OPINION:
Forget, momentarily, that Joe Biden is president; Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House of Representatives, which controls the nation’s purse strings; Chuck Schumer of New York rules the Senate roost; and a relatively unknown union leader oversees the federal Department of Education.
Now it’s time for your quiz.
Who among them runs your school system?
Who decides how many education dollars your state gets for education?
Who decides whether English-as-a-second-language, special education, athletics and chess, music and art programs are funded?
Answer: All four of them — and don’t forget the tens of thousands of people who work at the White House, in Congress, in federal agencies, in the unions and who “consult” as advocates, lobbyists and experts.
One of those experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has been weighing in on COVID-19 strategies since the beginning and was one of President Trump’s and the mainstream media’s go-to guys. The good doctor now works for Mr. Biden, who can’t seem to make up his mind about whose expertise he is going to follow.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff weren’t handy either.
But do you know who hasn’t nudged? School union leaders.
They are still making demands as if union contracts are on the table and a strike is pending. In fact, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a liberal Democrat, got the Chicago Teachers Union this week to return to classrooms to, well, to teach.
D.C. and many other school systems around the country are still wrestling with reopening school facilities, while paychecks haven’t lost a beat and stimulus checks are being dropped into mailboxes and bank accounts.
In the meantime, here’s the final question of the quiz: Who’s going to actually tally the bill for COVID-19 school funding — Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer or the relatively unknown woman who now runs the Department of Education?
Answer: You will — after local and state leaders discover the feds’ arithmetic is as phony as a $3 bill.
Call your local and state pols and tell them to get off their heinies, do their jobs and reopen the schoolhouses.
Forget about what Mr. Biden will or won’t do. He didn’t close schools and can’t remember, and all Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer will do is placate unionists anyway.
And you know who’s going to be left with the shortest straw of all — young people, who haven’t experienced their traditional academic lot since last winter.
• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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