Dear Commons Community,

The K-12 school news in New York yesterday was that 51,000 more students opted for in-person learning during the City’s recent and probably last enrollment period for this school year.  This brings the total number of students who have opted to return to in-person classes to 351,000 out of a total of 1 million. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter were expecting that larger numbers of students would opt for in-person learning.  The local news station, WPIX, has an article on this development in this morning’s edition.  My colleague, David Bloomfield, is quoted in the piece.   Here is an excerpt.

“Their [de Blasio and Porter] announcement came on the same day that a new Dept. of Education rule went into effect that raises the maximum number of COVID cases allowed before a school has to close. As of Monday, four unrelated cases within a school shuts it down, up from two cases, previously.

The changes made some parents uncomfortable, including Paulette Ha-Healey, an activist with Parents for Responsive Equitable Safe Schools, or PRESS.

“We don’t believe the buildings are safe,” she said in an interview.  “Two-thirds of our families who have children enrolled in public school right now have opted to stay remote for over a year.”

What’s more, said Ha-Healey, how the city is handling the in-person situation currently, doesn’t boost her confidence about the next school year.  

“The pompousness of thinking that it’s going to change come September is delusional, and reckless, and harmful,” she said.  

The mayor and schools chancellor said that they think most families have gotten used to learning remotely, and that’s why they chose, by and large, not to change to in-person instruction this school year.  

David Bloomfield, a professor of educational leadership, law and policy at Brooklyn College, agreed that many families have chosen to continue remote instruction because they’re used to it.  

“You don’t know, day to day, whether the school will be live or remote” due to COVID-19 closures so far this year, he said.

Bloomfield added that neither the city nor families should assume that the new school year will be an easy transition from the situation in place now.  

“We’re still going to be in some sort of limbo,” he cautioned.  “If there are degrees of limbo, with the limbo bar going up and down, that’s the way it’s going to be, come the fall.”  

For now, some New York public school parents who’ve chosen to have their children attend school in person, said that schools are doing their best to meet their needs.  

Marlene Beltran is the mother of a kindergartener in East Harlem. She said that his school is diligently taking precautions.  

“Like taking the distance, and cleaning everything for them,” she said. 

Lindsay Malanga has two sixth grade children in public school on the Upper East Side, and is herself an educator.  She said that while she feels good about her family’s decision to send the children to school in person all year, their schools have had to shut down multiple times due to COVID-19.  She also said that the city needs to better understand that not every family is like hers, and that remote learning, or a hybrid of remote and in-person learning, may be better for some families.  She said the need is particularly strong as the city looks ahead to summer school, and next school year.

“The city needs to be creative and figure out a way to provide even more choice to families, and make them all high quality choices,” she said.

Dr. Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior medical advisor, said that the city needs to ensure it’s aware of parents’ needs, even as the overall situation for in-person schooling evolves.  

“We’re going to see more eligibility, [and] availability for vaccines,” Varma said. “We also need to continue to listen, and try to understand and address the concerns of people who still are worried later on.”

The 51,000 students who’ve chosen to transition to in-person instruction will be added to the rolls of about 350,000 students who are already learning in-person at least a couple of days per week.  At least 650,000 students have chosen to remain all-remote. The group of students being added to the in-person roster will return to classrooms on April 26, according to the mayor.

The new influx of students is not expected to impact the number of days per week that current in-person students are scheduled to be in the classroom, de Blasio said.

Friday marked the final day for families to choose to send their children back to school buildings for the remainder of the academic year.

De Blasio had announced the new opt-in period in March after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed guidelines for social distancing in classrooms, allowing students to sit 3 feet apart.

The revised COVID-19 recommendations represented a turn away from the 6-foot standard that forced many schools to remove desks from classrooms, stagger scheduling and take other steps to keep children away from one another.

Chancellor Porter said there are still about 28,000 teachers with health accommodations or exemptions that allow them to work from home because of COVID-19, which also impacts the city’s ability to fully bring students back to classrooms.

“We’re working to reset for next year. We are in a very different place than we were a year ago today, and so we’re looking forward to resetting what our system looks like with our staff members coming back,” Porter said.

When asked about the next academic year, de Blasio said he expects “an entirely different environment” as more New Yorkers get vaccinated against COVID every day.

‘So, we’ll be resetting all the rules as we go into the next school year,’ he added.”

I believe that New York City as well as many other school districts across the country are finding that until parents feel completely assured about the safety of the schools, they would rather have remote instruction for their children.  This will continue to be the case at least through the 2021-2022 school year.

Tony

New York State Budget 2021 and 2022

Dear Commons Community,

Last week, New York’s Democratic state legislature passed a $212 billion budget for the 2022 fiscal year that will raise $4.5 billion in taxes on millionaires and corporations to fund economic relief for schools, undocumented immigrants, and housing assistance.

Cuomo, who beat back other tax hikes for a decade, has promised to sign it.

The progressive slant of the tax-and-spending legislation marks a tidal change in Empire State politics that would have been hard to imagine six months ago, let alone at the start of Cuomo’s tenure in 2011.  As reported by the Huffington Post, the Associated Press, and other media.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, declared. “We were able to achieve so many things that the governor has resisted for so long.”

It’s possible because of a combination of massive progressive gains in the state legislature, aggressive pressure tactics and the rapid decline in Cuomo’s influence, all of which converged to turn New York into a national leader in left-leaning economic policy.

“The Biden administration should be looking to New York to say, ‘This is what Democrats can and should be doing to deliver for working-class people,’” said Cea Weaver, campaign coordinator for the tenants’ rights group Housing Justice for All. “It’s exciting!”

A Backlog Of Progressive Priorities

Although New York was facing a $15 billion budget deficit due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, federal aid and new tax increases allowed the state government to adopt a $212 billion budget. It’s a significantly larger sum than both the $177 billion budget that Cuomo signed a year ago at the height of the pandemic or the $175 billion budget a year before that when COVID-19 was still inconceivable.

The new budget has its share of standard Democratic priorities, but the suite of laws that collectively authorize spending priorities and regulations for the coming fiscal year also introduces a host of groundbreaking initiatives. The state has extended its eviction moratorium for another year and created a $2.4 billion fund for low- and middle-income tenants to pay off as much as 12 months’ rent payments for which they are in arrears because of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For the first time in a decade, the state is due to fully fund public schools in accordance with a 2006 court ruling requiring New York to spend billions of dollars more to fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide residents an adequate education. The new state budget increases the court-mandated funding, known as Foundation Aid, by $1.4 billion, enabling New York to make up for years of underpayment.

In addition, New York has created a $2.1 billion “excluded workers” fund that makes undocumented immigrant workers who lost work eligible for up to $15,600 in unemployment benefits. Because of these workers’ immigration status, they have been ineligible for federal benefits.

Big Business Loses Its Guardian Angel

The most radical element of New York’s budget, though, is the way it funds these priorities by asking the state’s wealthiest residents to pay more in taxes.

New York’s millionaires are now due to pay the highest state income taxes in the country. 

New Yorkers earning $1 million to $5 million a year would see their top tax rate go from 8.82% to 9.65%. The budget creates income tax brackets subjecting earnings from $5 million to $25 million to a 10.3% tax rate and income above $25 million to a 10.9% tax.

The state’s corporate income tax rate is also going from 6.5% to 7.25% for companies with incomes of $5 million a year or more.

Providing New Yorkers with economic opportunity “means balancing tax structures, balancing wealth inequality,” said state Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo (D), a South Bronx progressive. “This is a budget that takes a serious attempt at doing that.”

New York’s corporate community has been less enthusiastic.

Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a big business lobby, told Daily News columnist Errol Louis that raising taxes in spite of the federal aid the state is due to receive is “pure venom.”

Wylde’s criticism reflects the frustration of the larger business community with its diminished clout in Albany.

The most obvious short-term reason for corporate New York’s losing hand is the declining influence of Cuomo. The business-friendly governor has spent the past month fending off calls for his resignation over allegations of sexual misconduct and for covering up the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state’s nursing homes. 

Since he has been focused on shoring up his public image, Cuomo was less directly involved in negotiating the budget than he ordinarily would be. 

What’s more, Democrats in the state legislature have the votes to override a veto by Cuomo. 

Given Cuomo’s desire to retain support in the state Assembly, which has the authority to impeach him, it is unlikely that he would risk alienating Democrats with a contentious budget fight, according to Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and centrist political consultant.

“Cuomo didn’t have the power to stop them,” Tusk said.

Changing The Players

Cuomo’s new weakness, however, is only one of several reasons for the progressive nature of the budget. A decade of progressive organizing had shifted the ground underneath Cuomo long before scandals reduced his leverage.

For his first eight years in office, Cuomo maintained a business-friendly consensus in Albany by doing what he could to keep Republicans in charge of the state Senate. For example, he quietly blessed the formation of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a group of rogue Senate Democrats that effectively guaranteed GOP control of the chamber. 

But the 2016 election of Donald Trump as president radicalized New York Democrats. These Democrats, eager to fight back against Republicans, were furious to learn about the IDC’s existence, providing an organic constituency for a Democratic takeover of the state Senate led by seasoned outfits like the New York Working Families Party (WFP). 

“There is a bigger organized left than has existed recently and is working together with organized labor and some nonprofits to bring more people into politics,” said Weaver, a member of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which also experienced explosive growth during this period.

Although Cuomo brokered a deal to dissolve the IDC in April 2018, progressives refused to give up their campaign against the ex-IDC members. They succeeded in ousting six out of eight, signaling that New York Democrats were prepared to punish lawmakers who betrayed the party’s core principles.

There were a lot more receptive ears on the inside than there normally would be. Michael Gianaris, New York state Senate deputy majority leader

For its part, DSA helped elect Julia Salazar to the state Senate in a separate 2018 primary challenge. The Brooklyn Democrat has since been joined by five more DSA-aligned Democrats.

Facing a Democratic-controlled legislature for the first time in 2019, Cuomo proved more pliant. He reluctantly agreed to sign a bill strengthening rent regulations for the state’s population of struggling tenants, defying the real estate industry with which he was usually aligned. 

Weaver sees the bill’s passage as a key turning point.

“Ever since 2019 … organized people are able to outmaneuver the governor and win truly transformative, redistributive legislation in Albany,” she said.

A slew of Republican retirements paved the way for another watershed election for Democrats in 2020. In November, New York Democrats won a veto-proof supermajority in the state Senate, complementing its existing supermajority in the Assembly.

The progressive changes in this year’s budget would likely not have been possible without the larger Democratic majorities in the legislature.

“There were a lot more receptive ears on the inside than there normally would be,” state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat, said. 

Winning The Game

Even before the 2020 election results were known, a coalition of groups that included the New York WFP, the union-backed Stronger Economy for All coalition and Weaver’s Housing Justice for All were plotting a strategy to force Cuomo to raise taxes. 

The initiative that emerged from those discussions was the Invest in Our New York (IONY) campaign, which formally launched in January. 

The campaign’s stakeholders tapped Rebecca Bailin, who led a successful Riders Alliance effort to increase public transportation funding, as campaign manager. Monica Klein, a consultant for the New York WFP who ran the anti-IDC primary challengers’ press operations, would engineer the campaign’s strategic communications.

Together, Bailin and Klein crafted a simple message ― “Tax the rich” ― with a clear target: Cuomo. 

You have to have a united message and keep hammering it over and over again. Rebecca Bailin, Invest in Our New York campaign

“You have to have a united message and keep hammering it over and over again,” Bailin said. 

Every Friday morning, IONY leaders met with a group of core progressive lawmakers, or “champions,” to talk strategy. 

To help lawmakers win over wayward colleagues, IONY combined traditional activism events with resources aimed at winning the intellectual war.

The coalition released a report on March 19 showing how the wealth of New York’s super-rich exploded during the pandemic and assembled an open letter from wealthy New Yorkers asking Cuomo to raise their own taxes.

When it came to rebutting claims that tax hikes would prompt a mass exodus from New York, the research of Cornell University sociologist Cristobal Young, author of “The Myth of Millionaire Tax Flight,” proved critical.

Based on an analysis of a dozen years of tax returns for 3.7 million Americans with annual incomes of $1 million or more, Young found that 0.3% of the total moved to lower-tax states.

Tusk conceded that the tax hikes were not likely to trigger a flood of wealthy departures from New York but warned that “since so few people pay such a high percentage of the taxes, even a modest flight can cause a lot of problems.”

“I hope the new spending does more than just make the left feel good because otherwise it would have accomplished more either by remaining in the economy or going to people directly through [universal basic income],” Tusk added.

In the end, IONY and its allies employed a mixture of policy horse-trading and grassroots pressure to cajole just enough moderate Democratic holdouts.

Volunteers from New York City DSA canvassed the neighborhoods of fence-sitting lawmakers, placing custom-made door hangers at voters’ doors with the office phone number of the lawmaker and a model script to use during a call.

In the course of negotiations, plenty of progressive revenue raisers got left on the cutting-room floor, including a tax on large inheritances, a financial transactions tax and a long-term capital gains surtax.

The left wants that additional revenue so New York can, among other things, enact universal pre-kindergarten education, adopt single-payer health care and provide housing vouchers to the state’s homeless population.”

Good analysis!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

On Saturday, more than 120 CEOs, business leaders, lawyers and experts came together to discuss further action against voting suppression legislation nationwide.

The group discussed numerous options to push back against the Republican-led efforts to restrict access to the ballot box, including pulling their donations, refusing to move business or jobs to states that pass restrictive measures, and relocating events, said one of the call’s organizers, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld.  As reported by NBC News.

“It was incredibly concrete,” said Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management.

The meeting was first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.

Public statements, support for federal election legislation and involvement in voting rights-related legal action are all under consideration, said Mike Ward, co-founder of the Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan group that encourages civic participation by businesses.

“This priority on democracy is being driven by consumers and by employees,” Ward said.

A wide variety of industries were represented: financial, pharmaceutical, travel, technology, retail and transportation. Notable attendees were Brad Karp of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments; Chip Bergh of Levi Strauss; and Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons.

Representatives of AMC Theaters and three major airlines also attended.

Major corporations are getting involved as Republicans work to advance hundreds of restrictions across the country, changes that voting rights advocates and civil rights groups argue would disproportionately affect voters of color. Several major corporations spoke out this month against a restrictive new law in Georgia and legislation pending in Texas, while Major League Baseball announced that it would move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of the state’s law.

Republicans immediately pushed back.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said it is “stupid” for corporations to take stances on divisive political issues, before warning corporate America to “stay out of politics.” (He softened his stance a day later, saying: “I didn’t say that very artfully yesterday. They’re certainly entitled to be involved in politics. They are. My principal complaint is they didn’t read the darn bill,” referring to Georgia’s recently enacted law.)

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, said that the corporate response was “nonsense” and that American Airlines’ CEO should “go away” after the airline denounced a GOP-sponsored bill under consideration in Texas, where it is headquartered. Republican legislators in Texas advanced another restrictive voting bill out of the state House on Thursday.

Sonnenfeld said he and other organizers invited more than 120 CEOs and hoped a dozen would join. Ninety turned out with just 48 hours’ notice — with a few calling in from Augusta, Georgia, where the Masters golf tournament was underway — for the call at 2 p.m. ET Saturday. Organizers left the Zoom room open after they wrapped up at 3:10 p.m., because attendees were still active in the chat.

“The overriding spirit is they don’t want politicians using wedge issues to try and solidify their hold on office, because that leads to angry communities and finger-pointing workforces and divided shareholders. It makes their job as CEOs harder to manage these constituents. They want social harmony,” Sonnenfeld said.

Ward said the Black Economic Alliance is coordinating a public statement that is likely to be released this week.

Ward said he is helping organizers follow up with companies about their responses and expects a number of companies to come out in favor of federal voting legislation.

House Democrats recently passed a sweeping voting rights bill, the For the People Act, which would create a federal floor of election access and regulations. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has promised it would get a vote in the full Senate, but its chances of passage are slim because of the 60-vote threshold in chamber, which is split 50-50.

Democrats are also expected to reintroduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would update and strengthen the Voting Rights Act, this year.

Sonnenfeld said the strong attendance on the call as a “statement of defiance” against Republican pushback to corporate criticism.

“We had the top brass of American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta. If they’re going to boycott airlines, they better have their own jet,” he said.

Encouraging action on the part of corporate America!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

La Soufrière, the highest peak on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, began to explosively erupt Friday morning, forcing thousands to evacuate as ash and smoke filled the sky. And larger eruptions may be on the way. As reported by NPR and the Associated Press

Richard Robertson, a geologist with the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, said the volcano is in its explosive eruption phase. The initial explosion of dust and debris St. Vincent experienced Friday is likely just the beginning.

“The explosive eruption has started and it is possible you could have more explosions like these,” he said during a press conference. “The first one is not necessarily the worst one, the first bang is not necessarily the biggest bang this volcano will give.”

Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ordered residents on the northern side of the island to evacuate Thursday out of the red volcano danger zone. The Associated Press reported some 16,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

Soot and ash fell throughout the night, blanketing neighborhoods and streets across the island Saturday morning. Robertson said the ash is expected to fall for the next handful of days, possibly even weeks.

The dome of the volcano, which is about 3,100 feet long and more than 820 feet wide, was destroyed in Friday’s eruption, catapulting 460 million cubic feet of debris into the atmosphere. The ash could reach as far as Jamaica and parts of South America, Robertson said.

The last time La Soufrière had a major eruption was in 1979, which lasted several weeks. This eruption, Robertson said, “will more than likely be a bigger eruption than 1979 was.” He added, “We don’t know how much material is down there that wants to come out.”

The fine ash particles, which are difficult to clean up, pose a respiratory risk, especially for people with underlying issues. Robertson recommended that individuals who have decided to stay on the island do their best to clean the ash before it settles or gets wet.

With more potential eruptions looming, Robertson advised residents to move as far south as possible. La Soufrière could be heard rumbling and grumbling throughout the night, he said, from the sound of magma moving inside the volcano.

Nature reveals its fury in many ways. 

May God help the people of St. Vincent!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Last week Egypt held a grand parade (see video above) of 22 ancient royal mummies as they were transferred across the capital of Cairo.  

Authorities shut down roads along the Nile for the elaborate royal procession dubbed the Golden Parade, designed to attract interest in Egypt’s rich collections of antiquities.  As reported by Global News and Reuters.

The convoy transported 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom ancient era, in shock-absorber vehicles and specially designed capsules filled with nitrogen to ensure they are protected.

The national treasures traveled about 3 miles from the Egyptian Museum, opened in 1902 in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, to their new home in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat — the site of Egypt’s capital under the Umayyad dynasty after the Arab conquest.

Moving the mummies has reignited talk of a pharaoh’s curse, particularly on social media, after the ship blocked the Suez Canal, a train crash killed dozens late last month and a building collapsed in central Cairo.

“Death will come on quick wings for those who disturb the king’s peace,” the warning on the tomb of Tutankhamun read, before British archaeologist Howard Carter opened it in 1922.

Members in his expedition later succumbed to freak accidents and death, fueling the myth of the curse, although archaeologists and scientists now say they were likely linked to being exposed to dust and germs in the sealed caverns.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass dismissed the rumors.

“Before the mummies will be walking today in the streets of Cairo things happened in Egypt: the boat in the Suez Canal, also the trains had an accident and a building collapsed. Everyone says this is the curse of the mummy, but I say there is no curse of the mummy,” he told NBC News. “The curse is good for TV, for movies and newspapers, but it’s not true. There’s no curse at all.”

Instead, Hawass said locals and foreign tourists will be able to see for themselves the “secrets” held by each mummy once they’re on display.

“The parade is very important not only for Egypt but for the whole world because 22 kings will walk in the streets of Cairo as magic,” he added.

Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two batches in 1881 and 1898 at the complex of mortuary temples of Deir Al Bahari in Luxor and at the nearby Valley of the Kings.

The oldest mummy in the group is that of King Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in 16th century B.C. and is thought to have met a violent death.

The parade will also include the mummies of Ramses II, Seti I and Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, who were responsible for military expeditions, trade networks and the building of vast monuments and artistic creations.

“By doing it like this, with great pomp and circumstance, the mummies are getting their due,” Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at American University in Cairo, told Reuters. “These are the kings of Egypt, these are the pharaohs. And so, it is a way of showing respect.”

An incredible display!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

A “lost golden city” in Egypt dating back 3,400 years has been revealed in what is being called the most important discovery in the country since the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922 (see video above).

The city, buried under sands near the modern-day city of Luxor for three millennia, was uncovered in September 2020 by a team led by Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and was revealed to the world earlier this past week.  As reported by NBC News and Reuters.

“This is amazing because actually we know a lot about tombs and afterlife,” said Hawass while giving NBC News a tour of the site. “But now we discover a large city to tell us for the first time about the life of the people during the Golden Age.”

“Each piece of sand can tell us the lives of the people, how the people lived at the time, how the people lived in the time of the golden age, when Egypt ruled the world,” he said.

“We spent a lot of time talking about mummies and talking about how they died, the ritual of their deaths. And this is the ritual of their lives.”

The city is the largest uncovered from ancient Egypt and is only partly excavated. Artifacts including rings, scarabs and colored pottery confirmed the dating to the reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C.

Hawass’ team was searching for Tutankhamen’s Mortuary Temple and was surprised to instead find a series of mud walls rising out of the sand, some about 10 feet tall and built in a zig-zag design characteristic of the period. Other archaeologists had previously searched for and failed to find the city.

With its storage houses, grinding stones, ovens and areas for meat production and everyday tools still intact, the site gives a rare glimpse into a working Egyptian city.

“The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamen,” Betsy Brian, a professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University, said in the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities’ news release.

Curiously, the team uncovered a buried skeleton lying with arms outstretched to his side and the remains of a rope around his knees. The ministry’s statement described this as “odd” and said it would be investigated.

A vessel, containing about 22 pounds of boiled or dried meat, came with an inscription. “That Year 37, dressed meat for the third Heb Sed festival from the slaughterhouse of the stockyard of Kha made by the butcher luwy.”

The Egyptian team said this statement, which names two people who lived and worked in the city, also confirms that the city was active during Amenhotep III’s reign alongside his son Akhenaten, who was succeeded by Tutankhamen.

Future excavations on a cemetery and unopened tombs at the site may help to answer even more questions about the period.

Hannah Pethen, a British archaeologist and honorary fellow of the University of Liverpool, who has worked on excavations in Egypt but wasn’t involved in the Luxor dig, said the discovery was a landmark in the understanding of the region.

“Everybody loves the thought of an exciting, untouched tomb, but actually this is probably more significant and more important than if it was a pharaoh’s tomb,” she said.

“We have a lot of tombs and we know a lot about them, but we don’t have a lot of evidence about how Egyptians lived and worked in their cities.”

The newly discovered city is now one of three sites from around the same period — Rameses III’s temple at Medinet Habu and Amenhotep III’s temple at Memnon — and the newly discovered city’s key role may be in confirming that things found there were common across the empire.

“This is really the major settlement on the west bank of the Nile from this period, so it’s going to be directly associated with the tombs and cemeteries there, so we’re adding to our understanding of that landscape. We have tombs, temples and now we have quite a big city,” Pethen said.

One of the biggest mysteries of the period is why Akhenaten and his queen, Nefertiti, abandoned their religion and kingdom in Thebes (modern-day Luxor) to build a new city, where they worshipped the sun. Some hope the lost city will provide clues, but not everyone is optimistic.

“I wouldn’t put any money on it. Ahkenaten has a habit of keeping his secrets — we’ve had several opportunities over the last 150 years to learn more, but somehow it’s never quite come off, ” Pethen said.

But as Hawass put it, our understanding of the ancient world is changing all the time: “You never know what the sand of Egypt might hide.”

I had the pleasure of visiting Luxor and its temples in 2010.  I thought it marvelous and breathtaking then.  With this discovery, it will be more so!

Tony

Stacey Abrams

Dear Commons Community,

A number of states across the country have either enacted or proposed changes to voting procedures and election laws.  Georgia has been at the forefront of these changes.

The Associated Press sat down with Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in 2018 and a leading voice on ballot access, to talk about the new state law that changes several Georgia voting rules.  Here is a transcript of the interview that has been condensed for brevity.

“AP: Please explain what you mean when you say this new law will make it harder for Georgians to vote, particularly Black and other minority Georgians.

ABRAMS: In the 2018 election and the 2020 election, there has been an increased use of early voting, in-person absentee voting, use of drop boxes. And these are all of the things that have been tightened. The change from (using) signature verification to using an ID to submit your absentee ballot is a direct result to lawsuits that we filed to allow more people to use absentee balloting.

These are (new) laws that respond to an increase in voting by people of color by constricting, removing or otherwise harming their ability to access these perquisites. It doesn’t say brown and Black people can’t vote. It simply says we’re going to remove things that we saw you use to your benefit; we’re going to make it harder for you to access these opportunities.

AP: Gov. Brian Kemp has been assertive in defending the law. He focuses on provisions like codifying weekend early voting, setting aside money to make state IDs free. Judged individually, are some of these good moves?

ABRAMS: This now gives them permission to shorten your early voting time. Instead of it being 7 (a.m.) to 7 (p.m.), it now can be 9-to-5, and the county has to decide to give you more power. Prior to this, it was assumed everyone can vote from 7 to 7. (Editor’s note: Old Georgia law said early voting would be conducted during “normal business hours,” though most counties had longer hours. The new law specifies a weekday window of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. but allows counties to expand to a 12-hour window.)

I object to a characterization that suggests they have given something that did not exist. What they’ve done is actually placed restrictions.

When it comes to free ID, the notion of it being free is actually a misnomer. You may not have to pay a fee, (but) you’ve got to pay for the birth certificate, you’ve got to pay for all the documentation that leads up to being able to get that ID. And there is a cost, especially to rural communities, that often do not have transportation or access to the DMVs, which are not on every street corner. So there’s a very real cost to voters to secure this ID.

AP: Do you support consumer boycotts and corporate responses like Major League Baseball moving the All-Star Game from metro Atlanta?

ABRAMS: I grew up in the Deep South. Boycotts are the reason that I have the ability to make this argument as a free citizen. I understand the impulse of boycotting, but I also understand that boycotts operate differently depending on your targets and depending on your timeline. I do not believe that a boycott at this moment is beneficial to the victims of these bills. I do believe it is absolutely necessary for corporations to show their goodwill. They have to publicly denounce these bills, they have to support and invest in voting rights expansion, and they need to support the federal voting rights standards.

AP: Can you talk about how voting is rooted in your United Methodist faith, growing up with a strong, religious background and both your parents being clergy?

ABRAMS: I grew up in a family that not only believed in our faith as a religious identity, but believed our faith as a responsibility and lived experience. For me, defending the right to vote is not just about defending it for people of color. My push is that we should have expansion of the right to vote for every community that faces barriers, including the disabled, those who are returning citizens (released from prison), the poor, young people. Unfortunately, the targets tend to be those very same communities. And thus, most of the work that I do is about lifting up their voices and protecting their right to vote.

AP: Bottom line, could Democrats have won in Georgia in 2020 under these new rules? Could you win a governor’s race if you run again?

ABRAMS: I think it is possible for Democrats to win … but I will say this: It is wrong for any state to preclude access, especially under the guise and under the baldfaced lie that this is an expansion. … We should not be thinking about these laws in the context of who can win an election, except to the extent that Republicans are gaming the system because they’re afraid of losing an election.

AP: Democrats’ pending voting bills in Washington wouldn’t supersede everything in state laws, but how much could they mitigate the negative effects you see in state actions?

ABRAMS: It would standardize the laws so that our democracy does not depend on our geography. Congress (can) say we will have a standardized election system that guarantees automatic voter registration, in-person early voting and no-excuses mail balloting. Those three pieces alone absolutely create … a level opportunity for voters regardless of race and regardless of geography to participate in our elections.

AP: Can you see Democrats passing any voting changes without changing the Senate filibuster rule? And how does it strike you to hear President Biden say the filibuster is a vestige of the Jim Crow era but that he doesn’t necessarily support completely scrapping the rule?

ABRAMS: While I am disappointed by the recent op-ed by Sen. Joe Manchin that says that he’s not willing to entertain any changes to the filibuster, I do believe his good intention that we should be able to achieve bipartisan support. … I do believe that there’s legitimate argument to be made that carving out an exception to protect the fundamental rights of democracy, and participation in democracy, is worthy of an exemption to the filibuster. I can understand the hesitation of completely scrapping it, including the hesitation expressed by the president, because the worry is that if you remove it completely, you no longer have any controls over what can happen. Although it was used by avowed Southern racists to block civil rights, the original intention was not grounded necessarily in abject racism.

AP: But do you see any scenario where voting rights legislation gets 10 Republican votes required to pass under current filibuster rules?

ABRAMS: I think that it is unlikely. (But) I am a woman of faith. And so my approach is to pray for what I need but work for what I think needs to be done.

AP: There is an assumption that you will run for governor again next year. Is there any time frame when you will make your decision public?

ABRAMS: I am not thinking about that right now. My focus is on making certain we can have elections (with) full participation in 2022. I’m also working through my organization Fair Count on ensuring that every person who’s eligible for the (COVID-19) vaccination can get it, especially in the underserved southwest, rural area of Georgia. We’re also doing work on COVID recovery through the Southern Economic Advancement Project to ensure that recovery includes fixing the public health infrastructure that is so broken across the South.”

In my opinion, Ms. Abrams is a beacon for the Democratic Party and tells it like it is!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Amazon workers at a warehouse in Alabama yesterday voted decisively against forming a union squashing one of the most significant organizing drives  in the company’s history.  Amazon’s decisive victory deals a blow to organized labor, which had hoped the time was ripe to start making inroads.  As reported by The New York Times.

“Workers cast 1,798 votes against a union, giving Amazon enough to emphatically defeat the effort. Ballots in favor of a union trailed at 738, fewer than 30 percent of the votes tallied, according to federal officials.

The lopsided outcome at the 6,000-person warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., came even as the pandemic’s effect on the economy and the election of a pro-labor president had made the country more aware of the plight of essential workers.

Amazon, which has repeatedly quashed labor activism, had appeared vulnerable as it faced increasing scrutiny in Washington and around the world for its market power and influence. President Biden signaled support for the union effort, as did Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent. The pandemic, which drove millions of people to shop online, also raised questions about Amazon’s ability to keep those employees safe.

But in an aggressive campaign, the company argued that its workers had access to rewarding jobs without needing to involve a union. The victory leaves Amazon free to handle employees on its own terms as it has gone on a hiring spree and expanded its work force to more than 1.3 million people.

Margaret O’Mara, a professor at the University of Washington who researches the history of technology companies, said Amazon’s message that it offered good jobs with good wages had prevailed over the criticisms by the union and its supporters. The outcome, she said, “reads as a vindication.”

She added that while it was just one warehouse, the election had garnered so much attention that it had become a “bellwether.” Amazon’s victory was likely to cause organized labor to think, “Maybe this isn’t worth trying in other places,” Ms. O’Mara said.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which led the drive, blamed its defeat on what it said were Amazon’s anti-union tactics before and during the voting, which was conducted from early February through the end of last month. The union said it would challenge the result and ask federal labor officials to investigate Amazon for creating an “atmosphere of confusion, coercion and/or fear of reprisals.”

I find the margin (1,798 nays to 738 yeas) in the vote very telling!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As many four-year colleges see record numbers of applications and move through another admissions cycle with relatively optimistic prospects for fall classes, most community colleges are still struggling  with reduced enrollments. Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color and those with low incomes — populations that community colleges often serve — makes the institutions’ road to long-term recovery uncertain.  Lee Gardner in The Chronicle of Higher Education this morning examines the challenges facing community colleges.  Here is an excerpt.

“Nationally, the enrollment picture through the beginning of the spring resembles that of last fall. While undergraduate enrollment is down 4.5 percent overall compared with last spring, according to preliminary data compiled in February by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, it’s down nearly 10 percent at public two-year institutions. But the realities behind the larger enrollment slump “look very different across states, across systems, and even between schools,” says Martha M. Parham, senior vice president for public relations for the American Association of Community Colleges.

One common denominator across almost all community colleges is that lower-income and first-generation students and students of color have been disproportionately represented in the enrollment declines. In the Colorado Community College System, for example, about 15 percent fewer first-generation and Pell-eligible students enrolled this spring than last year, according to system data, and about 10 percent fewer Black and Latina/o students did. Those losses hold true across institutions, says Joseph A. Garcia, the chancellor, even at suburban campuses that managed to claw back enrollments this spring.

The wide-ranging purview of community colleges’ missions, and the varied nature of their student bodies, also complicates their enrollment stories and their efforts at recovery. Hazard Community and Technical College, in Eastern Kentucky, saw its enrollment drop in the fall of 2020, due in large part to the challenges its students faced in accessing broadband internet in the hollers of its rural Appalachian surroundings. The loss in traditional-age students was compounded by a loss in high-school-age dual-enrollment students also wrestling with remote learning. Jennifer Lindon, the president, says the college was working last fall to lure back some of its dual-enrollment students for spring semester when the local school system, plagued by Covid-19 cases, shut down completely for several weeks during November and December. By the time high schools reopened, “the students were so taxed and so stressed that they didn’t want to think about dual credit,” Lindon says. Hazard’s enrollment remains about 20 percent down from last year.

There are nearly as many wrinkles to pandemic impacts on community colleges as there are institutions themselves. At Northwestern Connecticut Community College, full-time fall enrollment was up by 7 percent compared with the fall of 2019, while part-time enrollment was down by about 12 percent. This spring, full-time enrollment is roughly flat with last spring, while part-time enrollment is down 26 percent, “but it’s actually a positive, because a lot of those part-time students have become full time students,” says Michael A. Rooke, president of Northwestern and interim provost of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system. Rooke credits the college’s ongoing campaign to encourage students to enroll full time and to take advantage of the state’s free community-college program, which is available only to those who take 12 credit hours or more.

Other Connecticut community colleges lost significant numbers of students when Covid-19 caused state correctional facilities to be locked down, cutting off students who had been attending through Second Chance Pell Grants. Asnuntuck Community College, in Enfield, for example, lost 200 incarcerated students in the fall, according to Rooke. About half of them resumed their studies this spring.

Vaccinations are beginning to lift some of the dark clouds that have been hanging over many households for the past year, but the conditions that put education out of reach for many community-college students persist. Many are still out of work, underemployed, or struggling to pay bills, Many are still dealing with young children attending school from home at least part of the time. Many are still reeling from health problems, or the grief brought on by the death or illness of loved ones.

There’s only so much community-college administrators can do against those forces, but many are doing whatever they can to help and reconnect with students. In addition to meeting their material needs by providing laptops and hotspots as well as food and other necessities, administrators at Hazard have reached out to students past and future through a broad range of channels — some more familiar from the full-court press of four-year recruiting. In addition to telephone campaigns and emails, Hazard has added two-way texting capabilities to talk to its students. Even though in-person events have been mostly off-limits, financial-aid administrators have hosted special FAFSA events to encourage students to complete the financial-aid form, and a few drive-through registration events, where students pull through in their cars to enroll and maybe win a laptop or earbuds. “We’re trying anything and everything,” Lindon says.

Laptops and new texting capability bring new expenses at a time when most community colleges have lost tuition revenue and many are worried about future state support. “Luckily, we’re part of a system,” Lindon says, and 16 institutions together can get a better price for new software than a lone campus can. But the expenses do add up. “Community colleges aren’t necessarily resourced to do broad marketing and advertising campaigns,” says Parham, of AACC. Plus, “spending public funds to do advertisements — it’s a tricky situation.”

Just as the enrollment picture for community colleges is not good, but not uniform, so is the financial picture. Tuition revenue losses are widespread, but the pandemic didn’t damage state budgets as badly as initially predicted, so some states have avoided major cuts. An analysis by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association found that state appropriations for public colleges fell by about 2 percent between the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. Some states are even planning to give colleges more money. Colorado’s General Assembly, for example, proposed restoring nearly half a billion dollars in cuts from last year’s higher-education appropriation budget and adding $100 million on top. For the state’s community-college system, that means increases of nearly 13 percent to its operating budget, and about $80 million for capital projects, says Garcia, the chancellor: “We’re actually going to do very well.”

Other institutions face difficult choices. Hazard’s budget for the current fiscal year was set last spring as roughly even with the previous year on the presumption that the worst of the pandemic would be over in a few months and a bad economy might mean strong enrollment for community colleges. Instead, the college has lost about $2 million on an operating budget of about $25 million. The college isn’t in serious financial peril, says Lindon, but “I anticipate some non-contract renewals coming up in the next budget year.”

Even as community colleges move further away from the pandemic, Covid-19 could continue to strain their coffers. State support is often based on enrollments, and if those numbers are down, and remain so for a few years, “it could be that allocations are lower in the coming years,” Parham says. In states where support is based on student performance, she adds, the switch to remote learning and the number of students who have struggled with it could also have a lingering effect.

Community-college leaders are unanimous in crediting federal stimulus money for helping their institutions weather the worst of the pandemic so far. But community-college leaders still face the challenge of stabilizing their institutions and preparing them to thrive in a post-Covid-19 world. The stimulus has helped Northwestern Connecticut, “but the thing that I have to remind people is, that is one-time money,” Rooke says. “It allows us to support our students, get us through the next fiscal year, maybe the fiscal year after that, but it’s not something we can rely on.”

Community-college leaders hold hope for further federal help. The Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan proposes $12 billion to upgrade physical and technological infrastructure and improve access at community colleges and $100 billion to improve broadband infrastructure nationwide.

At Southwest Tennessee, Hall is already looking toward the fall, both to have a better crack at getting prospective students to come, and to reach out to disconnected students to bring them back into the fold. For example, Memphis’s Shelby County School District, the largest in the state, has gone back to in-person classes. Former students who are parents may be free of the responsibility of assisting their own children’s remote learning for the first time since August. Hall’s recruiting staff will be able to get back into high schools to make the all-important connections with juniors and seniors.

Lindon is hopeful about the fall as well. Her admissions staff members have been able to return to high schools, Walmarts, and community events. They also have a host of new recruiting tools and tactics that they picked up during the pandemic. “We’ve learned some ways to be more flexible and more creative, and that’s always a good thing,” she says.

If Covid-19 has taught college leaders anything, however, it’s to not be too certain the future will cooperate with their plans. It’s still early for admissions, especially for a community college, but Hazard has about 50 fewer students admitted in the fall than it did this time last year. With vaccinations becoming more widespread every week, “I think that we’ll begin to see things kind of settle back down for the fall,” Lindon says. “But we’re still not where we want to be.”

Garcia, the Colorado chancellor, is optimistic that the pandemic has taught community colleges how to better provide students with support remotely, that their professors are more effective teachers online, and that faculty and staff members will largely be vaccinated by this summer.

But it’s too early to say much for certain about the fall in terms of who’s going to show up, or how many will. Talking to public-school educators in Colorado, Garcia says, the same first-generation and Pell-eligible students who have been most at risk of dropping out of community colleges during the pandemic “are more disengaged, are failing more classes, are not in regular contact with college counselors” as juniors and seniors in high school. That could mean declining numbers of high-school graduates who are less connected to the idea of going to college, and less prepared for transitioning to college and college-level work.

Garcia expects the effects may play out in community-college enrollments for several years, and that those students who do show up will need extra help. “We’re ready for them,” he says. “We just don’t know if they’re ready for us.”

We wish Mr. Garcia and his colleagues in the community college sector good luck!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

As more people get vaccinated and there is hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, there is interest in what the world of work will look like.  Will working remotely become the norm or will offices in major metropolitan areas such as New York and San Francisco once again teem with employees. The New York Times has an article this morning reporting that some big employers are giving up square footage as they move to remote work.  The article’s conclusion is  that this could devastate commercial building owners and cities.   Here is an excerpt.

“As office vacancies climb to their highest levels in decades with businesses giving up office space and embracing remote work, the real estate industry in many American cities faces a potentially grave threat.

Businesses have discovered during the pandemic that they can function with nearly all of their workers out of the office, an arrangement many intend to continue in some form. That could wallop the big property companies that build and own office buildings — and lead to a sharp pullback in construction, steep drops in office rents, fewer people frequenting restaurants and stores, and potentially perilous declines in the tax revenue of city governments and school districts.

In only a year, the market value of office towers in Manhattan, home to the country’s two largest central business districts, has plummeted 25 percent, according to city projections released on Wednesday, contributing to an estimated $1 billion drop-off in property tax revenue.

JPMorgan Chase, Ford Motor, Salesforce, Target and more are giving up expensive office space, and others are considering doing so. Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the largest private-sector employer in New York City, wrote in a letter to shareholders this week that remote work would “significantly reduce our need for real estate.” For every 100 employees, he said, his bank “may need seats for only 60 on average.”

And just as Coca-Cola’s profits would take a seismic hit if consumers abruptly cut back on sodas, owners of office buildings, many of which are owned by pension funds, insurance companies, individuals and other investors, could be pummeled if many businesses rent less space.

“The pandemic has proven that work from home is viable,” said Jonathan Litt, chief investment officer of Land & Buildings, a real estate investment firm that has taken a bearish view of the New York office market. “It’s not going away; businesses are going to adjust, and office real estate is going to take it on the chin during that adjustment period.”

Across the country, the vacancy rate for office buildings in city centers has steadily climbed over the past year to reach 16.4 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield, the highest in about a decade. That number could climb further, even as vaccinations allow some people to go back to work, if companies keep giving up office space because of hybrid or fully remote work.

So far, landlords like Boston Properties and SL Green have not suffered huge financial losses, having survived the past year by collecting rent from tenants locked into long leases — the average contract for office space runs about seven years.

But as leases slowly come up for renewal, property owners could be left with scores of empty floors. At the same time, many new office buildings are under construction — 124 million square feet nationwide, or enough for roughly 700,000 workers. Those changes could drive down rents, which were touching new highs before the pandemic. And rents help determine assessments that are the basis for property tax bills.

Many big employers have already given notice to the owners of some prestigious buildings that they are leaving when their leases end. United Airlines is giving up some 150,000 square feet, or over 17 percent of its space, at Willis Tower in Chicago, the third-tallest building in the country and a prized possession of Blackstone, the Wall Street firm. Salesforce is subletting half its space, equivalent to roughly 225,000 square feet, at 350 Mission Street, a San Francisco tower designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and owned by Kilroy Realty.

Roughly 17.3 percent of office space in Manhattan is available for lease, the most in at least three decades. Asking rents have dropped to just over $74 a square foot, from nearly $82 at the beginning of 2020, according to the real estate services company Newmark. Elsewhere, asking rents are largely flat from a year ago, including in Boston and Houston, but have climbed slightly in Chicago.

The Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo, whose United States headquarters are in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, recently moved to another building nearby, an open layout with tables designed for 130 people who will go into the office only a few days a week. Many of its office workers will keep working remotely, while some employees, like those in marketing, will occasionally meet in SoHo.

“As a leader, it has been challenging because meeting people face to face is so important,” said Daisuke Tsukagoshi, the chief executive of Uniqlo USA. “However, since we are a Japanese company with global reach, the need for remote collaboration among many centers has always been part of our culture.”

The stock prices of the big landlords, which are often structured as real estate investment trusts that pass almost all of their profit to investors, trade well below their previous highs, even as the wider stock market and some companies in other industries that were hit hard by the pandemic, like airlines and hotels, have hit new highs. Shares of Boston Properties, one of the largest office landlords, are down 29 percent from the prepandemic high. SL Green, a major New York landlord, is 26 percent lower.

Fitch Ratings estimated that office landlords’ profits would fall 15 percent if companies allowed workers to be at home just one and a half days a week on average. Three days at home could slash income by 30 percent.

Real estate executives claim not to be worried. They said working from home would fade once most people were vaccinated. Their reasons to think this? They say many corporate executives have told them that it is hard to effectively collaborate or train young workers when people are not together.

These landlords also contend that the properties they own — known in industry jargon as “class A” buildings — will hold up much better than more pedestrian offices or hotel and retail buildings.

“We believe differentiated office product like Willis Tower will continue to attract quality tenants, and that buildings that have invested in amenities, services and technology will be well positioned moving forward,” Nadeem Meghji, head of real estate for the Americas at Blackstone, said in a statement.

Landlords also said that even if employees didn’t go in daily, they would want designated desks and cubicles that were socially distanced.

Some companies are eager to get people back into offices. Tech companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple, have added office space in New York City during the pandemic, and some are also expanding elsewhere. Last week, Amazon told employees that it would “return to an office-centric culture as our baseline.”

Remote work and its impact on cities like New York will be a major development over the next several years.  Kia D. Floyd, a Facebook executive has an optimistic view:  “New York has grit and resilience and diversity, and it was always going to be inspirational for businesses like ours.”

Tony