I came across this post by Josh Stevenson, self described as a Data Analyst and Data Visualization, independent researcher. He reviewed the data surround school closures and influence of politics. I summarize here:
Anyone who has read or listened to the book by Scott Atlas MD, A Plague Upon Our House, understands that politicians and public health bureaucrats from all colors allowed self service to overshadow any concern for the public wellbeing during this pandemic. This includes teachers.
Prior to 2020, I did not have any trust in any “physicians” with MPH, Master of Public Health, behind their names. They were no different than any other college graduate who went through several years of progressive indoctrination. “One payer insurance is the only way” is hidden in most MPH’s writings. My concern about “public health” became evident in 2020 when the facade was unmasked to shows it’s political underbelly;
The appropriate role of public health: a-political, advisory, driven by research and data, was almost completely dismantled. Who suffered the most from this petty political polarization? The children
Should we be on any fence not knowing which way to jump – in person learning versus virtual public school teacher run academics? No.
So here we are in 2022, and the prevailing public & expert opinion is that virtual school was a failed experiment, that open, in-person school is unequivocally the most effective mode of learning…Â
Mr Stevenson references an article from Reason.com about how “Teachers Unions Use Accusations of Racism To Oppose School Reopening”. If anyone has spent a bit of time learning about Critical Theory in the last 2 years, you know that this article is describing the critical race theory play book used by teachers to keep schools closed. Namely the branding of critics as racists.
The so-called mitigation strategies have been questioned since 2020. These critiques have been dealt with by swift personal attacks and media cancellations. See below.
The most tragic part of school closures was that the science and research on the risks of open schools has corroborated on these few simple facts: that schools were not responsible for community spread, that schools could operate in-person safely even during periods of high community spread, and that burdensome mitigations actually had little to no significant effect upon transmission within schools.
Mr Stevenson discusses the odd way the main stream media, big media, refuse to ask why other countries are not necessarily following the science, not closing schools or following the same mandates as the United States. Whose science is better? If we accept other countries have their own autonomy, then why not the individual states? This graphic from the Financial Times shows a diversity in interpretation of The Science™.
Mr. Stevenson does a nice job with a quick review of research paper from Brown University showing politics had a large part to do with policy. I add a few of my own takes from the paper;
…the battle over re-opening schools has occurred in a highly polarized political environment, where public health decisions – including whether and when to send children back into classrooms – appear to be wrapped up in partisanship and sentiment toward the president…
Moreover, the most critical decision facing the nation’s school boards – whether or not to re-open in person and to what degree – appears to be closely related to the partisanship of a local school district.
Since public school districts serve “huge and heterogeneous” constituencies, we should expect that those groups that are the most highly organized and politically active will have the greatest influence on school districts’ decision-making, including the decision on when and how to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
…one group that is sure to matter then are organized teacher interests, whose activism in local district politics tends to far outpace other groups like parents…
Even after controlling for district urbanicity, partisanship, and the COVID case rate in a district, we find that larger districts where unions are more likely to be powerful in politics and collective bargaining are far less likely to hold in-person classes… and far more likely to remain remote at the start of the fall school year…
I am impressed that the Brown Research looked at free market forces, that pressure which may come to bear on public school boards and covid closings or mandates. If parents have a choice of public schools and having kids home with virtual learning or in person catholic school education, then;
Because of the relative affordability of parochial schools and the expense of private secular schools, we hypothesized that – to the extent market forces incentivized public schools to avoid closures and reopen as quickly as possible – Catholic schooling options would drive this competitive response behavior. That is precisely what we find…we find a statistically significant relationship between the number of Catholic schools per student and the likelihood that the local public school district fully reopens and avoid turning entirely to fully online/remote learning .
As a physician, there are two issues I must convey to you as my patients. First, the issue of a Covid-19 infection, risks of infections and benefits and concerns of any treatment options. The second is public policy. Mr. Stevenson stated this well;