Omicron Surge Complicates Return to Schools
Summary from the AllSides News Team
While most U.S. schools returned to in-person learning after the holidays, thousands of schools delayed their classroom plans because of the Omicron variant.
COVID-19 cases grew rapidly over the holidays, reaching record highs of over 400,000 daily cases. Several school districts in cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin switched to virtual learning, often citing shortages of substitute teachers and bus drivers. Coverage in several outlets focused on New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams rejected efforts by the United Federation of Teachers to keep schools closed amid one of the nation’s worst outbreaks. The Chicago Teachers Union also drove headlines with its planned vote to walk out on Wednesday. On Sunday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said that “students belong in the classroom,” and that “we can do it safely.”
News and opinion coverage from the right tended to speak favorably of officials who kept schools open. Some outlets, including NPR (Center) and the Houston Chronicle (Center), used words like “despite” and “but” to seemingly frame the Omicron outbreak as a valid reason to close schools.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
What parents should know about sending kids back to school during Omicron
Millions of American kids will head back to classrooms in the coming days -- just after new pediatric Covid-19 hospitalizations reached an all-time high.
And that has many parents wondering what's safe as the Omicron variant sweeps the country.
"We fear that it's going to get a lot worse, between getting together for the holidays and then getting back to school," said Dr. Stanley Spinner, chief medical officer at Texas Children's Pediatrics & Texas Children's Urgent Care in Houston.
Some cities and school districts are taking aggressive new measures.
From the Left
Back to school: Omicron edition 
Months after Delta threatened the fall back-to-school ritual, COVID-19 is again complicating kids' return to the classroom.
Why it matters: While government officials worked to convince school administrators and parents over the last several days that kids could safely get back to in-person learning after the holidays, the reality on the ground amid the spread of Omicron is much more complicated.
What they're saying: "I still believe very firmly and very passionately, not only as an educator but as a parent, that our students belong in the classroom and that we can do...
From the Right
Bringing ‘swagger’ back: Adams vows to keep NYC, schools open amid Omicron
Watch out, COVID-19, Eric Adams says he’s bringing “swagger” back.
On Day 3 of his mayoralty, Adams declared Monday that he’s bringing to the Big Apple a “swagger” that was “missing” during the COVID-19 pandemic’s doldrums under predecessor Bill de Blasio.
“When a mayor has swagger, the city has swagger,” Adams boasted at Concourse Village Elementary School, where he was flanked by new schools Chancellor David Banks.
“We’ve allowed people to beat us down so much that all we did was wallow in COVID –that’s all we did — and we no longer believed this is a city of swagger, this is...
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