I love it when we follow the science! The science in Michelle Goldberg’s argument consists mainly of preventative treatment against Republicans pouncing on school closures and absurd restrictions. Goldberg does make a compelling argument that the fury over CRT-influenced curricula and education policies served mainly as a totem for a broader parental loss of control over education, and that parents want to take that control back:

As many have pointed out, the reason education was such an incendiary issue in the Virginia governor’s race likely had less to do with critical race theory than with parent fury over the drawn-out nightmare of online school. Because America’s response to Covid was so politically polarized, school shutdowns were longest in blue states, and Virginia’s was especially severe; only six states had fewer in-person days last year.

“The failure of our leadership to prioritize public education in Virginia is what’s created this firestorm,” said Christy Hudson, one of the founders of the Fairfax County Parents Association, which grew out of a pro-reopening group that formed in the summer of 2020. Critical race theory, she said, “has certainly added flames to that fire,” but “this is 19 months in the making.”

Across the country, the shutdowns have contributed to an exodus from public schools. In Fairfax County, for example, public school enrollment is down by more than 10,000 students since before the pandemic, a 5.5 percent decrease. Enrollment in New York City public schools declined by 4.5 percent, about 50,000 students. In California, public school enrollment decreased by 3 percent, or 160,000 students, the largest drop in 20 years. Because school budgets are partly dependent on head counts, these missing students could lead to severe cuts, making public schools even less attractive.

I’d largely agree with this assessment, with a couple of caveats. First, the remote-learning environments adopted by schools in the pandemic gave parents much more intimate knowledge of what was being taught, and how, in public-school classrooms. That is what set in motion the pushback against the CRT-drenched pedagogy in these schools, including in Virginia’s most affluent and normally liberal bastions of Loudoun and Fairfax counties. That created the second dynamic of parents getting treated like the vanguard of the KKK for even questioning the assumptions built into the so-called “anti-racism” policies, including teaching their children that racism is pervasive in every aspect of their lives and the only way to deal with it is to deconstruct every institution supposedly affected by it.

However, Goldberg makes a very good point in the broad strokes, even if the context still indicts the radical-progressive framing of “anti-racism” indoctrination. This sneering at parental control and concern was the bigger political problem for Democrats in Virginia, and likely elsewhere in last week’s elections. (Joe Biden was arguably their biggest problem, though.) Goldberg thus prescribes a political solution — fully re-open the schools and remove other restrictions before Republicans can sell wholesale school choice to angry and alienated parents:

In an environment like this, Republican proposals to subsidize private school tuition are likely to be received gratefully by many parents. It’s a perilous situation for Democrats, the party of public schools. If they want to stanch the bleeding, they should treat the rollout of the children’s Covid vaccine as an opportunity to make public schools feel lively and joyful again.

Er … what? We have known for more than a year that children aren’t a vector for COVID-19 and that schools don’t spark mass breakouts of infections. Data from Europe has repeatedly shown that even with the Delta variant. It also shows that masking younger children doesn’t have any impact on community spread either, even while indoors.

Furthermore, we went out of our way to protect teachers early in the vaccine cycle, too. Teachers went to the front of the line after high-risk seniors for vaccination priority in almost every state in an attempt to get them back into classrooms. Instead, teachers unions refused to budge until children got fully vaccinated, even though the risk from children is almost zero. If we had actually followed the science rather than the public-employee unions and their influence on Joe Biden and his administration, we’d have had schools back to normal months ago.

Goldberg seems unaware of this background, as she hails AFT chief Randi Weingarten for her suggestion that masks may be unnecessary for children now … outdoors:

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wants to see outdoor masking ended as a first step toward unwinding other Covid restrictions. “The C.D.C. has been clear that everyone can unmask outside unless they’re in close contact with each other,” she said. “And I believe that schools should be doing this for recess. And I believe we need to give parents and teachers a road map to what it takes to start undoing the mitigations. It was clear that vaccines for teachers helped us reopen schools. Maybe it’s vaccines for kids helping us get to unmasking of teachers and kids in schools.”

Goldberg doesn’t mention Weingarten’s latest hypocrisy on masking indoors, either, which may have taken place after she wrote and filed the column. And that was among adults.

There has never been a science-based reason to mask while outdoors. The only indication of outdoor transmission came from a study in Singapore among construction workers, which neglected to account for the fact that they were also cohabiting indoors during the construction project. Combined with the lack of transmission among children, outdoor masking in schools is entirely unsupported by science, as is indoor masking with younger children.

Put simply, the bulk of these restrictions has been politically motivated rather than science-based all along. The school closures and restrictions have devastated family finances across the US, and that has contributed to parental frustrations over tax dollars getting spent on schools that focus on renaming themselves more than reopening themselves.

The proper way to deal with this, politically speaking, is to end the government monopoly on education and education funding. That would have the salutary effect of requiring parents to become wise education consumers, thus prompting more involvement, and lots more transparency and accountability over curricula and pedagogy than is currently possible — as the past 19 months have shown. It would also democratize access to such choice in education, a choice that members of the wealthy elite like Terry McAuliffe exercise while refusing to allow the hoi polloi the same opportunities for their children.

Goldberg’s argument surrenders the “science” conceit in favor of naked politics. At the very least, now we’re all on the same page.