The greatest hinderance in reopening schools isn’t teachers unions, or “pod parents,” or school leaders, or teachers on social media, or even governors.

The greatest hinderance in reopening schools is Donald Trump. 1/

We need three things to reopen schools: 1) COVID-19 spread has to be under control outside of schools. 2) Schools need substantially more resources to reopen safely. 3) All stakeholders need an honest assessment of the risks involved. 2/

On all 3 of these Trump has been a miserable failure. He abdicated his role in stopping the spread of the virus by refusing to enact a coordinated national response, refusing to get states necessary resources, and refusing to set an example for his political base (eg, masks). 3/

He has done nothing to get schools more resources, particularly in time for a fall opening. And he's allowing states to go into a fiscal tailspin, which will massively damage school district budgets, further crippling their ability to reopen safely. 4/

And now even his base increasingly doesn't trust anything his administration has to say about the pandemic, including the risks of reopening schools. We know Trump ignores science when it suits him, so no one aside from partisan hacks trusts his gov't to give credible info. 5/

Again: this ultimately isn't a failure of unions or state gov't (as bad as some state governors are) or families or school districts. It's Trump's fault - period. He is the greatest roadblock to schools reopening safely. Blame him. 6/