1. Timeline of when major “liberal-elite” actors publicly endorsed bringing students back to in-person classes
| Category | Key “yes-to-reopening” moment | What they actually said (or did) |
|---|---|---|
| Joe Biden (candidate → president) | Dec 8 2020 – Wilmington speech announcing his health team | “It should be a national priority to get our kids back into school … the majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days.” apnews.com |
| Feb 16 2021 – CNN town-hall clarification | Goal is five days a week of in-person learning, not one. www.axios.com | |
| Biden White House / federal agencies | Jan 21 2021 – executive order directing a plan for “safe full-time reopening” (no citation needed for fact of EO) | Follow-ups: Feb 12 CDC “road-map” for layered mitigation; Mar 19 2021 CDC cuts distancing rule from 6 ft to 3 ft, explicitly to let more schools open. www.npr.org |
| National teachers’ unions | AFT (1.7 m members) – May 13 2021 speech by Pres. Randi Weingarten: “There is no doubt: schools must be open, in person, five days a week.” www.aft.org | |
| NEA (3 m members) – July 7 2021 convention; Pres. Becky Pringle: union is “supporting efforts to resume full-time, in-person instruction in the fall.” www.edweek.org | ||
| Democratic governors & mayors | Gavin Newsom (CA) – Mar 1 2021 deal with legislature offering $2 bn to districts that reopen TK-2 by Mar 31. www.politico.com | |
| Ralph Northam & VA House Democrats – Feb 22 2021 bill creating a presumption of full in-person instruction by July 2021; governor had already called for reopening by Mar 15. www.washingtonpost.com | ||
| Influential liberal opinion-makers | Emily Oster (The Atlantic) – Oct 9 2020 “Schools Aren’t Super-Spreaders,” arguing closures harm kids more than they protect adults. www.theatlantic.com | |
| Nicholas Kristof (NY Times) – Nov 21 2020 column: “Trump was right and many Democrats wrong about keeping schools closed.” www.registerguard.com | ||
| NY Times & Washington Post editorial boards – February 2021 packages urging districts to reopen (NYT piece “Reopen the Schools,” WaPo “The cautious reopening of D.C. schools should be celebrated,” Feb 5 2021). www.washingtonpost.com | ||
| Left-leaning child-advocacy / think-tank voices | American Academy of Pediatrics (often aligned with Democratic policy coalitions) called for in-person learning June 25 2020 and reiterated throughout summer 2020 (widely quoted by Democratic officials). | |
| Pattern: Opinion writers began nudging Democrats in fall 2020; Biden embraced reopening rhetorically in December 2020; hard policy support from the White House, CDC and blue-state leaders arrived Feb-Mar 2021; national teachers’ unions followed once vaccination of educators was under way (May-July 2021). |
2. “Did the liberal elite favor school reopenings?”
It depends on when you look.
- Spring–Summer 2020: Most Democratic leaders and unions prioritized mitigation and were wary of what they viewed as a rush by the Trump administration. Re-opening support inside liberal circles was scattered (AAP, a few columnists).
- Fall 2020: Liberal opinion-writers such as Oster and Kristof began publicly pushing to reopen, but large unions and many blue-state officials still resisted.
- Winter–Spring 2021: After Biden won, the rhetorical center of gravity shifted quickly. Federal money (American Rescue Plan), new CDC guidance, and educator vaccines removed the biggest practical roadblocks. By March 2021 virtually every major Democratic governor had a reopening timetable, and by May-July 2021 both AFT and NEA were explicitly “all-in” on full-time, in-person school.
So the statement “liberal elites favored school reopenings” is only fair if you’re talking about the period after early 2021.
Before that, the liberal coalition was split: public-health and child-advocacy voices leaned toward reopening, while unions and many elected Democrats emphasized safety first. The consensus in favor of reopening did not fully congeal until vaccines, federal funding, and updated CDC rules made it politically and logistically comfortable.Sources