[conspire] Schools WTFery

[Rick Moen]

While I'm at it, and while I'm still failing to get to sleep, someone
please let me know if there's anything I'm missing in the following:

1.  The short-fingered vulgarian has repeatedly tweeted that the USA's
public schools 'must' reopen for in-person instruction in the fall.
He has threatened to withhold Federal funding for schools that do not
comply.

2.  Said short-fingered vulgarian is currently top officer and public
servant (**choke**) of the Federal Executive Branch, and
commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.  His legal authority extends to
some control of spending, but by law may not override Congress in that
matter, control of the purse string being constitutionally vested in the
latter.

3.  Public schools are run by local special districts, or in some cases
towns/cities, that are created under the aegis of states, and derive
their powers from the states.

4.  The Tenth Amendment and hundreds of years of caselaw stress that the
Feds' authority is limited to Federal matters, and that the states (and
subdivisions thereof) are in no way subordinate.  Control of spending
must by caselaw be on a rational basis and cannot be simply redirected
at the whim of some nutcase in the Oval Office.

5.  Accordingly, the short-fingered vulgarian has exactly the authority
to order the nation's public schools around that he has to order me to
make him a sandwich, because I don't work for him any more than the
public schools do, i.e., no authority at all.  And his little dog Betsy
DeVos, too.

6.  This sort of Kabuki play, while obviously doomed to not work, might
have the effect of sucking up to suburban parents strained by
home-schooling and child care, which matters to the Toddler-in-Chief
because he still thinks white suburban women are one of his core
constituencies and wants to pretend to be their hero.  (This is similar
to why he pushed to set aside coronavirus regulations for churches.)
The Toddler evidently hasn't yet gotten the memo (not that he reads
anything) that 70% of parents view it as too risky for schools to reopen
in the fall -- including 53% of Republicans
(https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-coronavirus-index-poll-parents-schools-risk-ccf95453-9f99-4e3a-a4cc-eb0188bf6da3.html).
Like, maybe they object to little Biff and Buffy bringing home an
infectious viral load, killing Grandma, and ruining the health of many
family members and friends, plus possibly themselves.  Or hey, maybe
they're dead wrong, but the point is that that's the prevailing view
among parents.

Anything I'm missing?

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