To hear them tell it, teachers are basically 19th-century coal miners, risking their lives every time they go to work. “At this time, schools are not safe for students and staff,” said a teacher who is part of a lawsuit in New York City that aims for a court-ordered school closure. The Chicago Teachers Union says that if Chicago Public Schools don’t get more students to opt in to Covid testing, “our members will once again step into the breach, despite their many other duties, because lives depend on it.” The president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association said, “It is fair to say that the health and safety risks we face from COVID-19 far surpass those presented by a nor’easter.”

This melodramatic nonsense must not be indulged. Teachers are not at any more risk than grocery-store workers, restaurant workers, or any of the other “essential workers” who have been working in person throughout the entire pandemic. If fast-food employees can show up to work, so can teachers. In fact, they have a higher obligation to do so because schools are more important than Taco Bell.

This should not be controversial, and it is becoming less so. Officials in state and local governments have in many places rejected unions’ pleas for school closures. This is not a red–blue issue. Most of the local officials are Democrats, and the Democratic secretary of education advocating in-person learning on national TV might have helped give them a permission slip to say “no” to the unions.