Who runs our public schools, anyway?

Our favorite Madison morning daily newspaper, the Wisconsin State Journal, wants our public schools open for in-classroom teaching (and, often, learning).

So do the kids. So do their parents. What’s the hold-up? The teachers union, of course. It is always the teachers union. 

In sticking their nose above the foxhole here in the occupied territory, the State Journal dares throw nary a pebble at the school yard bully. Not even mentioned, for they fear the reaper. No special interest group wields more political clout hereabouts than the teachers union. None more selfishly protects its privileges than Madison Teachers Inc.

These are the same self-regarding people who say “follow the science” but ignore it when it suits them. School has been virtual and online for 10 months now. Kids are suffering. You wonder why the near doubling in shootings and stolen cars?

That is what Madison Metro Superintendent Carlton Jenkins meant when he said the “metrics surrounding COVID-19 cases in Dane County do not yet support a safe return to school buildings for most students.”

His “metrics” are more secret than the Colonel’s recipe but the super gave a hint when he acknowledged that he cleared his metrics with the district’s teachers union, Madison Teachers Inc. MTI — if we take them at their word — said 94% of its members supported the shutdown. There’s your metrics!

Science is real except when it is not

Because the science doesn’t support the “metric.” The evidence—including CDC guidance and a new CDC report— clearly shows closing schools do little to protect against illness in either children or teachers.

Teachers take pride of place in the vanguard of progressives who preach “follow the science.” Except when they don’t. “Madison Teachers Inc. is right and Dr. Fauci is wrong.

It’s no different in other union-boss cities. Chicago’s teachers union threatens an illegal strike, even though 130 private schools and 2,000 early learning centers have been open safely since Fall, the NY Times observes. Teachers get paid either way but kids suffer.

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“No Covid-19 mitigation strategy has been as destructive to students, their parents, and the economy as school closures,” a leading economist and physician writes.

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Somehow, the lights are on and kids are learning in Madison’s private school classrooms. And in public schools in Cambridge, Deerfield, Marshall, Sun Prairie and Verona — among many.

⇒ MMSD’s own survey found students want back in the classroom — especially students of color.

“Teacher resistance is a disaster for the most vulnerable,” columnist David Brooks writes in the New York Times.

“Do Black lives matter to you only when they serve your political purpose?”  Brooks asks. “If not, shouldn’t we all be marching to get Black and brown children back safely into schools right now?”

Blaska’s Bottom Line — That’s a question for the Progressive Dane contingent on the Madison Board of Education — Ali Muldrow, Savion Castro, Ananda Mirilli, and Nicki Vander Meulen (who may or may not have rejoined the party). All support BLM insurrectionist Brandi Grayson for city council. And for candidate Maia Pearson.

They would rather blame the police and institutional this or that for crime and academic under-achievement.

Can you blame them?