‘The Kids Are Casualties in a War’

<p>As the highly infectious Omicron variant surged, a high-stakes battle played out between Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago and the city’s teachers’ union about how to keep schools open and safe.</p><p>We chart this battle on the ground in Chicago, speaking with teachers, parents and students about the standoff.</p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>The deal between the city and the teachers’ union included<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/us/chicago-schools-reopen-covid.html"> provisions for additional testing and metrics</a> that would close schools with major virus outbreaks</li><li>As millions of U.S. students headed back to their desks, the coronavirus testing that was supposed to help keep classrooms open safely was itself being tested. In much of the country,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/us/schools-covid-testing.html"> things are not going well</a>.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit </p><p><a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a></p><p>Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.</p>