Plans only work if they're funded

Okay, look: I appreciate--truly!--having the thoughtful opinions of health professionals, especially epidemiologists about what we should be doing about schools, so I read the above linked piece in today's Washington Post with interest. Daniel Halpern, who wrote the piece, is an epidemiologist and teaches UNC on global health. And he urges that schools be reopened in the fall, concluding with this:

Although some covid-19 cases regrettably may result from reopening schools, the existing evidence does not warrant inflicting potentially long-term academic, social and vocational disadvantages on millions of children.

Here's the problem: the sentence before, which is the ONLY sentence in which he comments on this, reads:

Adequate testing and evidence-based safety precautions are essential for protecting teachers and other staff.

THERE IS NO PLAN FOR THAT AND THERE IS NO ONE PUTTING FUNDING TOGETHER FOR THAT!

I'm not particularly going after Halpern for that; he's opining from his place of expertise, as he should. To put into operation what he recommends, however, requires that those of us with expertise on the other end note that as yet, what he recommends isn't being organized or funded. I tweeted this out last week:

hey, you know how the states have had to compete with each other to get PPEs?

If you're going to send all the staff and students back to school in America, and you're not going to have any sort of central organization, what exactly do you think that's going to look like?

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) May 27, 2020

I'm not saying this frivolously: let's just run Worcester numbers for a minute:
25,000 students plus
4500 staff
times two (masks work for four hours)
is 59,000 masks a day. Plus, these are kids, so some are going to get torn or tossed or otherwise ruined.
A DAY. For ONE school system.

And no one is paying for this, as yet, which is what is being noted by two of the superintendents of larger districts in California this week:

"Operating our schools will not be as easy as separating desks or placing pieces of tape on the floor," Beutner and Marten said in their statement. "A robust system of COVID-19 testing and contact tracing will need to be in place before we can consider reopening schools. Local health authorities, not school districts, have to lead the way on testing, contact tracing, and a clear set of protocols on how to respond to any occurrence of the virus."

The CEO of California School Boards Association has called California's state budget plan "not realistic."

Schools start their 2020-21 school year the first week of August. We need better from leaders then giving us a list, a cut budget, and sending us on our way.

And (Massachusetts note) everything I am seeing coming out of state planning on this--which also note, is only DESE--has been "all systems go! We're going to give you a plan and we'll be set!" WITHOUT ANY PLAN ON HOW TO MAKE THE FUNDING WORK.

We need not to do that. It's irresponsible.