Schools are essential, too

This isn’t just politics; conservatives are the ones who tend to have children, and more of them, and thus, they understand the vital importance of in-person learning. Those in the anti-Trump camp without school-age children beating the louder drums about keeping schools closed have no skin in the game as far as school closures are concerned.

There’s plenty of nuance in between, and those with children on the Left, such as MSNBC host Chris Hayes, have advocated the importance of opening schools with safety measures in place. And yet, even Hayes can’t resist politicizing the conversation.

But for dyed-in-the-wool liberals simultaneously in agreement with the president but regretful that he became involved, the issue has become a lightning rod. One such friend, an extremely liberal mother of three, told me, “The liberals just went into brain-meltdown mode as soon as Trump and [Secretary of Education Betsy] Devos spoke and now are unable to hear any evidence or use critical thinking skills about this topic. Not that they were able to do that before, but it got worse.”

My friend went on to tell me, “I wish Trump and Devos had kept their mouths shut, at this point. They just made it worse.” She misunderstands, however, why Trump has come out so forcefully in favor of school reopenings, and it’s not about what’s best for the children necessarily or exclusively. He may have made the conversation about school reopenings worse, but that’s assuming his goal in speaking out was reopening schools.

The president understands which sector of the electorate holds the Holy Grail to his reelection: suburban white women. And do you know what suburban women want? They want their children in school and learning. They don’t want them sitting in front of a computer screen, pretending to learn on Zoom. Suburban mothers don’t want to be forced to make the choice between their jobs and financial stability and their children’s education.

The president and his staff understand that’s the decision being put in front of millions of families: Mothers will have to quit and watch their children, overseeing their online learning or leaving them to their own devices (literally) with the understanding that they will slip even further behind academically. Or they could go it alone and start homeschooling.

Wisely, Democratic nominee Joe Biden hasn’t come out strongly against school closures, although, in a recent meeting with teachers unions, he pledged his unwavering support. As the Wall Street Journal reported on the meeting:

More than ever before, parents are seeing that the interests of teachers unions are directly in conflict with the best interests of their children. On one side, we have supposedly essential employees refusing to go back on the job until there is a vaccine or the pandemic has subsided completely. On the other, there are children who have already spent half a year struggling through Zoom classes, if they’re showing up at all.

Taking the side of unions, which have done nothing but make one unreasonable demand after another, and pledging to strip parents of school choice, as Biden has, will prove a fateful error come November. When politicians make the decision to send children back into a classroom, the party arguing against it won’t like how the votes fall.

Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a stay-at-home and homeschooling mother of four and a freelance writer. She is an editor at Ricochet.com, a columnist at the Forward, and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.