School Choice is gaining momentum. Ironically, the credit for this trend probably goes to the teachers unions. By their unwavering assault on public schools and refusal to return to the classrooms, the unions are driving students out of those schools.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says the Biden administration seems committed to indulging teachers unions that oppose charter and private schools. This is no surprise since First Lady, Jill Biden, is a member of the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union. Even though newly appointed CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, recently said, “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools”, the Biden administration has not called for teachers unions to return to the classrooms.

Republican legislatures in more than a dozen states are responding to parental frustration with school closures by introducing legislation to expand school choice. In Iowa, the Senate passed a bill to provide students assigned to low-performing public schools with education savings accounts (ESAs), which are similar to vouchers but can also be used for textbooks, tutoring and more. Parents can roll over unused funds to future years.

The Iowa legislation would also allow charter schools that are independent of local school districts; today the state has only two charter schools. The bill increases a tuition-and-textbook tax credit from a maximum of $250 to $1,000 per student and extends the credit to home schoolers. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says, “If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us about education, it’s that our parents need choice. And it’s not just in-person versus virtual.”

In my home state of Florida, Republican state Senator Manny Diaz has introduced a bill to consolidate the state’s current scholarship programs into taxpayer-funded ESAs. Nearly 200,000 students currently participate in the state’s existing programs, only one of which uses ESAs. The ESAs would give parents more flexibility in how they use the money.

In the state of Arizona, a Republican state Senator is proposing to expand eligibility for the state’s ESAs, which are currently used by fewer than 10,000 students, to low-income students across the state. Republicans are also pushing to expand the aggregate cap for the states’ tax credit scholarship program to $20 million from $5 million over three years. In New Hampshire and Missouri, GOP legislators are also pushing ESA bills. Nebraska legislators are debating a new tax-credit scholarship program.

The impact of public-school closings due to the pandemic is decimating the rolls of public schools. WSJ says public schools in 33 states have lost 500,000 students since the 2019-2020 school year, according to a December Associated Press-Chalkbeat analysis. Many parents with the financial means have enrolled their children in private or parochial schools or formed “pods” with classmates taught by tutors. Some are home-schooling.

For those parents who cannot afford these options, school choice is needed. They already pay through their taxes for public schools that remain closed and remote learning is leaving their children far behind. This could leave their children with lifetime damaging consequences.

To be sure, this situation was predictable. Joe Biden made it clear in his campaign that he would be on the side of the teachers unions and he has kept his word.  WSJ says, “The union boycott of in-school instruction during the pandemic has been a frustrating revelation for millions of parents. All the more so because too many politicians, including those in the Biden administration, are beholden to the unions. Republicans are smart to use this instructive moment to give students more alternatives to the unions school monopoly.”

Maybe Joe Biden will be the best thing to ever happen to the school choice movement.

In the midst of all the depressing news of late, here’s something to cheer about. Cancer mortality is on the decline.

The American Cancer Society reported this week that cancer mortality declined by a record 2.4% in 2018 and 31% since the 1991 peak. These are the latest statistics. The credit for these improvements goes to earlier diagnostics and therapies and a decline in smoking.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says about 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and the risk increases with age. Cancer is the leading cause of death for middle-aged Americans and two to three times more likely to kill someone in their 50s or 60s than even Covid-19. The incidence of some cancers like breast, liver and kidney is also increasing partly for demographic and lifestyle reasons.

For instance, breast cancer is associated with obesity and inversely related to pregnancy and breast-feeding. Increasing rates of obesity and declining fertility has resulted in breast cancer incidence growing by 0.5% annually. Liver cancer, also associated with obesity, is on the rise for the same reasons as well as excess alcohol consumption, smoking, and hepatitis.

But overall cancer death rates are falling at an accelerating pace. A 1% decline annually began in the 1990s, increased to 1.5% in the 2000s and early 2010s and further increased to 2.3% from 2016 to 2018. The latest rate of 2.4% represents the best declining rate ever.

This improvement reflects more regular screenings that catch cell mutations and tumors early, resulting in increased five-year survival rates for prostate (98%), melanoma (93%), and breast (90%) cancers and made them mostly curable.

Poorer rates of success are seen in lung cancers (21%) since they are usually caught later due to poor diagnostics, but mortality is still declining by about 5% annually from 2014 to 2018. This decline is partly due to declining numbers of people smoking, but also due to improvements in treatments like epidermal growth-factor receptor tyrosine-kinase inhibitor which is able to target non-small cell lung cancer mutations.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved new treatment therapies. The report states, “Treatment breakthroughs are also responsible for rapid reductions in mortality from hematopoietic and lymphoid malignancies in both children and adults and, more recently, certain difficult to treat cancers, such as metastatic melanoma.”  CAR T-cell therapies that use genetically engineered white blood cells to attack lymphomas are also becoming more available. The FDA last year approved the break through therapy Trodelvy, which reduced tumors in 33% of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who had not responded to two prior treatments.

The same technology that produced the new Covid vaccines from BioNTech and Moderna has also been used to develop innovative oncology therapies. These companies are using mRNA technology to develop treatments for melanoma, lymphoma, and metastatic solid tumors.

It is possible we’ll see a setback for these statistics when the 2020 cancer data is available, since the Covid pandemic has resulted in missed doctor visits for cancer screening and treatments. This is one of the many costs of the lockdowns to prevent spread of the virus. Enrollment in many cancer drug trials has paused. A Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) study in August found that diagnoses for breast, colorectal, lung, pancreatic, gastric and esophageal cancers declined by 46.4% in March and April. This may result in later diagnosis and poorer treatment outcomes.

It is imperative that Americans get all available cancer screening when recommended by their doctors. Earlier diagnosis makes for earlier treatment and the best chance for better long-term survival and even cure.

It was inevitable that once vaccines were available, war would break out. For the last year the media has promoted fear and now we are reaping the fruits they sowed.

Everyone screams “follow the science” until it doesn’t suit their agenda. The prime example of this is the response of the teachers unions to new CDC guidelines that say it’s safe to reopen schools. The science makes it clear that the risk for children and teachers is exceptionally low, yet teachers unions still refuse to go back to school. The science is clear that keeping schools closed is increasing the rates of suicide in children and dramatically lowering their educational achievements. Yet teachers unions still refuse to go back to school.

Even after liberal mayors like Chicago’s Lorrie Lightfoot called for teachers to go back to school, the unions refused. Now they are insisting every teacher be vaccinated before reopening schools. Imagine if healthcare workers had the same attitude. The death toll would be astronomical!

Don’t look for President Biden to step in and stop this madness. He is already on record as a big supporter of the teachers unions. In his presidential campaign Biden pledged his support of the National Educators Association (NEA), one of the largest teachers’ unions in the country. His wife, Jill, is an NEA member. He proudly announced, “When we win this election, we’re going to get the support you need and the respect you deserve. You don’t just have a partner in the White House, you’ll have an NEA member in the White House. And if I’m not listening, I’m going to be sleeping alone in the Lincoln Bedroom.”

Yesterday, his White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, took pains to distance the White House from their own newly appointed CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, when she said, “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.” Psaki said she was speaking “in her personal capacity” and not on behalf of the president. Clearly the president is still lockstep with the teachers unions.

Naturally, other unions have taken up the same attitude as the teachers. Despite CDC guidelines, established by science, these unions demand a place at the head of the line for vaccination. Even liberal California Governor Newsom is getting criticized for once doing the right thing! The Wall Street Journal reports, “The SEIU lambasted California Governor Gavin Newsom’s well-advised decision last week to remove “essential” workers such as janitors from the state’s priority guidelines and base eligibility almost solely on age.” SEIU United Services Workers West political director Sandra Diaz griped, “It’s like he’s putting us out to die.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo once again made headlines for the wrong reasons when he announced that restaurant, taxi and rideshare drivers would be next in line for vaccines. This came in response to industry groups including hotels, airlines and ride-share companies lobbying efforts to get their workers vaccinated first. Every pig wants a place at the trough. But why should young and healthy restaurant workers be ahead of 60-year-olds who are at much higher risk? Again, everyone wants to listen to the science until they don’t.

Ironically, while everyone seems to be fighting over their priority for vaccination, many of the same people are expressing reluctance to be vaccinated. Blame the media for that. They have spread fear for the last 12 months including fear of the vaccination development process. As a result, about 30% of people currently refuse to be vaccinated. Yet at least one school district – Los Angeles Unified – has announced it intends to require the vaccine for students – even though the vaccines have not been tested in children under age 16 years!  This is especially incongruous given that a study in the leading journal Nature estimates the Covid-19 survival rate to be approximately 99.995% in children and teens.

The only rational method of prioritizing vaccinations is by risk and that means primarily by age. WSJ says, “Basing eligibility in stages from oldest to youngest from now on is simple, scientific and fair. As supply increases, this will be the fastest way to inoculate the most people, reduce demands on the healthcare system, and allow more businesses to reopen. Interest groups will complain, but the public will understand and politicians won’t take the inevitable grief for favoritism.” This is no time for political payback.