VIRGINIA POSTREL: Reopening Schools Is Critical. Teachers Should Do More to Help: Coronavirus risks can be successfully managed, but a powerful lobby is blocking the classroom door.

When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced on Monday that it will not resume any in-person instruction this fall, it was a political victory for teachers and a defeat for families, science and opportunity for all.

The teachers’ union opposed reopening schools amid the continuing rise in Covid-19 cases locally, and lobbied for an early resolution to eliminate uncertainty.

Individual teachers were adamant about not taking risks. “As a teacher of 20 years, I can tell you there is NO WAY I would agree to go back to the classroom this year without hospital-grade PPE,” one wrote on the NextDoor social media site.

“I’ve taught for 15 years,” wrote another. “I catch every cold, sniffle and cough that enters my room. Call me selfish but I’m not willing to die so we can be less inconvenienced.”

Parents weren’t thrilled, however. “The prospect of another few months, an additional semester or, God forbid, a full year of studying from home is enough to make many parents, and their kids, burst into tears,” wrote Kerry Cavanaugh, a Los Angeles Times editorial writer with two kids in district schools. Political leaders, she complained, “have dedicated far more energy in reopening restaurants, bars and tattoo parlors than in figuring out how to safely educate the next generation. Schools are essential but they’ve been treated like optional services.”

Cavanaugh’s kids aren’t typical. Most L.A. public-school students are poor (nearly 80 percent qualify for free lunches) and Latino (73 percent). Although most aren’t themselves immigrants, about one in five is still learning English. Assuming parents still have jobs, they are likely to be essential workers who have to leave the house every day.

These students and their parents are not, in other words, the people debating and deciding whether schools should resume in-person instruction. They have no voice in the discussion. Yet they bear the brunt of the burden—and provide a central justification for public schools. Tax-funded education is supposed to give every child a chance to learn, regardless of income, to the economic and civic benefit of the general public.

Coronavirus policy in many places is being made by a coalition of Karens and activists who have less skin in the game than average people, much less the disadvantaged.

MY LATEST FOR THE PJMEDIA MOTHERSHIP: Chicago Alderman Says Democrats ‘Too Afraid’ to Ask Trump to Quell Riots.

“The Chicago Way” used to mean bringing a gun to a knife fight: “He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue,” in David Mamet’s famous dialogue from The Untouchables.

What do you call it when elected officials actively work against the best interests of their own constituents, up to and including abetting violence and even murder, just to make sure Orange Man Bad never looks good?

In Chicago these days they call it “business as usual.”

This one is just for our PJMedia/Townhall VIP members, so if you’ve been thinking of becoming a member, you can do so here — and don’t forget to use that VODKAPUNDIT discount code.

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW:

Well, what do you call it?

JIM TREACHER: Trader Joe’s Apologizes for Being Racist.

WHEN WOKES AND RACISTS ACTUALLY AGREE ON EVERYTHING: Video here.

HISTORY: HMS Challenger: The Voyage That Birthed Oceanography.

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AHOY, ALL INSTA-COMMENTERS WHO THINK THE U.S. NAVY COMMAND STRUCTURE AND TRAINING REGIMEN IS LOUSY: The latest StrategyPage Leadership post – China Cripples Naval Officers.

When dealing with Chinese navy or coast guard ships, foreign naval commanders have learned to take into account the dual command structure of Chinese crews. In effect, Chinese warships except for smaller (less than 2,000 tons) ones, have dual commanders and a naval command system that is more premeditated and slower to respond to unexpected conditions.

This comes as a surprise to many Western naval officers. Although the Chinese military has achieved many visible signs of modernizing, like new weapons, equipment, uniforms, tactics and officer training, it is still having problems in several key areas. When it comes to leadership there are problems with the political officers.

More:

There’s another leadership problem China has to deal with, a problem similar to the one that seriously hurt Japan’s effort against the United States during World War II. This is the fact that the Japanese Army then, like the Chinese Army now, is the senior service to the extent that generals can overrule admirals and generally interfere in navy matters that the army generals really know little about. This is already causing China problems and there is no solution in sight. This is particularly true when it comes to joint training. In wartime, this “army runs the show” sort of thing is a serious problem, just read any history that covers the Japanese army and navy relationships during World War II.

A military problem? Sure, but an insight into Communist China’s deep political and social problems. Yes, it mentions the Soviet Union’s problems with political officers in military organizations. StrategyPage Editor Jim Dunnigan wrote the analysis and it’s well worth reading.

HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE: China Take Note: GOP Sen. Hawley to Push Comprehensive Anti-Slave Labor Bill. “We on the Right like to say, ‘Get woke, go broke,’ but in fact there are some very woke companies like Nike that have gotten quite rich using China’s and other overseas labor that would violate the antislavery 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS: Portland Rioters Burn American Flag, Break Down Fencing At Federal Courthouse As Officers Respond En Masse.

ONCE AGAIN, TV MISLEADS: CPR is less effective than most people think, study suggests. At my training classes they’ve usually said that CPR in the wild works about 10-20% of the time, but that’s a lot better than nothing.

BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES: Hamptons eatery burns famed table where Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein dined.

GOOD LUCK: New Zealand scientists invent volcano warning system.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Paramedic uses voice-to-text app to talk with patients who lipread.

THIS IS CNN: Chris Cuomo Has On-Air Meltdown Over Trump Goya Photo.

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TODAY’S INSANITY WRAP: The Terrifying Portland Apocalypse, and Hitler Was Kind to Black People. “This belief that blacks are the real Israelites wasn’t new to Insanity Wrap. Using it to excuse Hitler, was.”

Plus: Race-traitor sex organs.

Today was crazier than usual, and it’s barely more than half-over.

NBC’S BOB COSTAS TO JOIN CNN AS ON-AIR CONTRIBUTOR.

Dear Diary: It’s only a matter of time before Bob Costas interviews CNN’s Jim Acosta on singular evil that is the Bad Orange Man.

SILENCE EQUALS CONSENT: Disney/ESPN Silent As New Contributor Jemele Hill Says All Trump Voters Are Racist.

No word yet if Hill’s blanket condemnation includes her own mother:

JOANNE JACOBS: The learning pod people are here.

When I saw the shift away from reopening schools — too many teachers and parents think it’s unsafe — I predicted a rise in homeschooling co-ops and private tutoring for middle-class and wealthy families. I also predicted educational disaster for the students whose “essential worker” parents are short on time, money and living space.

I didn’t guess that “pod” as in learning pod, pandemic pod and homeschooling pod would be the chosen word.

On Thursday and Friday, writes J Li on Facebook, she saw “thousands of parents . . . scrambling through an absolute explosion of facebook groups, matchups, spreadsheets, etc to . . . form homeschooling pods.”

Read the whole thing.

CATASTROPHE AND INNOVATION.

BAILOUT NATION: Elizabeth Warren: Cancel Student Debt In The Next Stimulus Package.

“BELIEVE IN SCIENCE” ISN’T LIKE BELIEVING IN TINKERBELL: Democrats, The Party Of Science (Fiction). “The ‘science’ the Democrats put their faith in is often little more than a set of baseless theories that fit their policy agenda. They treat their own share of “settled science” as if it’s witchcraft.”

MEDIA MYTH ALERT: Of Trump’s chances and Mark Twain’s ‘exaggerated’ quip.