Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Closed Schools Are a National Emergency

A lack of audacity is going to damage an entire generation and worsen inequality.

August 11, 2020 at 5:00 PM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

It can be done.
Photographer: George Frey/Getty Images

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Many parents in the U.S. are coming to grips with the reality that their children may not return to their schools until the fall semester of 2021. Schools that aren’t opening this fall seem to be waiting for a coronavirus vaccine, and even the most optimistic scenarios don’t envision one to be approved and widely distributed in time for the start of the spring semester in January 2021.

Tragically, the lack of urgency and creative thinking from political leadership at all levels of government is allowing this to happen. Where is the audacity?