Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Follow De Blasio’s Lead and Keep Schools Open During Omicron

Classroom shutdowns set back poor children’s education and kept parents out of the workforce. Don’t let the latest variant make this disaster worse.

December 29, 2021 at 3:09 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).”

Maybe the dog had a productive day.
Photographer: Jayme GershenBloomberg

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Bravo, Bill de Blasio. The New York City mayor announced on Tuesday that the city’s public schools will stop quarantining entire classrooms when one or more students test positive for Covid. Instead, the city will increase its use of testing to allow asymptomatic students who test negative to stay in school.

As omicron cases surge around the nation, New York’s policy bucks what could still turn into a wave of school closures and classroom quarantines. A district in a Maryland suburb of Washington D.C. decided to go virtual until mid-January in light of an uptick in Covid infections. Some local politicians are suggesting there might be a need for schools to return to virtual learning. As Covid case counts continue to grow, so will pressure on districts across the nation to keep kids at home.