Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Too Much Covid Caution Will Be Bad for Schoolchildren

Remote learning inflicted educational, psychological and economic damage last year. If classrooms slam shut every time there’s a positive test now, the result will be just as dire.

August 20, 2021 at 12:30 PM UTC

By Michael R. Strain

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

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During the last school year, parts of the U.S. let bars and tattoo parlors stay open while keeping children out of classrooms. This perverse response to the Covid-19 pandemic will echo darkly through the lives of the children who were forced to sit at their kitchen tables in front of laptops rather than at their desks in front of teachers.

Americans should learn from this mistake and not repeat it for the school year that is about to begin. Unfortunately, an excess of caution might keep kids out of classrooms for another semester even with schools officially open for in-person learning. If classrooms are shut down every time a child tests positive for Covid-19, the result would be almost as bad as 100% remote learning.