If the 2019 school year was when things derailed, and 2020 was the year we did the best we could in an impossible situation, 2021 is poised to be the moment the nation turns the page and doubles down on education as a post-COVID priority.

Teachers unions had a greater effect on school reopening plans than COVID-19 hospitalizations, a new report examining unions in 250 large, urban school districts found.

Teachers unions have often demanded lower community spreads of the coronavirus before they are willing to return teachers to the classroom.

As the Los Angeles Unified School District prepares to reopen elementary schools for the first time in 13 months, recently released court documents show that while the district pushed for more instructional time for students earlier this year, the union successfully bargained for a reduced teacher workday—and a lot more of what it wanted.

Last month in Chicago, after months of heated negotiations, the teachers union and Chicago Public Schools emerged with one of the most detailed school reopening agreements in the nation. Brad Marianno, an education policy professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has been studying these agreements since last spring, called it the most comprehensive he’s seen, citing its inclusion of things like testing protocols, measures that might lead to reclosing schools, and vaccination commitments. Among other things, the union succeeded in negotiating accommodations for hundreds more members at higher risk of Covid-19 complications, or who serve as the primary caregiver for someone at higher risk, than the district had originally agreed to accommodate.

There will be no need for backpacks when Shannon Smith’s second-graders enter their West Prep Academy classroom for the first time on Monday.

During tense negotiations over reopening Chicago’s schools, the district and its teachers union accused each other of refusing to budge from inflexible positions.

When Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot stepped up to the podium for a press conference on Thursday morning, the tone in her voice conveyed pure rage.