A self-described progressive journalist who writes for The New York Times says President Donald Trump was right about keeping schools open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes and often appears on the liberal news network CNN, wrote a piece Wednesday headlined “When Trump Was Right and Many Democrats Wrong” shortly after New York City officials announced schools would be shutting down again.
“Some things are true even though President Trump says them,” Kristof opened. “Trump has been demanding for months that schools reopen, and on that he seems to have been largely right. Schools, especially elementary schools, do not appear to have been major sources of coronavirus transmission, and remote learning is proving to be a catastrophe for many low-income children.”
“Yet America is shutting schools — New York City announced Wednesday that it was closing schools in the nation’s largest school district — even as it allows businesses like restaurants and bars to operate. What are our priorities?” Kristof asked, later adding that shutting down schools “should be the last resort.”
Kristof says he’s been writing since May about the importance of keeping schools open, and “initially the debate wasn’t so politicized. But after Trump, trying to project normalcy, blustered in July about schools needing to open, Republicans backed him and too many Democrats instinctively lined up on the other side. Joe Biden echoed their extreme caution, as did many Democratic mayors and governors.” – READ MORE
Listen to the insightful Thomas Paine Podcast Below --