<p>Training camp hasn’t started yet for the National Football League, but teachers&#8217; unions and educational leaders are training hard for something else. In fact, they haven’t stopped training since 2020 to close schools quicker than a wide receiver running a 40.</p>
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<p>The latest example comes from Pittsburgh. The City of Champions is benching students while it hosts the NFL Draft April 23-25, closing schools for three days of remote learning to accommodate the event, Pittsburgh Public Schools announced this week. The city was picked to host the draft almost two years ago, which seems like plenty of time to create a backup plan, but here we are. Green Bay anticipated a closure by starting the school year early, while Detroit never closed its doors despite record crowds of 775,000.</p>
<p>“Our priority is maintaining continuity of learning while recognizing the extraordinary circumstances the city will experience during the NFL Draft,” <a href="https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48259609/pittsburgh-schools-switch-remote-learning-nfl-draft" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/48259609/pittsburgh-schools-switch-remote-learning-nfl-draft&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2HdD_lxlO-OpT2EQZcz1dQ">Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Wayne Walters said in a news release</a>. “Transitioning to asynchronous learning allows us to support students academically while helping families navigate the logistical challenges expected across the region.”</p>
<p>&#8220;Asynchronous learning,&#8221; if you’re rusty on the language of pandemic excuse-making, is a term for not learning. Students will be sent home with assignments, but won’t meet online or in person during the time they are to complete them. “Continuity of learning” is another term that means the opposite of its implication, an Orwellian term if ever there was one. Perhaps Walters means the same continuity of learning that left Pittsburgh students a half year behind grade level in reading and a <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1vw3M2n3wBWrp7Y6zQM6Ys">full grade level behind in math, a whopping five years after the pandemic</a>? The same continuity that necessitated a COVID Compensatory Services program to make up for more than <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/education/2026-01-06/pittsburgh-public-schools-learning-loss-rock-climbing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wesa.fm/education/2026-01-06/pittsburgh-public-schools-learning-loss-rock-climbing&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw21CqtTPB_OPh5INHo-j4Ws">600,000 hours of missed therapy for special education students</a>?</p>
<p>The continuity of learning that we now know, left “<a href="https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.axios.com/local/pittsburgh/2025/03/21/post-pandemic-learning-gaps-pennsylvania&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1vw3M2n3wBWrp7Y6zQM6Ys">lower-income districts and students of color hit hardest?”</a></p>
<p>Not everyone needed several years of studies to know this would happen. Common sense suggested closing schools for a year and a half would put kids behind, with those already facing economic and academic challenges the least able to fill the gaps. But now that everyone knows, it’s inexcusable to close schools except under the most dire conditions. The NFL Draft does not count.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh Public Schools spokespeople told news outlets they’ve had <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/03/20/media/pittsburgh-public-schools-moves-to-remote-learning-ahead-of-nfl-draft-extraordinary-circumstances/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://nypost.com/2026/03/20/media/pittsburgh-public-schools-moves-to-remote-learning-ahead-of-nfl-draft-extraordinary-circumstances/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0knPvpgr762xwb55L_3Jtb">“mixed&#8221;</a> feedback from parents, but are protecting against transportation and congestion issues, with hundreds of thousands of people coming to town for the draft.</p>
<p>But Pittsburgh denizen and reporter Salena Zito noted on X, “There is one Pittsburgh Public Schools school located directly in the downtown core: ONE. All other schools are miles away from where the draft will be.”</p>
<p>In the country’s bluest localities, educators looked back at the mess they made in 2020 and decided they should reserve the right to make it again in the future whenever they felt like it. This keeps happening all over the country, where students and parents pay the price for these hair-trigger school closures.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh isn’t the only school system heaping on these unrecoverable days, which only compounds losses from the pandemic. Northern Virginia and Maryland schools closed for more than a week due to 6-8 inches of snow in February. Public schools closed again across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast in March for a severe storm with possible tornadoes that never materialized.</p>
<p>In San Francisco, a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-teachers-strike-ec574f8ac7ef0e0041e9f136e9f99140" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://apnews.com/article/san-francisco-teachers-strike-ec574f8ac7ef0e0041e9f136e9f99140&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2ItypmFJFF81bEu-iiVWE_">teachers&#8217; union strike closed schools for 50,000 students for a day</a>, while another <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sqwrzoLn-D26nrW6f2pHn">work stoppage</a><a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-18/la-teachers-union-widely-expected-to-announce-strike-date-at-massive-wednesday-rally&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2sqwrzoLn-D26nrW6f2pHn"> looms in Los Angeles this month</a>. Minneapolis’ public schools closed for part of a week during <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/ice-operations-prompt-changes-at-minnesota-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/12/ice-operations-prompt-changes-at-minnesota-schools&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3mIWwcAc-JUEsLeysR_JLM">ICE operations in the city in January and offered students a remote learning option for a full month, claiming “safety concerns.”</a> There have been widespread politically motivated walkouts in districts across the country that have interrupted learning, backed by teachers, administrators, and unions.</p>
<p>If you squint, you can see a theme — low risk tolerance encourages closings out of an abundance of caution, while COVID-era remote learning is seen as an easy, effective stopgap measure despite all the evidence to the contrary. In other words, a bunch of people don’t really want to do their jobs and are happy to take any opportunity to stop. It doesn’t help that they were rewarded handsomely with COVID bailout money for doing extensive damage the first time around.</p>
<p>Before the pandemic, public schools weren’t exactly reliable for actual learning, but at least they opened their doors every day. Little did parents know how much they&#8217;d miss that bare-minimum effort once it was gone. During the pandemic, school districts that stayed open, even through adversity, generally experienced less learning loss and are now better at staying open. But in blue metro areas where elected political leadership and unions align, schools that practiced being closed are now very comfortable closing.</p>
<p>In Pittsburgh, this philosophy understandably affects student attendance, yet another broken habit of the pandemic years that has not yet been repaired. <a href="https://www.wesa.fm/education/2025-12-02/pittsburgh-public-schools-scores-absenteeism-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wesa.fm/education/2025-12-02/pittsburgh-public-schools-scores-absenteeism-report&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZU7G3oGECMr8_BEPpFPjt">A 2025 report by PPS found that chronic absenteeism is at 34%</a>, which RAND Corporation categorizes as <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-34.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA956-34.html&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1774373900008000&amp;usg=AOvVaw19B6f_0gRYmfQXIze9T6gt">“extreme,”</a> and is moving in the wrong direction.</p>
<p>It’s no surprise that when a school district views school as optional, some parents and students start to agree.</p>
<p>When the NFL comes to town, they&#8217;re going to be sacked for yet another loss.</p>
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Mary Katharine Ham

Teachers’ Unions Use the NFL Draft to Keep Students Home