Local level IS deciding. Keeping school's closed has it's own harm to children, it is not a clear cut issue, one must weigh all the factors and make the best choice possible. People will of course disagree on what the best course of action is. A parent can choose not to send their child. A teacher can choose not to teach anymore.
Not when you have states telling their schools they are forced to open from the governor because Trump is 'putting pressure on them'. Threatening funding, etc.
A teacher is not just given the option to take the year off, there are contracts and things that may wellend up costing those people everything they have if they decide to not show up to teach. Again because Dear Leader needs to get re-eelcted, which is why he keeps peddling his snake oils.
I do agree that a parent can choose not to send their kid to school, this is still America, but I'm sure there are lots of long term trends like underfunding inner city schools and having much smaller housing units while simultaneously keeping the minorities from being able to move out of those cities until far too recently to make enough difference to stop the impact it has on children in the city vs rest of the country.