In a scathing op-ed, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board has launched a critical assault on President Biden’s attempt to reshape the narrative surrounding the reopening of schools after the COVID-19 pandemic forced closures. The editorial accuses the Biden administration of attempting to claim credit for a delayed accomplishment and highlights the detrimental impact of decisions influenced by teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten.
The White House’s recent statement commending Biden’s “swift actions and historic investments” leading to the reopening of “every school in America” for in-person instruction was met with irony by the WSJ’s editorial board. The board scoffed at the notion that the administration should pat itself on the back for such an achievement, sarcastically noting, “What an achievement—three and a half years after the start of the pandemic, all schools are open.”
The editorial lays blame for the extended school closures squarely on the administration’s compliance with the guidance provided by Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers’ union. The board contends that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) allowed Weingarten’s influence to shape their reopening guidelines, giving urban school districts like Chicago an excuse to delay the return to full in-person learning. This delay, the editorial argues, hindered the timely reopening of schools.
Furthermore, the paper takes aim at the administration’s handling of COVID-19 funds allocated to schools. It asserts that the Biden administration could have employed a more assertive approach to incentivize schools to reopen sooner, such as conditioning the nearly $200 billion in COVID funds on successful reopening efforts. Instead, schools received an influx of money that exceeded their immediate needs, without a direct correlation to improved educational outcomes.
The editorial board highlights the negative consequences of this approach. While schools saw an increase in hiring for roles like social workers and nurses, the paper argues that students did not experience corresponding improvements in their education. Test scores and student attendance continued to decline. The piece cites alarming statistics, including a doubling in the share of students reporting missed school days, as well as dismal U.S. history and reading test scores.
The op-ed further criticizes President Biden’s remarks on summer learning loss during a visit to a D.C. middle school. The President’s assertion that students face challenges in catching up on missed work after a three-month break was met with skepticism by the WSJ. The paper points out the irony in Biden’s statement, considering that many students had spent an entire year learning remotely—a situation that likely compounds the challenges of catching up.
The editorial concludes by asserting that President Biden exacerbated the existing problems, but refuses to acknowledge his administration’s role in deepening the challenges faced by students. The piece suggests that it will take significant time for students to recover from the setbacks caused by the pandemic, but it implies that the depth of these setbacks could have been mitigated with different policy choices.
In the context of the 2020 election, the op-ed recalls the criticism levied by Democrats against then-President Trump and Republican governors, including Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis, for their push to reopen schools. The Democrats’ accusations of insufficient response to the pandemic are juxtaposed with the current administration’s handling of school reopenings, raising questions about consistency and accountability.
In essence, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board’s op-ed is a searing critique of President Biden’s claims and actions regarding school reopenings during the pandemic. It suggests that the administration’s approach was flawed, and that its decisions prolonged the challenges faced by students and schools alike.