“Many Democrats seemed to become more suspicious of in-person schooling last summer when President Donald Trump called for it,” Kristoff wrote.
The New York Times is taking note of the disastrous effects of year's long school closures on American children—and columnist Nicholas Kristof has realized that perhaps politics, and not the pandemic, are to blame.
Writing in the paper of record on Thursday, Kristoff said that "Many Democrats seemed to become more suspicious of in-person schooling last summer when President Donald Trump called for it. We shouldn't let ourselves be driven by ideology rather than science, and that wasn’t universal: Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, worked hard to open schools, and kids there are better off because she did."
Florida, also opened schools, and remained determined to keep them open. Governor Ron DeSantis said that despite CDC guidance, there was no reason to believe that schools should stay closed. He noted that in his state, there have been no big school-based outbreaks.
"...it is Democrats — including those who run the West Coast, from California through Oregon to Washington State — who have presided over one of the worst blows to the education of disadvantaged Americans in history," Kristoff wrote.
Putting it in educational terms, Kristoff, who recently penned an op-ed saying that cable companies should drop broadcasters he disagrees with, saying that "The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank this month estimated that educational disruptions during this pandemic may increase the number of high school dropouts over 10 years by 3.8 percent, while also reducing the number of college-educated workers in the labor force." This will create 70 years of reduced incomes.
The Biden administration ran on a promise of getting schools opened by the end of April, within the new president's first 100 days in office. Since entering the White House, however, the guidance has been mixed to the point of complete confusion.
The White House tried to get its message straight, but they nominated an education secretary that cares more about diversity than school reopening plans. They claimed that all K-8 schools would be open five days per week for in-person learning, then reversed course and said one day, then walked that back again. And the CDC's new head Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at first that schools should open, then said they should maybe sort of open.
So who is pulling the strings? Who is the puppet master keeping American kids from an education and depriving an entire generation from gaining a stake in the global knowledge economy? Kristoff shies away from saying it directly, instead saying that it is the anti-Trump bias that is again driving Democrat policy.
He cites the science, he cites experts, he cites the failures of remote learning. But he stops short of blaming the true culprits: ineffectual leaders who promise to do what the public wants, then cave to the demands of their donors. Biden was on the receiving end of a bundle from teachers unions, and much of his proposed policy stems from what they want.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had previously said schools should be open, said on Sunday that "There's so many complicated issues: how the teachers feel, how the parents feel about the possibility of bringing infection back home," Fauci said.
On Monday, New Jersey parents held a rally, demanding that schools open and that the teachers unions come together with the school district to make it happen.
SOMA for Safe Return to School said "It's been almost 350 days since most kids have seen the inside of a classroom. We know this: Virtual ‘learning’ is not working," the organizers wrote on Facebook. "Schools do not have to be closed to be safe."
New York City parents have taken to making satire in an effort to get their schools fully open.
To all the parents in NYC who's children are needlessly suffering because DiBlassio won't #OpenSchools… don't worry! The Mayor is listening, he formed a blue ribbon panel, and he has a solution! https://t.co/a3c6wedhH4
— Erich Hartmann (@erichhartmann)
Even some teachers are demanding access to education for their students despite the instructions of their union leadership.
Will our kids go back to school? Or, will our leaders go hide while our kids suffer behind a screen? #GroundhogDay
Today, we unite from all across the nation to demand #OpenSchoolsNow #OpenSchools #SchoolsAreEssential pic.twitter.com/vQYY831XPD
— Teachers4OpenSchools (@Ts4OpenSchools)
And all of this comes as a poll reveals that more Americans are concerned about the deprivation of education than the virus itself.
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"About six-in-ten Americans (61%) now say K-12 schools that are not currently open for any in-person instruction should give a lot of consideration to the possibility that students will fall behind academically when deciding whether to reopen. In July 2020, 48% said this should be given a lot of consideration as schools made decisions about whether to open for in-person instruction in the fall. The shares saying schools should give a lot of consideration to the risk to teachers (48%) or students (45%) of getting or spreading the coronavirus are both down from about six-in-ten who said in July that each should be a major factor in decisions about reopening."
The Democrats may finally have gotten the memo that keeping schools closed to stick it to Trump may be destroying our kids instead, the question is will they be able to do anything about it.
