During the influenza pandemic in 1918, even though the world was a very different place, the discussion was just as heated.
That pandemic killed an estimated 5 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans, before it was all over.
While the vast majority of cities closed their schools, three opted to keep them open -- New York, Chicago and New Haven, according to historians.
The decisions of health officials in those cities was based largely on the hypothesis of public health officials that students were safer and better off at school. It was, after all, the height of the Progressive Era, with its emphasis on hygiene in schools and more nurses for each student than is thinkable now.
Read the full story here to find out what happened.