Late this week, Joe Biden’s CDC put out a map proclaiming where it is and isn’t safe to re-open schools. According to their recommendations, something like 80% of schools should remain closed. Of course, there’s no actual science behind that, nor does it match up with the lived reality of thousands of school districts across the country which are currently open.

Which shows how useless the CDC is. See all that red in the south? Schools are open there and have had virtually no major issues with spread, much less spread that outpaces normal risk when out of school. https://t.co/iIFIHJ1xEf

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 12, 2021

As I said above, see all that see of red in Texas and the South? Almost all schools are open in those areas. There have been no major outbreaks, and certainly not any at the level past what you would expect even if these children and teachers weren’t in school. One of the fallacies of the “no school” crowd is the assumption that no one will get COVID in everyday life if they are kept out of school. Schools are extremely low risk precisely because they are structured environments.

With the CDC pushing these new restrictions out, states are left to decide how to respond. Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis wasted no time in getting his answer out there.

When it comes to education in Florida, we’ve followed evidence and data, not special interests and hysteria. We did what was right by our students and families and we are not turning back. pic.twitter.com/pz2h1UahLK

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 13, 2021

Here’s more on Florida’s response to the CDC from Click Orlando.

“Since Summer 2020, Florida school districts, superintendents, public charter schools, private schools, educators, students and families have worked hard and have done an incredible job ensuring Florida students can continue to receive a world class education in-person, every day,” Corcoran’s statement read. “CDC guidance is informative, although Florida school districts, public charter schools and private schools should stay the course they began in Summer 2020. The science has been clear since August, and subsequent studies and data since then show that schools are safe to reopen.”

This is exactly right. The science has been clear since August (and arguably early summer if you take Europe into account). There was never any reason to keep schools closed this long. That the CDC is now putting out ridiculous guidelines that once again pronounce that most schools should remain closed is partisan lunacy. It’s Joe Biden being a coward with an assist from the left-wing bureaucratic estate. Meanwhile, children are unhappy, deaths of despair are skyrocketing, an test results are bottoming out all so some politicians can avoid having to take responsibility for anything.

DeSantis, and several other red state governors, have done the opposite. They managed their economies well, got kids back to school on time, and did so while not producing worse health results than many blue states that still remain largely locked down to this day. The science is indeed clear. Republicans are simply better at this.