It has damaged an entire generation of children, with 97 percent of educators saying it has set back learning, and 57 percent estimating their students are at least three months behind in social-emotional progress.

Yet union officials are making noises about shutting down schools again, bringing back remote learning because of an outbreak of the much-less dangerous Omicron variant.

No — a thousand times NO.

Politicians must fight with every fiber of their being against this outlandish backslide.
If Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wants to live up to that lie of a New York Times profile, which claimed that she fought for the opening of schools when she did everything in her power to stop it, now is the time.

Already, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, is making outrageous threats. If the city doesn’t ramp up COVID testing, he says, he’ll demand that in-person schooling ends.

But mass testing is, at this point, irrelevant. Studies from South Africa show Omicron cases are 80 percent less likely to result in hospitalizations. The effects on someone who is vaccinated — and all teachers must be vaccinated by now — are statistically nonexistent.

Study after study shows the effect of COVID on children is minimal. “Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or they may have no symptoms at all,” says the Centers for Disease Control. “Fewer children have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults.”
Heck, even studies for masking have shown the downsides outweigh the benefits, as The Atlantic has pointed out. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control not only insists children go to school, it advises against masking.

Mayor de Blasio — with support from incoming Mayor Eric Adams — is saying the right things, and we encourage him to stick to his guns. Not only is de Blasio saying students will return on Monday, he’s eliminating the current policy of quarantining entire classrooms exposed to COVID. Instead, asymptomatic students who test negative may remain in class. The CDC backs this “test-to-stay” strategy.

Mulgrew, though, is looking for any excuse, as is far-left incoming Comptroller Brad Lander, who thinks every student, teacher and staffer should be required to have a negative test to return to school — despite vaccine mandates, mask mandates and all the rest.

Whose side are they on? Certainly not the students, particularly the black and Hispanic children they claim to care about — and who have suffered disproportionately as a result of teacher-union overcaution.

“Follow the science” has been a refrain of the left for the past two years. Well, then follow it. Kids need to be in school. Don’t take it away from them.