Harris in her op-ed highlighted the American Rescue Plan's proposed solutions to the gendered recession, mostly amounting to the federal government writing checks—$3,000 per child, plus housing assistance, unemployment insurance, and expanded child tax credits. "Job loss, small business closings, and a lack of child care have created a perfect storm for women workers," she noted. But the vice president gave only passing reference to the single biggest factor keeping mothers of minor children out of the labor force: the ongoing closure of, and uncertainty surrounding, public schools. And like economic restrictions, school closures are jarringly partisan. "There is no relationship—visually or statistically—between school districts' reopening decisions and their county's new COVID-19 cases per capita," the Brookings Institution found in a July 2020 study. "In contrast, there is a strong relationship—visually and statistically—between districts' reopening decisions and the county-level support for [Donald] Trump." A follow-up study in the fall by Education Next found the exact same leading correlation, with the second-biggest factor being the political strength of the local teachers union. As with the economic lockdowns, these blue-state school closures have disproportionately harmed poor and minority children. "The blunt fact is that it is Democrats—including those who run the West Coast, from California through Oregon to Washington State—who have presided over one of the worst blows to the education of disadvantaged Americans in history," wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, nobody's idea of a conservative, on February 24. "The result: more dropouts, less literacy and numeracy, widening race gaps, and long-term harm to some of our most marginalized youth."