at Maths GCSE, no university' rule to significantly tighten criteria for entry.
The tougher measures are designed to push pupils towards other routes including apprenticeships.
A senior government source spoke in favour of demanding a minimum C level Maths for all university applicants. However the plan is controversial and others want a softer version of pupils needing to have passed either Maths or English at GCSE or have a minimum of two Es at A-Level to be able to attend university.
This would apply to both physical and online adverts for courses and aim to ensure students are not 'misled' when applying, insiders said (stock image)
The talks are part of a Department of Education consultation on introducing minimum qualifications for student loan access.
Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Education Select Committee, said: 'I hope they proceed with caution on this. Some people who are very bad at maths may be able to do a history degree.
'Rather than denying someone a place in university, we should offer them a refresher course while they are at there.'
The Department of Education is concerned that 'not all students receive the same high quality of teaching' and that many end up with saddled with student loan debt for courses with poor job prospects.
An insider familiar with the talks said: 'The problem with universities is they see themselves as part of a free market, but they are not because they have got taxpayers paying.'
These plans are part of wider reforms separate from the upcoming education white paper, expected at the end of this month.
Mr Zahawi plans to use the white paper to make apprenticeship and vocational routes more appealing to young people. This will involve an overhaul of T Levels, or technical qualifications, with the aim of making them as prestigious as A Levels.
T Levels will be designed with employers on 'robust employer standards', a source said, and will offer a 45-day work placement for students.
A government source said: 'What we need to achieve is for aspirational parents and kids, following vocational routes becomes as prestigious as an academic or university one. People shouldn't feel they have to go to university' adding that vocational routes should not be seen as just 'hard hats and high vis jackets' but also highly technical professions including working on film sets.
Mr Halfon said: 'Instead of university, university, university, it should be skills, skills, skills. That's why getting T-levels right is so important.
'We should be encouraging more students to do T-Levels and apprenticeships – in contrast to most students who go to university and do not get good graduate jobs despite the great whacking loans they take out.'
Other measures expected to be announced in the white paper include new 'covid catch up' measures including targeted support for children who fell behind during the pandemic.
New targets will be set for pupils passing English and Maths GCSE for 2030, which will be more ambitious than pre-Covid ones.
The white paper will also set out a plan to make all schools run by academy trusts, which would give them more autonomy from local councils.
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The isle of banned books: Tiny island off Maine - with a population of 100 - is buying controversial novels that have been prohibited by certain schools or US counties as 'push back' on censorship
The tiniest library in Maine, housed on Matinicus Island 22 miles off the state's coast, is on a mission to fill its shelves with unwanted and banned books.
From 'And Tango Makes Three,' the story of two male penguins that raised a chick together, to classics like 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, 'The Handmaid´s Tale' by Margaret Atwood, 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck and 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison, all books are welcome including those that are being banned or canceled in other parts of the country.
Eva Murray recently returned from a trip to the mainland with a bunch of books including 'And Tango Makes Three,' which the American Library Association says is one of the most banned books in the country.
She also brought back a number of field guides, which she told the Bangor Daily News are 'popular here.'
Islanders also requested copies of 'Maus,' Art Spiegelman's graphic novel retelling his father's experiences as a Polish Jew and a Holocaust survivor, but Sherman's Maine Coast Book Shop in Rockland was out of copies.
Other than the field guides, which Murray purchased, the library's entire inventory is donated. It is organized and maintained entirely by volunteers, who tend to the 24/7 library whenever they have a spare moment.
'We are buying banned books in order to publicly push back against the impetus to ban books. To say, 'If you don´t want it in your library, we want it in ours,'' Murray told the publication.
For years, islanders just traded books among themselves, but they decided to create a grassroots library in 2016 in an eight-by-ten prefabricated storage shed that an islander sought to get rid of.
'Getting and acquiring a building out here is no small thing,' Murray, who is the founder of Matinicus' recycling program, told the publication. 'I said, 'How about we take it, move it off the property, renovate it and it can become our library,'' she said. 'That is, in fact, what happened.'
Islanders applied to give the library nonprofit status, then had an island carpenter renovate the shed's interior and Murray's electrician husband wire it.
It expanded in 2020 to add a second shed for a children's library after Kristy Rogers McKibben, who grew up on the island and had established a short-lived, ad-hoc lending library 40 years prior, applied for a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation. A second insulated shed was delivered to the small island on a ferry.
'It's cute as a bunny,' Murray said of the children's library. 'It's just something that makes people smile. It's got the same nice carpentry inside, pine shelving, and I painted this neat, colorful floor.'
There's no librarian. Patrons borrow books using the honor system. Books are checked out by writing the book's name in a notebook.
As the library grew, the island started to become the bookish equivalent of the 'Island of Misfit Toys,' the place where unwanted toys reside in the Christmas classic, 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'
The library is also the island's first free wireless hotspot, which Murray said has made a difference for a lot of residents. The sheds aren't heated, but patrons make do.
'I am every day surprised how much people respect and honor and appreciate and support this,' Murray said.
The emphasis on banned books does not seem to be controversial on Matinicus, the state´s most remote and isolated community.
With only 100 year-round residents, a live-and-let-live tolerance and appreciation for differences is essential.
'We are in a privileged position to say, 'We don´t ban books,' and that we welcome people´s suggestions for books,' Murray said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10630429/Maine-island-library-wants-banned-books.html
***********************************My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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