When the People Tasked With Protecting Our Children Are the Villains - Stephen Moore

[Geee]

Real Clear Politics

The evidence shows that school closures during COVID were an epic public policy blunder. The school lockdowns in many states were arguably the most significant episode of government-sponsored child abuse in American history.

You don't have to take my word for it. Last week, the liberal New York Times came to the same conclusion after an extensive investigation. The New York Times found:

"Extended school closures appear to have done much more harm than good, and many school administrators probably could have recognized as much by the fall of 2020. In places where schools reopened that summer and fall, the spread of Covid was not noticeably worse than in places where schools remained closed."

The New York Times also found that the primary victims were the lowest-income children. Wealthy families found education alternatives for their children either in their homes or private schools. Children from low-income families barely participated in online lessons.

"This will probably be the largest increase in educational inequity in a generation," said Thomas Kane, an author of a Harvard study on the disparate impact of the COVID lockdowns.

The study also found that most of these school closures occurred "in major cities, which tend to be run by Democratic officials ... Republicans were generally quicker to reopen schools. High-poverty schools are also more likely to have unionized teachers, and some unions lobbied for remote schooling." And all this time, you probably thought Democrats were the party that cares about children.

But there are other villains as well that need to be exposed. Who did this to our children?

The teachers unions were probably the most shameful player, the worm in the education apple. Even after months of evidence that in-class instruction posed virtually no danger to children or teachers, they wouldn't teach. They treated COVID as a paid vacation, even as private and Catholic schools down the street were open. In September of last year, nearly 90% of the Chicago teachers even voted to go on strike after not teaching for six months.

They weren't the only ones in on the crime against our nation's children. Let's not forget about the inexcusable role of the American Academy of Pediatrics. This group of children's doctors originally called for entire school openings for the 2020-21 school year. That was based on science.

 

But then, politics intervened. Two weeks later, the group did a sudden 180-degree reversal and joined in solidarity with the teachers unions calling for closing schools. They even signed joint statements with the unions.