David Brooks: Children Need to Be in School – NYT

"The [CTU] says its members won't go back to work so long as the city's positive test rate is above 3 percent. Where did it get that threshold as the basis for its negotiating stance? It pulled it out of thin air....  The negative effects of no school are the flip side of the many wonderful things teachers achieve when they are in school. But now the educational system is powerfully influenced by organizations that don't seem to believe in critical thinking, adjusting beliefs according to the evidence, or combating fear with science."