Despite The Times’ early warnings, it soon became very unpopular in left-leaning areas to argue for school openings. In Northern Virginia, a school board member asked parents if they wanted their kids “to be alive or to be educated?” In the Bay Area, a school board member disparaged parents for “want[ing] their babysitters back.”
San Francisco voters oust three school board members

To be as cautious as possible about Covid-19 was considered good and liberal while the idea of opening school was Trumpian wrong speak, particularly after then-President Donald Trump declared in July 2020 his determination to push governors to open schools.

It became perceived as a project of selfish White supremacists and people who desired to sacrifice children. I am not overstating the rhetoric in these areas, where a mix of political conformity, social pressure and exaggeration of risk of Covid-19 to children created a fear spiral and bureaucratic inertia that has lost schools more than 1 million enrollees and counting.