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COVID 19 and Back to School with Alexandria Ayala

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I recently spoke with Palm Beach County Young Democrats Vice President Alexandria Ayala, candidate for School Board District 2. We spoke about the ongoing pandemic and what it means for children and their families as we try to give them the best quality education in the safest way possible. When asked what makes the school board’s mission meaningful to you, she responded that she’s a big believer in education and providing opportunities to students. She also believes education is the foundation of any good society and she wants to make the county school district the example statewide as well. 

When asked her view on fully online schooling for students in the fall, she found that to be a difficult choice, but necessary, given the situation and the number of cases. Reports do show that nearly a third of children tested for COVID in Florida test positive. Since this is a novel virus, the long term effects are, as of yet, impossible to know. Ayala acknowledges that teachers and students indeed want to be in school but the current situation makes that far from feasible. She also believes in supporting teachers and says that quality education begins with the teacher in the classroom.

I also asked how online learning puts certain children at a disadvantage due to a myriad of reasons including, but not limited to, lack of resources, parents who are essential workers and cannot stay home, lack of familiarity with the software, and less interaction with their teachers. Ayala pointed out that distance learning needs a lot of improvement and sadly will delineate the haves and have nots due to the achievement gaps of working-class communities and communities of color who, on the whole, have fewer resources and less funding for education than their upper-class peers. She also mentioned the Palm Beach Economic Council worked together to purchase hotspots to augment the ability of students to access their online learning programs and said, was she on the board, that she would be talking to local educational facilities to find a reliably safe way that some students could come in to socialize and learn with their peers, in whatever form that might take.

We agree that this virus is not political, nor is it partisan. It is up to all of us to take this seriously, listen to our local and national health directors, and put our best efforts forward to beat this virus so students can once again enjoy their traditional in-class learning. One thing is clear, this is uncharted territory for parents, students, and teachers alike.

Sources:

Swisher, Skyler. “Nearly One-Third of Children Tested for COVID in Florida Are Positive. Palm Beach County's Health Director Warns of Risk of Long-Term Damage.” Sun, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 19 July 2020, www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-pbc-health-director-covid-children-20200714-xcdall2tsrd4riim2nwokvmsxm-story.html.

Hou, Chia-Yi. “The Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Learning during the Coronavirus Pandemic.” TheHill, 1 July 2020, thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/505452-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online.

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The Age of Unreliability

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Donald Trump, in order to satisfy his base, has made the Black Lives Matter movement his enemy. Recently Trump tweeted, “Any protesters... who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!” This is a stark reversal from the president’s attitude a few short weeks ago when a different group of protesters was marching on their state capitols demanding the lockdowns be ended, in fact, the president sided with those protesters and suggested: “The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire.“ 

We cannot expect the same leadership from this president as from his predecessors made evident by his countless failures to address the nation on critical issues in our time. This has not failed to have an effect on the electorate in that polls, whether you trust them or not, consistently show Biden with a small but respectable lead in many swing states and a moderate lead nationwide despite being unable to conduct the traditional campaign events. Perhaps one of the reasons Biden is polling so well is that he represents steady leadership, accountability, and respectability. Even Black Lives Matter is polling better than Trump with 67 percent of people supporting the movement and almost 7 in 10 people having a discussion about race in the last month per Pew Research Center. 

The issue of Trump is that he cannot be relied on to be the moral guide of the country despite what the most vocal televangelists might say. He has failed this country by letting a pandemic run amok, assassinating foreign enemies with disregard for the consequences, putting Wall street before Main street, and many other ways. Furthermore, in aligning BLM with ANTI-FA (Anti-Fascist) he actually is siding with pro-fascist organizations. That goes inherently against the founder’s vision of a new country one that would be free from a tyrannical king. It is time to right this wrong and in November vote Donald Trump out of the office and end our national embarrassment. We are battling two pandemics, the COVID-19 and racism, neither one trump is equipped nor willing to fight. 

Citations

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February 2020 Policy Update

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Local

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link and Palm Beach County Young Democrats VP Alexandria Ayala

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Link and Palm Beach County Young Democrats VP Alexandria Ayala

  1. PBC elections office hacked in 2016 by ransomware.

    • The attack occurred at the main headquarters, not the tabulation warehouse where the machines are kept.

    • Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, Wendy Link, says it was not connected to the two Florida attacks made by Russia to influence the election and voter information was not accessed. No ransom was paid.

    • Florida Secretary of State, Laurel Lee, noted that the State Department conducted an “elections-specific risk assessment” across the state, and has five “cyber navigators” to help election supervisors with issues

State

  1. Governor and Republicans in the state legislature are trying to cut the office of energy from Nikki Fried’s department of agriculture and consumer services. Similar occurrences in Wisconsin and North Carolina after Democratic Governors took office. The Republican-led state legislature in the lame-duck session tried to limit the executive powers that the new governor would have to make several high-level appointments. The law was struck down by a judge.

  2. 2020 Python Bowl took place in late January highlighting the danger of invasive species to the everglades and the native wildlife that live in and around the area.

Federal

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  1. In Florida, the primary election is March 17.

    • The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, February 18.

    • Early voting in Florida for the primary election starts March 7 and ends on the 15.

    • The deadline to request a "vote by mail" ballot is Saturday, March 7.

    • https://www.pbcelections.org

  2. Public student loan forgiveness being cut by trump

    “The program, enacted by President George W. Bush in 2007, allows borrowers who work in certain public or nonprofit sector jobs to have their federal student loan debt erased after making on-time payments for 10 years.”

    • In 2019, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the program costs $12 billion annually.

    • only spark animosity between the parties. The PSLF program remains very strict with 1% of borrowers having their applications accepted as of 2018.

  3. Roger Stone, a Trump campaign consultant, famous for his tattoo of Richard Nixon, received a reduced sentence request at the direction of AG Bill Barr shortly after Trump criticized the sentence length on Twitter. 

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January 2020 Policy Update

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Local

State

Federal

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There's One Thing Left For Millennial's To Do: Vote!

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There’s one thing all of us are certain to hear during every election cycle: it’s the most important of our lifetime. In fact, we hear it so often that many of us have become immune to what it’s implying – except for the fact that this year, it might actually be true. Of course, while every prior election has been significant in its own way, the results of the 2016 election have redefined “importance” in ways none of us ever imagined. On a national level, our democracy is functional but fragile, as the current administration continues to threaten the American institutions that keep us stable; on a state level, our challenges demand solutions that can no longer be postponed by ineffective, status quo governing.

While the choices we need to make seem obvious, they remain dependent on our collective motivation to make them. This starts with my generation: millennial s

Political complacency has been a stigma that has continually plagued millennial s, even as we have surpassed the baby boomers in becoming the largest voting demographic in the nation. Our lack of interest is used as a tool for blame on election outcomes, and when we finally do show the motivation to take action, it’s usually seen as nothing more than an incoherent and poorly executed excuse to complain.

To some degree, the numbers reflect this reality: in 2012, 49% of 18-35 year old’s turned out to vote; in 2016, that number increased to 50 - a whopping 1%. The numbers for midterm elections, as you can imagine, are far less.

However, this generation now has the opportunity to change this conversation more decidedly – and the proof of this change seems to be occurring throughout the nation. Millennial s are beginning to age – finishing their education, starting careers, settling in locations, and starting families – making the importance of the issues, and how those issues affect the future – more firmly in reach. Much of this, in turn, has motivated more millennial s to run for office than ever before – in fact, I was one of them during this year’s primary here in Palm Beach County.

At the same time, the excuses often used to ignore political conversation are dwindling, too. Because this generation is more proficient and adaptable with technology, social media, and the rapid evolution of both, conversation about the issues that surround our politics is more available, more effortless, and less avoidable than at any point prior.

Yet, for as much as these indicators show that the level of engagement might be changing, they will only have a minimal impact as long as people stay home on Election Day.

In years past, not showing up to vote may have seemed like a more acceptable option, since the choices available to us often felt like simple ideological differences that were conventional, ordinary, and safe. Today, the possibility of a president left unchecked, or a state that continues to find little urgency in correcting the vastness of our environmental crises, addressing our educational priorities, and establishing more acceptable standards of living are nothing short of a series of reckless scenarios that can be easily avoided.

For millennials, the results of inaction are perhaps the most consequential. This is the generation that will be around to witness rising seas, to work toward vanishing social security, to send their kids to schools that lack proper funding – and protection.

Those are risks that none of us can possibly accept.

With that, I leave my fellow millennial s with the following message: jeopardizing our entire future would be a tragic price to pay for our failure to spend less than 15 minutes filling out a ballot. In just over a month, let’s finally put this stigma behind us by taking action, showing up to vote, and making the difference. Your happy hour that Tuesday will be a real reason to celebrate.

If you’d like to hear more of Ryan’s thought’s you can follow him on Facebook here.