Back to class: Despite virus surge, Europe reopens schools

PARIS (AP) — Despite a spike in coronavirus infections, authorities in Europe are determined to send children back to school. They want to narrow learning gaps between haves and have-nots that deepened during virus lockdowns – and to get their parents back to work. To address rising infections before classes resume next week, authorities in France, Britain, Spain and elsewhere are revising their plans. They’re imposing mask rules, hiring extra teachers or even threatening to impose fines on parents who keep their kids at home. But European governments have faced less political uproar than in the United States over their determination to reopen schools.