Ditch the dumb rule

Hundreds of New York City public schools have had to close their doors for up to 10 days at a time based on an inflexible city rule that mandates shuttering when two COVID cases surface and can’t be linked to the same source. The two-case rule — which applies whether a school has a couple hundred kids or a few thousand in classrooms — disrupts the lives of students, families and teachers in an already topsy-turvy year and is unnecessary to protect public health. Mayor de Blasio, who months ago said he’d reevaluate the edict and just promised an update in the coming week, must give it up.

What’s stopped de Blasio from exercising common sense up to this point, and at the very least putting in place a rule that varies based on school size? Probably the fact that the teachers’ union likes the regulation the way it is, and they’ve been firmly planted in the driver’s seat since the pandemic started.

Too bad. While it may have made some sense last summer, we’re living in a different world. Forty thousand New York City public school educators have been vaccinated; there’s no risk that they can get infected just by going to work, not even if COVID is somehow running rampant. Equally important, it’s now clear that schools, where masking is compulsory and distancing rules are strictly enforced, aren’t hubs for spreading the virus. That fear was put to rest long ago based on careful analysis of the science.

If the mayor really wants to exercise extreme caution, he’d be arguing for turning back the clock on indoor dining. Schools aren’t the problem here.

If and when regular randomized testing — which de Blasio at first resisted — reveals that a school truly is a petri dish for the pathogen, it’s wise to close its doors. But since the start of the school year last September, the Department of Education has ordered 2,364 extended closures, often because of two people whose infection could be reasonably contained.

Wise up already.