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Let’s Talk About That NYC School Closure That Was Intended to Make Room for Illegal Migrants

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

This school closure story, covered by Leah here, actually isn’t about COVID restrictions at. Somehow, it’s worse than that. Before you read on, this point is still essential: If there’s one crucual lesson we should have learned from the harmful, anti-science COVID restrictions imposed on society by public health bureaucrats and politicians, it’s that school closures and so-called “remote learning” are disastrous for children. In recent public comments, the former chief of the National Institutes of Health admitted to the stunningly myopic metrics by which his colleagues weighed these consequential decisions:

Collins admitted that considering other viewpoints outside a certain zip code wasn’t part of his job description. Here’s how he described his and other public health officials’ response to the Covid 19 pandemic. “As a guy living inside the Beltway feeling a sense of crisis trying to decide what to do in some Situation Room in the White House with people who had data that was incomplete, we weren’t really thinking about what that would mean to [a] family in Minnesota, a thousand miles away from where the virus was hitting so hard. We weren’t really considering the consequences in communities that were not New York City or some other big city.”…If Collins’ description is to be believed, it’s a cartoonish blind spot…Collins went on: “If you’re a public health person and you’re trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is and that is something that will save a life. It doesn’t matter what else happens.” Again, a frank admission of a bad way of thinking.

While these authorities clamped down, ostensibly in order to save lives in big cities, people all over the country suffered terrible externalities from those decisions, including and especially children. When state and local leaders stepped up to question and resist the edicts, they were demonized and attacked for doing so, even as they avoided and mitigated a lot of damage. Collins at least deserves a modicum of credit for being candid about these things, albeit very belatedly. By contrast, Dr. Anthony Fauci is busy ‘not recalling‘ all sorts of answers to questions he may not want to answer, while reportedly questioning whether learning loss among students during the pandemic was a tragically real phenomenon. If truly raised doubts about the pervasive reality of learning loss, he has officially surrendered what remains of his credibility.  The larger point is, keeping kids out of classrooms is terrible for them.  Which brings us to the latest school closure, out of New York City.  Officials there are shifting children to “virtual” or “remote” learning because they’ve decided to use their school building to temporarily house illegal immigrants.  Yes, really:

Following an outcry, the school announced students would return to their classrooms today.  But forcing American students out of their public school building to make room for illegal immigrants, even for one day, is truly outrageous. Then again, we’ve seen veterans kicked out of their housing arrangements, and military families’ hotel reservations vitiated, for the same reason.  We’ve seen blue state leaders actually beg residents to house migrants in their private homes. No wonder ‘sanctuary’ jurisdiction leaders are so desperate for Texas to stop sending even relatively small numbers of these immigrants to their cities and states.  The results are substantively awful, in addition being similarly horrendous public relations.  These are the results of Democratic immigration policies, right here in the open.  They have no interest in fixing it, so we’ll get more of this. And as broke, dysfunctional California moves to pay for illegal immigrants’ healthcare coverage, many American citizens and legal residents are wondering, what about us?  Not all voters are “America First” adherents, but it’s a fair bet that a great many of them will despise the concept of Americans being treated by the system as second class citizens in their own country.  

More buses, please.  It’s the only way to force the sort of political pain that might drag “progressives” into changes they are laboring to avoid.  Speaking of buses, a CBS News story criticizing the Lone Star State’s busing operation engaged in hand-wringing about the price tag, and quoted a woman involved in the process who is critical of what’s going on.  The Abbott administration, which is rightly continuing this important relocation program, is pushing back:

I’ll leave you with this, out of Maine, where the government is building new housing — not for struggling Mainers, but for illegal immigrants they refer to as “asylum seekers:”

On Monday, dozens of people gathered at Brunswick Landing to celebrate 60 new apartment units going up in five buildings. Twenty-four of them are already complete. These units are designed to house asylum seekers, as they wait to receive work permits. That process can often take a while, since asylum seekers can’t even file for a permit until at least six months after filing their initial asylum applications. This program is happening through the Maine State Housing Authority. MaineHousing will essentially pay the rent for these asylum seekers for up to two years. After that, they will be converted to a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, unless the state says the program needs to be extended.

If the people controlling taxpayers’ money in Maine are building new housing for illegal immigrants and paying their rents for years, it seems like some more buses and flights should be re-routed to that state.

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