The Economist January 15th 2022 Leaders 11O
ver the pasttwoyearsAmerica’s childrenhavemissed
more time in the classroom than those in most of the rich
world. School closures that began there in early 2020 dragged on
until the summer of 2021. During that time the districts that
stayed closed longest forced all or some of their children to learn
remotely for twice as long as schools in Ireland, three times lon
ger than schools in Spain and four times longer than in France.
In recent weeks American schools have started closing once
again, as the Omicron variant of covid19 has brought a fresh
wave of infections. About 5,000, equivalent to roughly 5% of
schools, were shut for part or all of the first week in January.
Sometimes that was because staff had been forced into isolation
(see United States section), but other closures were preemptive.
In Chicago teachers refused to turn up between
January 5th and 11th. Some staff in California
urged healthy colleagues to call in sick. Ameri
ca’s shrill debates about schooling continue to
set it apart. The new term met with much less
fuss in England—even though the country had
a higher national infection rate than America
and has vaccinated fewer young children.
America’s bungling has several explana
tions. Whereas in Europe national or regional governments
have decided when schools close and reopen, in America the
choice has largely fallen to its 14,000 or so school districts. That
has splintered the conversation about school closures into thou
sands of noisy arguments. Media coverage has not helped. A stu
dy in 2020 found that stories about school reopening run by big
American news providers were much more negative in tone
compared with similar stories abroad. Teachers’ unions have
ignored encouraging findings from other countries, such as
research suggesting that teachers in schools that had opened
faced no greater risk of severe sickness than other professionals.
Defenders of America’s record claim that its schools are more
crowded and poorer than those abroad. But many foreign educatorsenvy America’sadvantages.Thefederalgovernment has
earmarked around $200bn for schools since 2020. America was
quicker than most countries to make vaccines available to all
adults, and to offer jabs to children.
Some of those demanding fresh closures argue that Omicron
brings new uncertainties, and that it would cost little for schools
to shut their buildings for a while. Remote learning may be more
effective than being in a classroom where lots of staff and stu
dents are absent, goes the thinking. But once schools have
closed temporarily, they tend to stay shut longer than expected.
Even short closures seem to depress children’s attendance after
they reopen. Lots of children have no safer place to be than a
classroom and many parents cannot work from home. Further
more, without wider lockdowns that nobody is
considering, school closures accomplish little,
because youngsters continue to catch and pass
on the virus, for example in child care, in shops,
or while being looked after by relatives.
Remote teaching has harmed children’s
learning, mental health and physical safety.
America’s schools should be buoyed by early
evidence suggesting that Omicron infections
lead to less severe symptoms than other variants of covid (which
are themselves mild in most children) and that vaccination still
offers strong protection against serious illness.
Schools must continue to find ways of covering for quarant
ining teachers, such as pulling administrative staff into class
rooms or inviting teachers back from retirement. When staff
shortages are severe, it would be better to force only some year
groups into remote learning before closing whole schools. Even
then, schools should allow vulnerable children and those of key
workers to remain in the building. That has been common in Eu
rope, but far from standard in America. Children have little to
gain from school closures and much to lose. Teachers’unions
should stop dumping the pandemic’s costs on them.nAmerica’s educators have failed to learn from the safe opening of classrooms abroadPoor students
Schools and covid-A
nother week, another setback for freedom and democracy
in the former Soviet Union—and another show of force from
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. That is one way to read
recent events in Kazakhstan, and there is some truth to it.
When gripes about rising fuel prices escalated into broader
protests against a corrupt autocracy, and then erupted into mob
attacks on government buildings, the authorities violently sup
pressed the unrest. They not only ordered the security services
to shoot rioters without warning, but also turned to Russia, al
lowing Mr Putin to send in a squad of paratroopers to help re
store order. The rights of ordinary Kazakhs, already circumscribed, have been ferociously trampled, and Mr Putin has once
again affirmed his status as the region’s kingpin. He even
crowed that he would not allow any more “colour revolutions”
in the former Soviet Union, meaning that he would make sure
corrupt and repressive governments were always able to crush
peaceful protests by exasperated citizens.
But that account is misleading. True, an authoritarian regime
has clung to power by force, and Mr Putin has asserted Russia’s
primacy in its near abroad. But that disguises how the upheaval
turned into a power struggle among the country’s elites. Until
this week Kazakhstan’s president, KassymZhomart Tokayev,Central Asia will remain unstable, however many troops Russia sendsStandemonium
Russia and Central Asia