by Kerry Dougherty
Remember when they told us students were “resilient”? Remember when they said kids didn’t need to see faces to learn? How about when they claimed remote learning was a fine substitute for in-person classes?
Remember when they said those who wanted schools open were selfish, just wanted babysitters for their kids, or worse, wanted to “kill grandma?” Remember when they said cloth masks protected against Covid?
Well, they were wrong. About all of it. And the kids suffered.
Boy, did they.
The nation’s so-called “report card” was released Thursday morning and even The New York Times — print media’s biggest cheerleader for lockdowns — had to admit that the results of Covid lockdowns were catastrophic for school children.
Their headline is wrong, though. The pandemic didn’t cause learning loss. School closures did. Time to stop conflating hysterical overreactions to COVID with the pandemic itself. The blame for this godawful mess rests squarely on the shoulders of the lockdown lobby.
The Washington Post, also a strong supporter of lockdowns, did better than The Times:
Student Test Scores Plunged During Pandemic.
So did US News.com:
New Federal Achievement Data Shows Grim Trajectory for Country’s 9 Year-Olds.
The Nation’s Report Card was issued by the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It showed that America’s 9-year-olds fell far behind in math and reading after 2020.
“The drastic academic declines hit almost all races and income levels. In math, Black students lost 13 points, compared with five points among White students. Nine-year-old’s reading scores dropped by the largest margin in more than 30 years. reported Fox News.
And the most devastating part of the report:
Already low-performing students were hit hardest.
The fact that militant teachers’ unions led Democratic governors and the CDC around on leashes and either couldn’t see or didn’t care what they were doing to children is a scandal.
Remember who Terry McAuliffe campaigned with on the eve of last November’s Virginia gubernatorial election?
Randi Weingarten.
Yep, the Queen of School Closures. The teachers’ union boss who believed in the fantasy that kids could learn to read via Zoom. Clearly Weingarten knows nothing about children.
Weingarten, whose union worked with the CDC to draw up “reopening” guidelines that were so unworkable that schools were forced to remain closed in states like Virginia for nearly two years. States that ignored the CDC fared far better.
This abysmal showing by students is the fault of Weingarten, the CDC and governors like Ralph Northam, who hastily closed schools, and slavishly followed CDC guidelines, making it difficult for school districts to comply and reopen.
Yesterday Governor Glenn Youngkin announced an initiative to repair the damage brought on by his predecessor’s policies. The program, called “Bridging the Gap,“ is a pilot being launched in 15 school districts to address learning losses.
This needs to go statewide and soon.
Virginia has a lot of catching up to do. We owe it to the kids to get it done.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
