The Patriot Post® · In Brief: Why Are Schools Closed?

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro hit the nail on the head when it comes to his latest Daily Wire member exclusive: “The Real Reason Schools Are Still Closed.” He writes:

Imagine if your police force could just go on strike at a moment’s notice. It could hold up the entire business of a city. Imagine if your firefighters decided to go on strike in the middle of a fire. Imagine if the military decided to go on strike in the middle of the war.

These are the kinds of dangers associated with public sector unions, and it is a massive disruption to the American economy.

So over the past couple of months, we found out one specific and important thing about the Biden administration’s approach to COVID policy in America’s schools: The Biden administration doesn’t care about the kids. The Biden administration cares about the teachers unions.

One of the most robust scientific findings from the past year has been that schools do not provide additional risk above baselines to teachers. This is particularly true with regard to elementary schools, where the risks of transmission to teachers are very low. In fact, in the United States, there has yet to be — so far as I’m aware — a single documented case of a teacher infected by an elementary school student and then dying of COVID.

So why exactly are we still talking about schools remaining closed? The CDC standards would require that the vast majority of students be at home right now, either via hybrid learning model or at home completely. There’s a reason for that: the head of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, specifically came out and said that she had shaped her criteria around the request of teachers unions.

Shapiro goes on in great detail to explain the background of organized labor in America and its Democrat ties, particularly as public unions began to rise. Of that, he correctly notes, “Effectively, public sector unions are bargaining against taxpayers.” So it’s little wonder that politicians end up not representing taxpayers but the unions, or that teachers unions in particular are controlling things.

The great irony of teachers unions — and public sector unions generally — is that the biggest advocates for these unions are the Democratic Party. And the Democratic Party happens to be the same party that is routinely suggesting that money in politics is dangerous and bad. …

Yet some of the biggest spenders in American politics are the members of big labor.

Labor unions — both private and public sector, mostly public sector at this point — spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars ensuring that Democrats get elected. You have public sector unions actively working to take union dues, spend them to elect politicians, then negotiating with those politicians to take taxpayer dollars and pay the unions. It is utter insanity.

Why are schools closed? There’s your answer.