Gina Raimondo is right a lot.

She was right about reopening schools and is now right about pre-departure testing.

It wasn’t just Republicans who successfully reopened schools earlier in the pandemic. Some Democrats did a good job as well. Gina Raimondo, Rhode Island’s former governor and President Biden’s current commerce secretary, was one of those Democrats.

Here was Raimondo in November 2020 talking about the harm caused by “letting kids stay home for a year and a half to languish.”

“I think there are massive long-term negative impacts on our children for keeping them out of school for a long time,” said Raimondo, whose two children attend private schools that have been open all fall. “Every child deserves that same opportunity. It shouldn’t just be for the parents who choose to and are able to pay tuition. … Throwing in the towel and letting kids stay home for a year and a half to languish — it’s just wrong.”

She noted, like many European public health experts were saying at the time, that controlled school environments were likely safer for children than the outside community.

Pointing to state data, Raimondo argues that schools, with their controlled environments, may actually be safer for children: About 1,245 of some 98,000 Rhode Island students attending school at least partly in person had tested positive as of Nov. 21; the state says most cases were transmitted outside of school. In contrast, about 950 of nearly 50,000…