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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Duval virtual numbers are low. Could that be by design?


The Jacksonville press is reporting only 7 percent of students have signed up for some sort of virtual learning. Tampa's media is reporting half their children are and nationally seventy percent of parents think sending children to school is risky, so is Jacksonville and outlier, or is something else going on?

From News4Jax,

With three weeks until the first scheduled day of school, Duval County Public Schools is still working on a plan for how students will safely return to class.

Public records show less than 10% of Duval County families have signed their children up for virtual learning options. The district said some applications are still processing. 

District leaders have been questioning whether all students should be learning online. Board members have also been considering a delayed start date.

As of Friday, records showed 6,900 students were enrolled in Duval County’s distance learning program -- Duval HomeRoom. As of Monday, the district had completed and processed nearly 800 applications for the virtual school program.


Juxtapose that against Tampa's numbers.

From WFLA.com,

Hillsborough County parents have made their choices for the upcoming school year, and just over half opted for e-learning or virtual school for their kids.

The deadline for public school parents to submit their declaration of intent was extended until Sunday at midnight in hopes that parents would have enough time to make an informed decision on how their students would learn during the 2020-2021 school year.


Now let's look at what nationwide polls are saying,

From Axios,

By the numbers: Seven in 10 American parents overall see it as risky for schools to reopen in the fall, including majorities across partisan lines. But as with so many aspects of the pandemic, there are significant differences in how risky Democrats and Republicans see it. Just as striking are the differences between whites and people of color.


Now the Axios question was a little different, it is what do you think, not what are you going to do, but I can't believe all of that 7 out of ten is going to ignore their feelings and send their kids to school. Say just half end up keeping their kids out that is still five times more than what is currently happening in Jacksonville.

So why is Jacksonville not just different but really different from the rest of the country. 

 I will be honest apathy has long been a huge Jacksonville problem. Then again, getting information to parents has long been a district problem too.  On Facebook, you see a lot of posts about parents struggling to log in that is anecdotal but not insignificant.

Greene has stated her preference is to have kids be in class, despite the danger and this as wacky as it might sound has my Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory alarm bells are going on. 

Regardless if it is apathy, a lack of information, problems with the system or you know Jacksonville is just plain different what's happening here isn't happening in other places.

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