There is no scenario possible where there will not be some risk in opening schools. Children are not super spreaders. Schools can enforce mask wearing and social distancing.
Schools are essential, but of course they won't open because of bureaucratic leadership that is being extorted by the teachers unions.
They don't have to be dubbed "super" spreaders. They absolutely can (and have) spread covid and brought it into classrooms. Our county is full online with the exception of some special needs and some "test" classes, and just Friday announced another school closing due to multiple positive cases.
I don't know about where you live, but here in the DC area schools absolutely, 100% cannot enforce social distancing. Classrooms were already overcrowded and 6th graders were already crammed into trailers outside at our elementary school. The space to social distance, even at 50% under a hybrid model, literally does not exist.
The schools can send letters home or send kids home and can remind them all day long, but masks will not be worn (correctly) by all students all the time, or even most of the time. It just won't happen. They can "enforce" but they can't prevent.
I side with the teachers on this — they should not have to risk dying to do their jobs. It doesn't matter how big or small the risk is.
Most parents are responsible and will keep their kids home if they have a fever or are sick. But not all. There are absolutely parents in each and every community who think their schedule that day is more important than anyone else and will knowingly pump their kid with children's Tylenol and drop them at school. That's if they have symptoms.
This is temporary. On the current path we're on, it looks like less than a year of school will be impacted before a vaccine is potentially available. Parents have the ability to teach their kids, and there are plenty of great, free resources to help with that. My kid was behind in math and didn't learn a thing in distance learning the end of last year, so we did Khan Academy all summer to catch him up. I realize not everybody is fortunate enough to have time even in the evenings to teach their kids though. And some kids need the social interaction.
The parents here that were willing to accept more risk but felt their kids needed the social aspect or weren't privileged enough to have job flexibility formed pods. They have their own agreements to take certain precautions away from it, but they have 3-8 kids rotate going to each other's houses, and do their online school there. Even if they're not in the same grade or even school.
Sorry for the long rant. But teachers didn't get paid enough before the pandemic, and they sure as hell don't get paid enough now to get forced into being exposed to a deadly virus, especially considering it was made demonstrably worse by about half the government's inaction and politicization of mask-wearing and other public health measures. And it's still being made worse by members of the general public who are decrying mask mandates and calling for herd immunity (which by process will require even more people to die).
Look at this in the context of a social contract. Everybody in society has a role to play for the betterment of their community or society as a whole. As part of that contract, teachers take the responsibility of teaching kids while parents work. But that contract also depends on everybody else abiding by their responsibility under the same contract, and we as a society aren't doing that. It's unfair for society at large to be out at bars, restaurants, rallies, churches, attending gatherings, and otherwise being selfish entitled assholes — actions that directly threaten the lives of others — and then making teachers put their lives (and/or the lives of their families) at risk just because half the rest of the country is stupid or ignorant enough to willing risk their own. Parts of the government and the people have ripped up that contract. Have you seen pictures of our airports over the weekend? It's going to be worse in the coming weeks.
I can't believe in a pandemic that's infected and killed however many people already, knowing how easily and quickly this one spreads, being so close to a vaccine, we have people that are trying to forcibly put others at risk. If we were facing years of this then yeah we need to completely rethink teaching and the workforce, and adapt by compensating them based on their risk and value. But we have two vaccines that are on the immediate horizon. Relatively speaking, there's not that much time left. We should be focused on getting everybody on the same team and trying to minimize the amount of deaths between now and then.