specifically primary and secondary school, although university is an issue as well
i put this in a comment but:
i think the school issue is difficult. if you go back to school, you will have massive increases in cases and deaths. if you go online only, you put enormous pressure on parents - schools are responsible for feeding many children and often act as daycare. if you do a “hybrid” approach you’ll get the worst of both worlds, except it’ll likely be primarily lower-income children going to school and getting sick, plus more pressure on teachers.
They should be closed (at least in the US), because we need to stop the spread of the virus. That's really all there is to it, imo. Yes, that will make things difficult for a lot of people - that's the consequence of not taking the threat seriously in the first place. But we have to do whatever it takes to stop the spread.
Countries that have effectively handled the virus have been those that were willing to make sacrifices, and because they accepted those sacrifices, they don't have to lose as much. Because we were not willing to make sacrifices, now the cost has gone up. But it's still the same choice - as long as we refuse to make sacrifices, the amount we'll need to sacrifice will continue to increase.
We should only reopen schools when it's safe to do so. That's all there is to it. I get the argument but I still think it's really a black and white issue tbh.