I hope Bernie Sanders will endorse fully reopening America’s schools as safely and quickly as possible.

As a social democrat, I enthusiastically — with time and money — supported Bernie Sanders during the past two Democratic primaries. Many other Americans seem to respect him quite a bit, too, given he’s one of the most popular politicians in the United States. Now that we face a national crisis of closed public schools, Bernie’s voice is needed more than ever.

As one of the nation’s most trusted senators, Bernie can speak both to Left activists militantly against reopening schools and to a general public worried about the public health implications.

The Nation magazine, which endorsed Bernie twice, recently published an article calling for schools to reopen — highlighting our country’s problematic West Coast situation where private schools are all open and urban public schools providing almost no in-person learning at all:

Up and down the West Coast, millions of children in some of the country’s largest cities have had no in-person education since last March. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, and myriad other cities, there is precious little evidence the public schools will be reopening for most kids before the summer holidays. Meanwhile, in many of those same cities, private schools have been providing in-person classes during much of the pandemic, and wealthier suburban public school districts are finalizing plans to reopen in the spring.