| | | | | |  | | By Juan Perez Jr. | With help from Madina Touré and Bianca Quilantan Editor's note: Weekly Education is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Education policy newsletter, Morning Education. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | 
Students and teachers participate in a socially distanced classroom session at Medora Elementary School in Louisville, Ky. | Jon Cherry/Getty Images | 'YOU CAN'T WIN' — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated teachers, students and staff can return to K-12 classrooms without wearing masks . If only returning to normal were that easy. — President Joe Biden and federal authorities want schools open for in-person lessons this fall. But educators are caught between conforming to government guidance and allaying public hostility to mask mandates and Covid-19 vaccines — a schism that carries uncertain consequences for the upcoming school year. — Last week, authorities cited a Kentucky man for terroristic threats and disorderly conduct after an alleged confrontation with the county school superintendent about a mask mandate. In California, POLITICO's Mackenzie Mays writes that Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing sudden backlash to face covering requirements at schools, amid an effort to recall him from office. "You can't win with this pandemic. There's no way you can do anything that's not going to get pushback," Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the committee on infectious disease for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told Mackenzie. — Officials in more than half a dozen states have barred local schools from requiring masks, according to the Burbio data tracking firm. Among those states: Arizona, where the state's superintendent for public instruction is criticizing state lawmakers over recently-approved bans on in-school face covering and vaccination requirements. — "It's become extremely political and divided," Arizona superintendent Kathy Hoffman told Morning Education. "Rather than listening to the health experts who would recommend there be layered mitigation strategies, and that we continue to promote vaccines for anyone who's eligible, they're tying hands and not allowing their school leaders to do what's best for their communities." IT'S MONDAY, JULY 19. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. ICYMI: A federal judge in Texas on Friday blocked the Biden administration from approving new applications for the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — but current DACA recipients will remain unaffected for now. Reach out with tips to today's host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Michael Stratford ( mstratford@politico.com) and Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com). And don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro. | | | | 
A nurse practitioner inoculates a 13-year-old with the first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Mount Sinai South Nassau Vaxmobile parked at the De La Salle School in Freeport, N.Y. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo | 'YOUR LIFE IS OVER' — On July 11, following CDC guidance, the Jefferson County Public Schools system in Louisville, Ky., announced plans to require students and staff to wear masks while inside school district properties if they aren't fully vaccinated against Covid-19. They also have to wear masks on school buses, even if they are vaccinated, during the district's summer programs. — A day after the announcement , a local man named Bradley Linzy entered the district's headquarters and started arguing with staff about mask mandates, according to school security. Security personnel said they later found Linzy outside the building in his vehicle, where, according to court records, he "claimed he was upset and admitted to having a gun in between his front seat." — After spotting School Superintendent Marty Pollio exit the building, court records said Linzy "jumped out of his car and aggressively approached the superintendent" before following Pollio to the front of the building and yelling "your life is f---ing over and career as you know it." — Linzy, when contacted by your host, disputed the charges and said court records about the incident mischaracterize his encounter with Pollio. "Children, all the way up through adolescence and adulthood, need to see the faces of their peers and authority figures alike in order to develop socially and emotionally," he said, adding that he plans to enter a not guilty plea when he appears in court later this month. — Pollio declined to discuss the details of the case . But he said that this kind of pandemic-related tension is something superintendents across the country right now are dealing with — "whether it's at board meetings, or whether it's in the parking lot, or whether it's threats online." He added: "It's just a disturbing trend, I would say, overall." — "We're not making any decisions in a school district based on political views or narratives," Pollio said. "We are trying to do what's best for the children and the faculty and staff in our district." — A school board vote on virus safety measures for the coming academic year is scheduled for next week. | | | | Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today . | | | | | | | | | 
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Kindergarten students wear their masks and are separated by plexiglass during a math lesson at the Milton Elementary School in Rye, N.Y. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo | VACCINATION SLOWDOWN — The number of weekly Covid-19 vaccinations given to children has slowed substantially, from a peak of 1.6 million at the end of May to just 315,000 during the week ending July 14, the American Academy of Pediatrics said in a recent analysis of CDC data. — The CDC recorded 8.8 million U.S. children under the age of 18 as having received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by July 14, according to the AAP. That represents 46 percent of 16-17 year-olds and 34 percent of 12-15 year-olds. Of those children, 6.8 million were fully vaccinated. NBC last week reported that emergency authorization for vaccines in children under 12 could come by midwinter. — What's Miguel Cardona have to say about all this? "We are going full time for students in the fall," the Education secretary told our Carly Sitrin in New Jersey last week, when she asked if he was concerned low vaccination rates and mixed mask mandates would affect school reopening. — "Yes, there's still work to do," Cardona said. "It's on us, the adults now, to make sure that we safely reopen schools, that we provide vaccination and testing availability. … The vaccination efforts in this country over the last three to four months have been amazing. We can get it done, we just have to make sure we're working together." | | | | 
A parent reads to her son's pre-K class at Phyl's Academy in the Brooklyn borough of New York. | Mark Lennihan, Pool/AP Photo | GOTHAM'S SCHOOL MASK DEBATE — New York City is sticking with its policy of requiring students and adults in school buildings to wear masks, POLITICO's Madina Touré writes, despite the CDC's leeway for fully-vaccinated teachers, students and staff. — Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed confidence last week that all students will return to school buildings in the fall, but he said the city has to be cautious due to its experience at the height of the pandemic last year. "For now, we're sticking with the idea that wearing the masks is a smart thing to do in schools," he told reporters. "We'll keep assessing as we go along but I think for now, it still makes sense." — Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner, said the city would evaluate the new CDC guidance "carefully," work with the city's Department of Education and share more information with students and families in the coming weeks. — The New York state Department of Health is looking over the new CDC guidance too. In June, the state said that it will no longer require summer school students to wear masks but strongly encouraged unvaccinated children to wear face coverings indoors. At the time, New York City officials said they would continue to implement a universal mask mandate. — Some parents and elected officials — on Staten Island, for example — have expressed frustration over the continued mask requirement and urged the city to scrap the mandate. They argue parents should be able to decide whether their child wears a mask. — Other parents and advocates, like the group Parents for Responsible Equitable Safe Schools, say Covid-19 safety measures need to remain in place, pointing to the fast-spreading Delta variant and the fact that most students aren't vaccinated yet. | | | STUDENT AID APPLICATIONS TAKE A HIT — Bianca reports that high school students among the class of 2021 finished nearly 5 percent fewer FAFSA applications this year, compared to 2020, a drop of more than 100,000 forms, a new report found. — "We warned that FAFSA completion would be bad because we knew it would be bad, and in the end: it's bad," Bill DeBaun, director of data and evaluation at the National College Attainment Network, said in a statement unveiling the data this morning. — By July 2, about 53.3 percent of the class of 2021 had completed the FAFSA, down 2.5 percentage points from last year. NCAN tracks the forms through the Form Your Future FAFSA Tracker. — "Across the classes of 2020 and 2021, more than a quarter-million fewer seniors completed a FAFSA than we would have expected absent the pandemic," according to the report. | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — You might have heard about the idea of four-day workweeks, but what about having just four days of school? In a recent Brookings Institution analysis, Paul Thompson of Oregon State University and Emily Morton at NWEA took a closer look at an idea that's becoming increasingly common for America's rural youth. | | | — CBS poll: Unvaccinated Americans least concerned about Delta variant: POLITICO — California's mask stance frustrates San Diego school leaders, parents: San Diego Union-Tribune — Nursing school operators charged with selling bogus diplomas: Associated Press — Education Department shows limits of pandemic relief by fighting borrowers in bankruptcy: Washington Post — Covid-19 school mandates for masks, vaccines are blocked in more states: Wall Street Journal | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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