Thread by @ryangrim

The implications of this school re-opening study in Texas are ghastly when you peel it back. What it says is that children themselves didn’t cause much spread attending school, but when they did go to school, their parents then left the house for work /1 nber.org/papers/w28753

So the point is that Texas couldn’t (and didn’t actually try to) persuade parents to stay home or to let workers stay home and still collect paychecks. But if you ban kids from school, then you force parents to stay home to care for them. That’s an awfully sketchy way to do it.

Children’s well being shouldn’t be sacrificed to achieve a secondary policy goal of getting parents to stay home. If that’s your policy goal, do it directly, dont use kids as your tools.

Exactly, but TX was actively hostile toward measures like this

https://twitter.com/ajlamesa/status/1391737017936056325