@axios This article is so misleading. My thread:

@erica_pandey @axios As a retired teacher with 30 years of experience in both private and public education, I challenge you to show me an average "private" religious-affiliated school that has tents or daily testing. You're comparing apples to oranges This is political propaganda, not journalism!
@erica_pandey @axios Most "private" schools are Catholic/religious-affiliated schools, not elitist private schools popular with rich liberals that you're implying with misleading tweet. Religious-affiliated schools pay teachers much less and survive on bare-bones budgets.
@erica_pandey @axios I don't know of any Catholic/religious-affiliated school that has money to build tents for outdoor instruction or pay for testing to stay open. This is awful reporting to lump all "private" schools together and not distinguish the difference. Propaganda! Journalism is DEAD!
@erica_pandey @axios Using Poly Prep Country Day School and Boston Trinity Academy, a 6th-12th grade school, as your "examples" of most private schools is disingenuous, bordering on dishonest. These are the exceptions, not the rule for most private schools.
@erica_pandey @axios If talking about vouchers, again, this is very misleading. Only about one-third of the states in the U.S. have any type of voucher program. In most of those states, students have to meet specific standards to qualify, such as having an IEP or being economically disadvantaged.
@erica_pandey @axios "Funding follows the students," he says. "Public schools are going to lose more money, and this is going to continue..."

Money does NOT follow every student to private religious-affiliated schools. Money follows ANY student to PUBLIC charter or cyber schools.
@erica_pandey @axios It is the PUBLIC charter and cyber schools that are pulling students away from public schools. The money follows these students, NOT students that enroll in most "private" religious-affiliated schools. This is why my district started an All-Remote Access option.
@erica_pandey @axios This is why teachers' unions and Democrat leaders are opposed to school choice and often try to limit or shut down charter and cyber schools. The money follows student who leave public schools for these options. It does NOT follow to most private religious-affiliated schools.
@erica_pandey @axios This us not "journalism". You take random statements out of context from various news sources and spin them together to push a political narrative. I read the other articles, and they clearly paint a much more complex picture than your political propaganda.
@erica_pandey @axios From your sited source:
"Concerns about potential inequities in the availability of different schools to different families, based in large part on geography, are plausible but have not been subject to systematic empirical analysis."
@erica_pandey @axios Your quote from the NY Times is, again, deliberately misleading. If you read the WHOLE article:
"The surge in summer and fall applications for schools offering in-person education has been as uneven geographically and economically as the coronavirus itself."
@erica_pandey @axios "But the New York metropolitan area reported a 56 percent drop in private school enrollment."

The Southeast is a different story... But other schools in the region struggled to hold on to students, with 59 percent reporting lower enrollment this year."

Awful journalism!
@erica_pandey @axios "The steepest decline came in the lowest grades... Kindergarten enrollment decreased by nearly 12 percent and public prek enrollment is down 30 percent. Those two grade levels combined represent almost half of the overall enrollment decline statewide."
PreK/K aren't mandatory.
@erica_pandey @axios If you actually read the articles cited, you can better understand this is political propaganda. In many of the states cited, the largest decline in enrollment is at PreK and Kindergarten level because it is not mandatory. That greatly skews the data during a pandemic.
@erica_pandey @axios Your cited Times magazine article:
"More than 100 private schools — mostly private Catholic schools — have permanently closed this year because of pandemic-related challenges."

"Surging"...? Very misleading when you select random statements out of context from multiple sources.

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1/ Here’s a list of conversational frameworks I’ve picked up that have been helpful.

Please add your own.

2/ The Magic Question: "What would need to be true for you


3/ On evaluating where someone’s head is at regarding a topic they are being wishy-washy about or delaying.

“Gun to the head—what would you decide now?”

“Fast forward 6 months after your sabbatical--how would you decide: what criteria is most important to you?”

4/ Other Q’s re: decisions:

“Putting aside a list of pros/cons, what’s the *one* reason you’re doing this?” “Why is that the most important reason?”

“What’s end-game here?”

“What does success look like in a world where you pick that path?”

5/ When listening, after empathizing, and wanting to help them make their own decisions without imposing your world view:

“What would the best version of yourself do”?