This school year started unlike any other for children across the country, many of whom began the year staring at a computer screen. Yet for the minority of students who were able to start the year at an independent school, their education was minimally impacted, with most continuing with in-person classes. It’s unfortunate that some students are being forced to go virtual for their education, with some public school districts refusing to reopen classrooms until the beginning of the next school year. What’s even more unfortunate is the reason for these decisions to keep classrooms closed may not be based on safety and science but sheer political influence.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request sent to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the requesting organization, Americans for Public Trust, uncovered that schools' continued shutdowns were influenced by union leadership at the American Federation for Teachers. Far from caring for students' education and wellbeing, the union pushed back against the CDC’s recommendations to reopen schools even with study after study proving students attending in-person classes were far less likely to catch or transmit COVID-19. A control case of Mississippi students found “that having attended gatherings and social functions outside the home as well as having had visitors in the home was associated with increased risk of infection; however, in-person school attendance during the 14 days prior to diagnosis was not.”
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