Coronavirus testing: Education secretary defends system for schools

BBC

2020-09-17 17:53:26

• Reopening Australia's border will be 'one of the last things to change', says chief medical officer

  Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, has said that even when the coronavirus vaccine is rolled out “international borders will be one of the last things to change”. Kelly on Tuesday said the criteria for when the country’s international borders could be reopened was “a very dynamic space”. “On...Read Full StoryChief Medical OfficerChief Information OfficerGovernment AuthoritiesGeneral SecretaryEuropean BordersChineseAustraliansPfizer-70 CTGAMedicalInternational BordersHealth AuthoritiesHealth DepartmentPublic Health Measures

• Painting that helped Marion artist heal to be used on 'Dopesick' set

  The painting that proved healing for a longtime Marion artist will now appear in a TV series that many people hope may raise curative awareness about the opioid epidemic. The producers of “Dopesick” are leasing Marion native Duane Cregger’s painting, Rabbitrine, for use on one of their sets. The upcoming Hulu eight-episode limited series is slated to begin filming Wednesday. The series, inspired by the bestselling book “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America” by Roanoke author Beth Macy, will film in Central Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and the Roanoke regions.Read Full StoryDopesickThe PaintingSugar GroveScience & TechnologyShenandoah ValleyARTJackie`` Dopesick ''Big Pharma ManhattanAcademy AwardEducationRoanoke CollegeArtspace RichmondVirginia Film OfficeLA TimesBeth MacyDanny StrongMichael KeatonBirdmanRosario DawsonKaitlyn DeverBarry LevinsonRalph NorthamPeter Sarsgaard

• Foundation offers access to 100 scholarships

  More than 100 scholarships will be available to college-bound area seniors through the Southwest Iowa Educational Foundation. The foundation’s scholarship application form will be posted online on Feb. 1, according to a release . Once a student submits an application, they will be matched with scholarships for which they meet...Read Full StoryPostsecondary EducationOnline EducationFinancial EducationOnline StudentsSWIEFScholarshipsImprove AccessMeritSouthwest Iowa StudentsCivic GroupsTori ChristieIowa

• KC Spring 2021 Community Education Classes

  Want to learn how to decorate a cake? Or paint with watercolors? Learn a new culture? Kaskaskia College has announced its lineup of spring 2021 community education offerings, with over 50 courses available. Kaskaskia College’s Community and Continuing Education Department has several series of courses to take, including the topics...Read Full StoryCommunity EducationContinuing EducationNew SpringCollege EducationDepartment Of EducationBoard Of EducationHealth EducationThe KC Connect Mobile [email protected] Security WorkshopsBeekeepingOfferingsDesignSpace

• Expect This For Your Student Loans Tomorrow

  Here’s what you should expect — and not expect — for your student loans tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know. When Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president Wednesday, there are multiple executive orders that he is expected to sign. There may be many changes for your student loans in 2021, and this is what you should expect (and not expect) on the first day of the Biden presidency:Read Full StoryFederal Student LoansStudent Loan DebtEducation ActPoliticsStudent BorrowersStudent DebtFederal LoansFFELP LoansSenateCongressStudent Loans DebtStudent Loan RepaymentStudent Loan PaymentsStudent Loan ReliefStudent Loan CancellationJoe BidenDonald TrumpElizabeth WarrenChuck Schumer

• Parents included in rule changes for NSW schools: Education Minister

  NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says they want to keep the school environment as normal as possible ahead of Term 1. In new school rules, children will again be allowed to drink from bubblers, and parents and carer meetings can continue. Staff and students will not be required to wear...Read Full StoryNswNew SchoolEducation MinisterEducation And SchoolsSchool EducationSchool RulesHealth EducationNSW EducationParentsSchool YearSchool GroundsStudentsCarer MeetingsAdultsMinister MitchellSarah MitchellBen Fordham

• WKU student takes her education outside of the classroom in face of COVID-19 academic limitations

  The coronavirus pandemic has delayed at least one facet of every person’s life. College students have been faced with a decision to either continue on their degree path with limited opportunities for real-world professional experience and ultimately feel ill-equipped for their professional careers - or hit pause on their education and fall behind their peers.Read Full StoryCovid-19WkuEducation SystemFormal EducationPublic HealthCollege StudentsGraduate StudentsEducation And SchoolsSchool TeachersMedical StudentsWKUIECEITERSCOVIDRush RenshawMaggie Smith

• How a diverse school district is using a strategy usually reserved for ‘gifted’ students to boost everyone

  The teachers were fighting three enemies. The Monday fatigue that made the third graders yawn through their screens. The disturbances of the Wi-Fi that muffled conversations. Time itself. They battled the uncontrollable through smiles: Teacher Annie Nguyen wore a hooded sweatshirt with white furry panda ears — it was pajama...Read Full StoryGifted StudentsPovertySchool TeachersWorks StudentsSchool EducationStudent SuccessThe Wi-FiTimeSt.news / LearninglossHighline Public SchoolsTNTPJohns Hopkins UniversityAlexandria HaasTerms Of ServiceGoogle Docs

• Holland College's new strategy aims to reduce barriers to getting a job

  GEORGETOWN, P.E.I. — Holland College's president recalls a time when he struggled to find a job because for every job there was a surplus of workers trying to get it. 'I can tell you without any degree of uncertainty that that is not the case anymore,' Alexander (Sandy) MacDonald said.Read Full StoryCollege PresidentVirtual EducationStrategic PlanStrategic LeadershipCorporate StrategyUniversity EducationHolland College 'sP.E.I.Red SealUPEI• Holland CollegeBarriersCorporate InnovationEnvironmental LeadershipMeaningful WorkSandy Macdonald

• Biden’s hefty to-do list starts with a flurry of orders

  WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden has given himself an imposing to-do list for his earliest days as president and many promises to keep over the longer haul.Overshadowing everything at the very start is Biden’s effort to win congressional approval of a $1.9 trillion plan to combat the coronavirus and the economic misery it has caused.But climate change, immigration, health care and more will be competing for attention — and dollars. Altogether Biden has laid out an ambitious if not always detailed set of plans and promises across the range of public policy.Drawn from a review of his campaign statements and a recent memo from Ron Klain, who’ll be his chief of staff, here’s a sampling of measures to expect right away, around the corner and beyond:WEDNESDAY, after the inauguration, mostly by executive action:— Declaration that the U.S. is rejoining Paris climate accord.— Declaration that the U.S. is rejoining World Health Organization.— Ethical standards for his administration and an order prohibiting interference in the operations of the Justice Department from other parts of government. — Start of a process to restore 100 public health and environmental rules that the Obama administration created and President Donald Trump eliminated or weakened.— Start of a process to rejoin the deal restraining Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.— Executive action to end travel restrictions on people from a variety of Muslim-majority countries.— Executive action to protect from deportation people who came to the country illegally as children.— Executive action to make masks mandatory on federal property and when travelling out of state. Others will be asked to wear masks for 100 days.— Steps to extend pandemic-era restrictions on evictions and foreclosures.— Legislation to go to Congress proposing to repeal liability protections for gun manufacturers and tightening some other aspects of gun control.— Immigration legislation to go to Congress as part of an effort to offer a path to citizenship for 11 million people in the U.S. illegally and to codify protections for people who came illegally as children.— Education Department to be asked to extend the existing pause on student loan payments and interest for millions with student debt.___THURSDAY— Executive action laying out new steps to expand virus testing, protect workers and set new public health standards.___FRIDAY— Directive to agencies to take unspecified immediate action to deliver economic relief from the pandemic.___BY FEB. 1— Executive actions to strengthen “buy American” provisions.— Executive actions to address climate change.— First steps to expand access to health care, for low-income women, women of color and other segments of the population.— First steps to reunite families still separated at the Mexican border.___BEYOND (some may be tried sooner)— Ensure 100 million vaccines have been given before the end of his first 100 days.— Ensure 100 federally supported vaccination centers are up and running in his first month.— Expand use of the Defense Production Act to direct the manufacture of critical pandemic supplies. — Win passage of a $2 trillion climate package to get the U.S. to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.— Seek passage of a “Medicare-like public option” to compete alongside private insurance markets for working-age Americans; increase existing premium subsidies.— Eliminate certain corporate tax cuts where possible, by executive action, while doubling the levies U.S. firms pay on foreign profits.— Make a plan within 100 days to end homelessness.— Expand legal immigration slots.— Freeze deportations for 100 days, then restore the Obama-era principle of deporting foreigners who are seen as posing a national security threat or who have committed crimes in addition to the crime of illegal entry, thereby pulling back the broad deportation policy of the Trump years.— Halt financing of further construction of the wall along the Mexican border.— Within 100 days, establish a police oversight commission to combat institutional racism by then. — Reinstate federal guidance, issued by Obama and revoked by Trump, to protect transgender students’ access to sports, bathrooms and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.— Ensure taxes are not raised on anyone making under $400,000.— Restore Obama-era rules on campus sexual misconduct and a policy that aimed to cut federal money to for-profit colleges that left students with heavy debt they can’t pay back.— Support legislation to make two years of community college free and to make public colleges free for families with incomes below $125,000, with no repayment of student loans required for people who make less than $25,000 a year and, for others, no repayment rate above 5% of discretionary income.— Support increasing the national minimum wage to $15.— Try to win passage of a plan to spend $700 billion boosting manufacturing and research and development.— Establish a commission to study expanding the Supreme Court.Immigration LegislationIranDeportationPoliticsPresidential ElectionCampaign MoneyTrump CampaignGovernmentAPWorld Health OrganizationThe Justice DepartmentMuslimEducation DepartmentMexicanMedicareJoe BidenRon KlainDonald Trump

• Live Updates: Congress gears up as hearings for Biden's Cabinet nominations set to begin today

  The first hearings for President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet nominations are set to begin on Tuesday, just one day before his inauguration on Jan. 20. The action kicks off in the morning, with the Senate Finance Committee hosting Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen, the Senate Intelligence Committee holding a hearing for Director of National Intelligence pick Avril Haines, and Homeland Security secretary nominee Alejandro Mayorkas appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.Read Full StoryInaugurationPoliticsPresidential ElectionCongressCabinet SecretaryState SecretaryTreasuryNational IntelligenceDefenseThe Senate CommerceTransportation CommitteeMobileHearingGearsTodayJoe BidenJanet YellenAvril HainesAlejandro MayorkasPete Buttigieg