94% of American public school teachers report having to use their own savings to purchase basic classroom supplies. If sent back to school, those teachers will have to spend a great deal more money on supplies to attempt to ensure their safety and the safety of their students.

Public school educators are already criminally underpaid and undervalued. The overwhelming majority of them do what they do because they understand that the work they are doing is among the most important in the world. Going back to school before everyone's safety can be ensured

will be taking advantage of the generosity and selflessness of so many of those educators, will be turning their financial needs (exacerbated by their being underpaid and undervalued for so long) against them, and will be putting a generation of children -- our FUTURE -- at risk.

I know there is no simple, easy, one-size-fits-all solution here. I know NOT going back to school means there will be a host of other problems to solve and disparities to address. But the work of educators MUST be respected, and their lives MUST be protected.

And the kids? Children are the most valuable thing on the planet. A society that doesn't do everything in its power to protect them, to nourish them, to prepare them for the future -- for THEIR future -- is a society that has failed them.