Virginia Postrel, Columnist

Reopening Schools Is Critical. Teachers Should Do More to Help.

Coronavirus risks can be successfully managed, but a powerful lobby is blocking the classroom door.

July 17, 2020 at 1:30 PM UTC

Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”

Some of them, anyway.
Photographer: David Becker/AFP via Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced on Monday that it will not resume any in-person instruction this fall, it was a political victory for teachers and a defeat for families, science and opportunity for all.

The teachers’ union opposed reopening schools amid the continuing rise in Covid-19 cases locally, and lobbied for an early resolution to eliminate uncertainty.