Trump’s School Reopening Push Is Looking More and More Idiotic - Vanity Fair

The University of Notre Dame, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Michigan State University reversed plans for in-person classes as COVID-19 cases surged. And former teacher Jill Biden undermined Trump’s argument that Democrats want schools to stay closed out of spite.

By Eric Lutz

August 19, 2020

It took less than two weeks: the University of Notre Dame, one of many schools to reopen despite the raging pandemic, started classes on August 10. By Tuesday, the school had been forced to reverse course as coronavirus cases spiked. “The virus is a formidable foe,” school president John Jenkins said in a statement, announcing the quick switch to online classes. “For the past week, it has been winning.” Nearly 150 people at Notre Dame have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the month.

The announcement came days after the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill similarly reversed course, shifting their entire fall terms online; after a week of classes, 130 students and five employees tested positive, and the positivity rate on campus soared from 2.8% to 13.6%. “We have tried to make this work, but it is not working,” Barbara Rimer, dean of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC, wrote in a blog post Monday. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, Michigan State University scrapped its plans for an in-person fall semester Wednesday, acknowledging that filling dorms and packing classrooms would trigger a spike in infections. “Given the current status of the virus in our country—particularly what we are seeing at other institutions as they re-populate their campus communities—it has become evident to me that despite our best efforts and strong planning, it is unlikely we can prevent widespread transmission of COVID-19 between students if our undergraduates return to campus,” Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., the school’s president, wrote.

Campus outbreaks and school reopening reversals, both at colleges and in school districts across the country, underscore what has been obvious for months: schools won’t be able to open safely unless the coronavirus crisis is brought under control. Everyone knew this, of course. Parents, eager to send their kids back to the classroom, nevertheless worried about the health risks, according to polls. Surveys have shown that a vast majority of teachers are similarly anxious, with educators—many of whom are at high risk of dying from the virus—expressing fear that they’ll be putting their health and that of their loved ones on the line. Everyone, from parents and students to teachers and support staff, would rather be in school. But with coronavirus still running rampant, they recognize that returning would be dangerous.

Donald Trump, desperate to jumpstart the nation’s sputtering economy, has been pushing hard for schools to reopen, even though he’s done absolutely nothing to facilitate the process. “It’s very important,” he said last month. “We’re going to be putting a lot of pressure on: Open your schools in the fall.” His campaign has nominally been in the interest of students’ well-being. But the real reason this administration is suddenly interested in education has been clear all along: “To open up America,” Mike Pence said at the White House last week, “we’ve got to open up America’s schools.” For the economy to take off like a “rocket ship,” as Trump has promised, parents have to send their kids to school so they can go to work.

That would be fine, provided the White House took the virus seriously. But Trump has mostly played down concerns. “For the most part, they don’t get very sick,” he said this month of kids, claiming they make up only a “tiny fraction” of COVID-19 deaths. Children and teens are not “almost immune” from coronavirus, however. And, contrary to the president’s insistence that kids “don’t catch it easily” and “don’t bring it home easily,” research has suggested children could, in fact, spread the virus as much as adults. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization cautioned that younger people in their 20s and 30s now appear to be driving the spread of coronavirus, a trend that could worsen as more schools open, which many remain determined to do.

In the weeks ahead, some schools may attempt to press on. But it’s likely that many will be forced to follow the lead of Notre Dame, Michigan State, and UNC when it becomes clear that forging ahead is untenable. That may not please Trump, who has attempted to cast plans for remote learning as a Democratic plot to destroy him at the expense of Americans’ education. As a cudgel against Democrats, however, that messaging may be losing steam. Speaking at the virtual Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, Jill Biden, a lifelong educator, tapped into the psychic toll of schools remaining closed, projecting empathy and solidarity in the face of an uncertain school year. “This quiet is heavy,” she said in an address at Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, where she used to teach. “You can hear the anxiety that echoes down empty hallways.”

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Trump’s School Reopening Push Is Looking More and More Idiotic - Vanity Fair

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