School Reopenings Are Biden’s First Big Test
There’s little risk of coronavirus transmission in classrooms. There’s immense risk for students stuck at home.
This can’t last forever.
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcátegui/Bloomberg
America’s schoolchildren and teachers have just gotten some very good news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After reviewing data from multiple studies in the U.S. and abroad, the agency has concluded that in-person schooling poses very little risk of coronavirus transmission as long as basic safety precautions are followed. That should send a clear message to governors, mayors and teachers’ union leaders: It’s time to open the schools.
In addition to the terrible toll Covid-19 has taken on the nation’s health, it’s been a calamity for American education. Only about 15% of school districts offered full-time in-person classes last fall. For students and parents elsewhere, the pandemic has meant navigating novel and often dubious remote-learning software. Any parent of a young child can attest that virtual instruction typically falls somewhere between subpar and hopeless.