12 | JANUARY 27 • 2022 

opinion
Schools Must Coexist with COVID
I 

am tired of COVID. I know 
you are, too. But here we 
are, dealing with a fourth 
wave of coronavirus, and 
beginning to wonder if we’re 
going to work 
our way all the 
way through the 
Greek alphabet 
and ultimately 
get to an 
Omega variant 
sometime this 
year or next. 
At least for those of us 
who are vaccinated and 
boosted, each new outbreak is 
somewhat less disruptive than 
the one before. The fact that 
Omicron is so transmittable 
has left hospitals, grocery 
stores and other employers 
scrambling for workers, but 
the impact of this newest 
strain has been much more of 
an annoying inconvenience 
than a dangerous threat.
When COVID first hit, and 
our knowledge of the virus 
and our protections from 
it were so limited, the first 
priority was to preserve public 
health, even at immense 
economic and societal cost. 
For two years, the crux of 
the political debate has been 
about how best to balance 
those dueling considerations, 
although the balance has 
gradually shifted toward 
reopening.
But as the nation’s public 
schools begin classes again 
after the holiday break, 
students and their parents 
are finding themselves at 
the center of what may 
become a brutal political 
fight over whether and how 
schools should be operating 
in this latest iteration of 

the pandemic. We are just 
beginning to understand the 
extent of the learning loss 
that occurred when students 
were limited to online classes 
over the last two years — and 
the even greater damage 
suffered by children from 
minority and lower-income 
communities. We have barely 
any clue as to the long-term 
psychological harm these 
young people suffered from 
their protracted isolation and 
desocialization while their 
schools were closed.
The Republicans’ upset 
victory in the Virginia 
governor’s race last fall 
demonstrated the parental 
dissatisfaction toward 
prolonged school closures, 
and Democrats from 
Joe Biden on down have 
scrambled to encourage 
their teachers’ union allies to 
return to the classroom. But 
the rapid spread of Omicron 
over winter break has 
undermined that strategy, and 
it now appears that growing 
union resistance to school 
reopening will have immense 
educational and political 
impact.
One New Jersey labor 

leader recently cast the 
familiar health versus 
economy debate in especially 
stark terms when he said, “I’d 
see the entire city of Newark 
unemployed before I allowed 
one single teacher’s aide to die 
needlessly.”
Any death is a tragedy that 
we should make great effort 
to avoid, but such an absolute 
standard would require 
the criminalization of cars, 
airplanes, pharmaceuticals 
(and possibly electricity, 
ladders and fatty foods). 
In reality, we make these 
tradeoffs every day, balancing 
what we believe to be some 
level of acceptable risk in 
exchange for both necessities 
and conveniences in our daily 
lives. It wouldn’t be possible to 
hold in-person classes under 
such criteria — ever.
A more measured 
assessment was offered in the 
Bay Area, where respected 
Santa Clara County Public 
Health Director Sara Cody 
issued a joint statement 
with the county’s office of 
education urging schools to 
stay open.
“We need to find ways to 
coexist and live with COVID,” 

Cody said. “We’ve learned that 
in-person education is what 
[students] need and remote 
learning doesn’t support their 
mental health, emotional 
health and academic well-
being nearly the way that 
in-person learning does.” 
To his credit, California 
Gov. Gavin Newsom 
successfully pressured 
the powerful California 
Teachers Association into a 
commitment last month to 
keep the state’s public schools 
open. But such agreements 
are often tenuous, and there 
is already evidence of teacher 
sick-outs and other efforts 
to temporarily suspend 
classroom instruction. And 
testing shortages, rising 
caseloads and lack of qualified 
substitute teachers make it 
likely that these trends will 
spread quickly just as parents 
are preparing to send their 
children back to school.
Newsom, Biden and other 
Democratic leaders have 
benefited tremendously 
from their relationship 
with teachers’ unions over 
the years. But while still 
protecting the health of their 
constituents, they will need to 
find a way to prod their labor 
allies into a more balanced 
approach. That balancing act 
won’t be easy — and it carries 
extremely high stakes for 
children and politicians 
alike. 

Dan Schnur teaches political com-

munications at UC Berkeley, USC 

and Pepperdine. He hosts the week-

ly webinar “Politics in the Time of 

Coronavirus” for the Los Angeles 

World Affairs Council & Town Hall. This 

article first appeared in the Jewish 

Journal.

PURELY COMMENTARY

Dan Schnur
JNS.org

