This should be a scandal. The CDC ignored its own scientific research that proved schools are not coronavirus superspreader sites and that in-person learning can be conducted safely in order to please one of the Biden administration’s political allies. CDC officials knew that students were not at risk and that the AFT’s demands were not based on scientific data. But they caved to the union’s wishes anyway. They did so at the expense of America’s children. For more than a year, students across the country have been kept from the classroom because of a virus that has hardly affected any children seriously, and the results of the closures have been devastating. Students in low-income neighborhoods have lost years of academic achievement, once-high-achieving students have been earning F’s at an alarming rate, and younger children who are still developing socially are facing severe mental setbacks. The CDC could have helped these students by allowing them to return to school earlier — not just in February but months before that. We knew last summer that COVID-19 posed virtually no threat to those aged 18 and under. And thanks to the private schools that reopened last fall, we knew that in-person learning could be conducted safely with just a few adjustments.