Open Our Schools
By Caroline Melear
When the COVID pandemic arrived on our shores last year, we had little understanding of the illness: its ability to spread, its mortality, its effects on the elderly or those with preexisting conditions. For parents across the nation, our chief concern has been the effect on our children. The virus appeared to be spreading rapidly, and schools have always been a place where illnesses are shared with ease. It was vital to our safety and security that we do everything we could to protect the most vulnerable and precious among us: our children. Schools took the unprecedented move of shutting down entirely and switching to remote learning despite having limited experience in that medium of instruction. At the time, it felt like the only option to ensure the health and safety of students and teachers.
As a mother I was constantly researching the latest data, preparing to do everything in my power to keep my child safe, a sentiment shared by parents across the nation. As time went on and more data started to come together, it became increasingly clear that healthy children were unlikely to suffer serious or fatal outcomes from COVID. We now know that the mortality rate for those under 18 in the United States is nearly zero. Statistically, for every 10,000 cases of COVID in our youth (who are less likely to contract it in the first place) the mortality is somewhere between zero and five individuals. This is between 0.0% to less than 0.05%, likely a shocking statistic for many Americans, who have only heard the fear mongering of the media and Dr. Fauci for the past year.
Meanwhile, while data has reaffirmed that children are significantly less likely to transmit, contract, or die from COVID, they are increasingly likely to suffer severe adverse effects from school closures. About half of surveyed students are currently experiencing mental health issues from school closures, including anxiety and depression. Suicide rates among our youth are through the roof. Our children are frustrated, often to the point of tears. They are struggling to learn and keep up with basic age appropriate standards, an issue that already plagued our schools pre-pandemic.
Children need routine and structure. They need social interaction and in person time with friends and peers. They need organized activities such as sports, debate clubs, and art classes. They broadly need to spend less time in front of screens, even pre-pandemic. This is not to mention the strain on families and working parents who are not equipped to keep children at home all day, which is significantly more challenging for low income families. Parents across the nation have shifted their children to private schools, homeschooling, and learning “pods” to accommodate. The evidence is in and one major conclusion can be drawn: the government has failed our children.
As we take all of this into account we must ask, why are schools across the nation still closed? One could assume it is for the safety of our teachers, but there is no data to support this being necessary. The Biden administration promised full reopening, but continues to move the goalposts. Why is that? The answer lies in the unbelievable power of the nation’s teachers unions and their outsized role in the Biden administration. The nation’s two largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) appear to see COVID as an opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of our children, and President Biden, the largest recipient of their donations in 2020, is in lockstep with them.
Though Biden has repeatedly claimed the necessity of getting our children back in school, money talks, and big time donors expect a return on their investment. The AFT and NEA have made it clear they are not reopening until their lengthy and often outrageous demands are met. It’s all the things people hate about politics and government: trading favors, ignoring the needs of the voiceless, capitulating to the highest bidder, and wasting taxpayer money. As a society we have continuously praised the dedication and sacrifices of our essential workers, and there are few industries that we can reasonably consider more essential than education. Yet we have allowed teachers unions to take advantage of a crisis to better themselves while neglecting those they claim to serve.
The needs of our nation’s children should be a top priority for our elected leaders. Keeping schools closed not only defies all reason, logic, and science, it also lacks any care or compassion. President Trump repeatedly stated we cannot allow the cure to be worse than the problem itself. Of all the ramifications of COVID policy, the negative effects of school closures are among the most damaging.
School closures only cater to special interests while abandoning and endangering our youth.
via Daily Mail
