This is a nudge in the direction of reopening US schools

As coronavirus cases continue to rise, more public school systems are announcing they will reopen only online — even when faced with direct and intense public pressure from President Donald Trump.

Even if the schools do not physically reopen, children will still hang out together. This is especially true for teenagers, and they are also a group that, in a South Korean study, can readily spread the virus to others. Not many parents are going to quarantine their 15-year-olds at home for many months, much less their 17-year-olds. Recall that Romeo and Juliet were teenagers and came together as lovers against extreme parental opposition and during a time of plague.

To be sure, it’s by no means certain that schools will be safer places for children; whether they are will depend on the region. Still, the mere citation of public health dangers isn’t quite as decisive an argument against physical reopening as it may seem. No-one likes to admit it, but one of the most important arguments for much of K-12 education is simply that it provides day-care services for parents. Those services are essential not just for the smooth functioning of labour markets but for parental sanity as well. If schools can’t even provide that day care, maybe they won’t seem so necessary.

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