One thing we’ve learned from this pandemic is that children and communities need public school, and that remote learning, long-term, without an end in sight, is harmful for kids. That’s why the mayor of Chicago should immediately meet the entirely reasonable safety demands of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), and then open the schools.

Last spring, the CTU negotiated with the city and won a safe reopening for Chicago’s high schools, including a district-wide vaccination plan. Now, they’re demanding a safe in-person return from holiday break, while many school systems around the nation remain remote because of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Chicago teachers are asking for robust testing, adequate staffing and substitute teachers, and clear metrics for deciding that a schoolwide outbreak warrants the building’s closure. When Mayor Lori Lightfoot refused to meet their demands this week, their union voted to teach remotely, as a job action, to pressure the city without abandoning their obligation to their students. The city showed its commitment to children, in turn, by locking the teachers out of the remote system.