They're shooting the hostages. And the hostages are school kids and teachers.

[Dorian Gray]

8. Schools

We can not shut a whole system of schools down almost two years into this thing.

Schools are mostly a safe place to be. Kids 5 and older can and should be vaccinated. Their teachers can be vaccinated and boosted. They can wear high quality masks. They should have all had their ventilation improved with air flow. They should have HEPA filters in every room. And they should have accessible testing.

And they should be open.

Of course there are schools now where the staff is being hit hard, and they should temporarily move to remote. We SHOULD have, at this point, the ability to fluidly continue educating via remote in case of emergency. High staff absences should count as that.

But we have the tools in our arsenal to offer a safe educational experience for children.

This shouldn't be a left/right political issue, either.

It's a rights issue. Kids deserve an education. Their parents deserve stability in their work life.

22 months into this thing... WE KNOW how to keep people safe.

If teachers have health issues that put them at risk, we SHOULD have a process for them to be a part of a school system's remote team OR make it easy for them to receive disability benefits while the pandemic rages on.

There are demands we can make to make it safer. But closing schools again is not a realistic solution.