It seems pretty clear to anyone paying attention that the upcoming school year is in great jeopardy.

The city of Selma school system is ready to push their dates back, and social media pages are filled with comments about how any school system that operates is engaging in “human sacrifice.”

The Alabama Education Association is preparing an assault on the school year.

The media and their Democrats want to kill every American business, sport and institution it can to flex its muscle. And now that President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy Devos have voiced support for schooling, they must kill it.

This is working. A recent poll shows that 71% of parents are concerned that an in-class school year is a significant risk to their children’s health.

That’s probably going to put the kibosh on most K-12 education in this country.

No politician is going to send kids back to school if parents feel like this. The safer bet is to just shut it down and say we are going to do online learning for the foreseeable future.

Alabama is no different. The AEA may be damaged, but some politicians still fear them for some reason.

They are sending out the signal that they don’t want in-school classes this year.

Their proposal for $150 million dollars for 300 nurses, testing machines and safe rooms is an impossible ask, and they know it.

They want this all allocated and procured in one month. Not going to happen, and they know it.

Their allies in the media will proclaim they just care about the kids and everyone else is disregarding the health of the children.

It’s not true. The American Academy of Pediatrics says kids need to go back for learning, mental health, safety and other reasons.

They note:

The AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school,

The political pushback on the AAP forced them to walk back their politics-free view to a more “acceptable” one. The mob works.

This is another reason K-12 schooling seems unlikely.

Obviously, nothing is 100%, but arguing pediatricians want to kill kids seems rather silly.

But the National Education Association and their AEA allies are now about to go on the attack against in-class schooling.

They will probably win.

Their logic won’t be the best. Los Angeles’ teachers’ union has already married a return to work to a litany of political concessions, such as defunding the police, Medicare for All, higher taxes and a federal bailout before they want to return to school.

All we have to do is look at what will happen to explain why this is a bad idea.

High-performing kids will succeed and be engaged. Everyone else will be left behind.

The impact of this decision will be felt for years.

If the AEA cares, here is how they can show it:

The ask by Alabama Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton is for spending of $150 million dollars. In a recent op-ed, he says, “Leadership is being constant to something greater than yourself,” which means absolutely nothing.

It’s actually just gibberish and nonsense, but let’s have the AEA take the lead on this and show us how “leadership is being constant to something greater than yourself” by offering to absorb the hit on some of this new cost they want to see.

Alabama has roughly 50,000 teachers. If each teacher was to be constant to something greater than themselves, they could each offer up $3,000 dollars of their salaries to make this all work out — if that is what they want.

It may seem like a lot, and it is, but over 300,000 Alabamians have lost work over this crisis, and teachers could make a good faith effort to show they care more about their students than themselves.

Or, and this is what is going to happen, teachers will demand they not be forced to go back to work and they will still get paid.

I have been hit with more than $3,000 in damages. Many Alabamians who have stayed employed have lost wages, as well. Keeping kids at home makes that worse.

Remember: “leadership is being constant to something greater than yourself” — unless that means it is hard.

Government employees at the state and local level are dealing with the global coronavirus pandemic with much less pain. Maybe it is time to heed Senator Singleton’s call and lead.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The AEA reached out to Yellowhammer News after this opinion column published and said that they have not endorsed the aforementioned $150 million plan, which was proposed by the Alabama School Nurses Association.