When the Chinese Communist Party unleashed the coronavirus on the planet, millions of doctors, nurses, and supply chain workers in food and manufacturing services fought on the front lines of the pandemic, not out of sheer benevolence, but because market demand was so inelastic for such services that they simply could not turn down their jobs to do so.
Even with coronavirus peaks reaching the South and West later than New York, we’re in a significantly better position than we were in March. We now know that the surface transmission of the coronavirus was much overblown and that, in tandem with social distancing, widespread mask wearing is wildly effective at preventing transmission. But perhaps most remarkably, we know that young people tend to not have heavy bouts of cases and that the overwhelming majority of children may not contract or carry the virus at all.
It’s that last fact that’s a game changer and the reason why the American Academy of Pediatrics “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.”
“Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2,” declared the AAP in its guidance for what to do with schools in the fall. “Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection. Policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within schools must be balanced with the known harms to children, adolescents, families, and the community by keeping children at home.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now followed suit, noting: “Schools also provide critical services that help meet the needs of children and families, especially those who are disadvantaged, through supporting the development of social and emotional skills, creating a safe environment for learning, identifying and addressing neglect and abuse, fulfilling nutritional needs, and facilitating physical activity.”
And yet, teachers unions across the country have revolted, demanding that schools remain closed under the guise of the abominable failure known as “distance learning,” and districts have largely bent over backward to accommodate them.
It would be one thing if teachers were asking for specific flexibility for teachers and students on the basis of personal or household risks, as the AAP recommends that schools adopt. But instead, cities such as New York and Los Angeles have already asserted they will remain 100% remote at the start of the coming school year, and Florida’s largest teachers union is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis for planning to reopen schools.
So, unlike the doctors and front-line workers, or even like waiters and barbers back in business for months, the teachers don’t want to work. But they still want taxpayer money. And the media is largely heralding them as heroes because lo and behold, we have either forgotten or willing decided to dispose of the reality that teachers serve taxpayers and a community’s children, not the other way around.
Much of the rhetoric around school reopening mimics the always expert Chris Cillizza’s take at CNN. In an entire article about “the very clear dangers of Donald Trump’s push to reopen schools,” Cillizza uses the word “students” once and does not make one mention of the dangers for students (be it educationally, mentally, or even physically) for schools remaining closed.
And we know those dangers are real. The coronavirus has killed just 64 children, per the CDC’s estimation. But we do know that the health consequences of the shutdown have been devastating. While we won’t be able to quantify fully the shutdown’s effect on mental health, suicides, substance abuse, obesity, and domestic violence (not to mention the real toll of developmental delays) until much later, the quantifiable data is terrifying. One in 7 parents report worsening behavioral health in their children since the shut down began, and a Chinese study vetted by and published in JAMA Pediatrics found that just one month of quarantine led to 22.6% of kids developing symptoms of depression and another 18.9% developing symptoms of anxiety.
All of which is to say, given the cost-benefit analysis, schools are essential. Children are likely not coronavirus vectors, and with basic social distancing, vetting, and allowing teachers with actual risk factors to stay home, reopening schools will do an extraordinary amount of good in comparison to harm.
And yet, legacy magazines such as The Atlantic have let Dave Grohl (yes, as in the Foo Fighters frontman) make ridiculous appeals to pathos, deeming teachers “tireless altruists” who deserve “a little altruism in return.”
But are they altruistic? Or is it time to face facts and admit that the last month has demonstrated what we should have admitted long ago, mainly that the majority of teachers unions are parasites sucking the American taxpayer dry while exacerbating racial and income inequality with some of the worst educations in the developed world?
Don’t believe me? Just take them at their words.
You know none of this is about the coronavirus because they’ll admit as such. The United Teachers Los Angeles union didn’t demand mandatory mask wearing or temperature checks as grounds for reopening. No, instead, they demanded that Los Angeles:
- Defund the police
- Shut down charter schools
- Provide financial support for illegal immigrants
Not one of these stipulations has anything to do with ensuring teacher or student safety amid the pandemic.
“I feel the social pressure. However, I am not a child care provider,” a Santa Rosa teacher named Nancy Ellis told Politico. “I have a master’s degree. Sorry, but I do not feel compelled to provide child care to ‘help the economy.'”
Alright, well, if she is so monumentally important and educated, she can relinquish her salary and find another job instead of demanding that taxpayers continue to pay her for spending 15 minutes a day on Zoom.
Everyone acknowledges that just as we wouldn’t send doctors into hospitals without personal protective equipment, no one would argue against smaller class sizes and radically increased sanitation and distancing measures for teachers. But let’s be clear here. Teachers are public servants answerable to the taxpayers, who fund public schools not just for their own children but to educate the entirety of our future electorate, imbue them with human capital so all become self-sufficient adults, and promote general public health and welfare. If they abdicate that duty, well, we must stop footing the bill.
This entire pandemic, we’ve been told by the experts to follow the science and listened to the media drone on endlessly that Republicans failed to do so. Well, school reopening is following the science, and if teachers don’t feel comfortable with that, they must quit, lest they admit what they really want: a yearlong paid vacation.
