Number Crunch

Getting Back to Work Means Getting Kids Back in School — Safely

Standardized testing is back, but this time it’s for Covid-19

$10 billion: That’s how much the U.S. government will spend on Covid-19 testing in schools across the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. The funding, part of the recent $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, formally known as the American Rescue Plan Act, is meant to fuel the Biden administration’s drive to get as many schools reopened as quickly as possible — an effort that’s fast becoming a political issue as much as a health and safety issue.

While schools have not proven to be Covid-19 hot spots per se, widespread closures have been a pain point for many Americans for months, and as the one-year anniversary of the first wave of shutdowns has come and gone, many working parents are at a breaking point. Reopenings have begun to happen to varying degrees and in varying locales, but concerns remain in many districts that both children and teachers may remain at too much risk for classes to resume in full. Testing programs — generally too pricey and complex for typical public schools to handle on their own — could tame that risk. “We know that [testing] works to identify cases and slow the spread of Covid,” a White House spokesperson said in a…