Parents and students in Florida, where schools have been open since last summer, are no doubt looking north at places like Fairfax County, Va. (a suburb of Washington, DC  where, arguably, a number of parents  affected by prolonged school closures work in the federal government) and shaking their heads in a mixture of bewilderment and pity.

Because no matter what parents in Fairfax County — and other counties across the nation with leadership interested in appealing to the teacher unions — say about the damage prolonged school closure is doing, they’re met with nonsensical and insulting flip-flopping from the head of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Biden’s COVID advisor Saint Dr. Fauci, neither of whom can seem to make up their minds if school openings are safe and crucial, or need federal funding before they can happen.

Meanwhile, American children suffer mental health problems and possible future learning challenges as a result of missing an entire year of school.

For his part, Fauci literally says one thing one week, and its diametric opposite a few weeks later.

A disaster for Fauci's credibility.

He's been calling for schools to reopen for months, noting that spread among children is minimal

Now he's saying they can't open until Biden's uber-political stimulus bill passes?

Science changes based on what's on the Senate floor? pic.twitter.com/hTkNm3sbwP

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) February 14, 2021

And the head of the CDC is no better. Last Friday, Director Rochelle Walensky had everyone hopeful as she presented guidance that suggested kids should be back in schools, and then cryptically changed her tune the following Sunday, noting the need for more “resources” before schools could reopen.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called it what it was following the Sunday report:

Insanity. Now the union bosses are demanding we cure asthma and totally eliminate mold, before they allow kids to back to school. #OpenOurSchools https://t.co/Xul7jRQz3I

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 15, 2021

According to a group in Fairfax County interested in seeing kids back in schools, Cruz was exactly right in his assessment: the unions did have a hand in Walensky’s recommendations. And the CDC’s director says she based her recommendations on suggestions from the Department of Education, whose employee, Donna Harris-Akins, helped draft them. It should come as little surprise that Harris-Akins comes to the agency after spending 14 years with the largest labor union in the U.S., the National Education Association.

🚨Breaking🚨 @CDCDirector admits that lobbying groups changed recs in the recent CDC School Guidelines

From a Fri. press conf: CDC based its recs on what the science says AND input from teachers groups w "direct changes in the guidance made as a result." https://t.co/kLiqYnIPsT pic.twitter.com/pZWcYk6yJt

— OpenFCPS (@OpenFCPS2020) February 15, 2021

Who else helped draft the recommendations? Donna Harris-Aikens, who came to DOE last month after 14 years as a Senior Policy Director at the NEA.

In addition, CDC sought input from other "stakeholders," i.e., lobbying groups, w no mention of meeting w any openschools parents. pic.twitter.com/NoKjDFm7jg

— OpenFCPS (@OpenFCPS2020) February 15, 2021

One last unbelievable note from this press conf: @CDCDirector said that even after everyone is vaccinated, CDC still might not recommend school open normally 😯 According to her, even then, we might need "some combination of mitigation strategies."

So full-time school… never? pic.twitter.com/BC69TRsJix

— OpenFCPS (@OpenFCPS2020) February 15, 2021

What kind of leadership have the American people installed that would put the interests of a labor union before the health and well-being of the nation’s future, her children?