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School Closures & Massive Learning Loss: An Education Nightmare

Reckless Democrat policies and prolonged school closures have put our students behind academically. According to the Nation’s Report Card, average reading scores for 9-year-olds declined five points in 2022—the largest average reading score decline since 1990. Math scores didn’t fare much better. In fact, a report from Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research found students who learned remotely for most of the 2020-2021 school year lost about half of a typical school years’ worth of math learning.

School shutdowns posed a personal struggle for many families. Jennifer Dale, a parent of a special needs daughter from Lake Oswego, Oregon, testified before the Early Childhood Elementary and Secondary Education Subcommittee about the difficulties of school shutdowns faced by her daughter Lizzie. In her testimony, Ms. Dale stated, "[U]nlike her peers, we quickly discovered that Lizzie’s cognitive delays made online learning impossible. She is still learning site words, learning to type on a keyboard, and learning to use a mouse. The online platform didn’t work to teach her to grip a pencil or correct her answers on a math worksheet. … Most mornings I was in tears, and so was Lizzie."
 
Dale concluded her testimony stating, “The harms that have occurred due to the prolonged closures of public schools have fallen hardest on our most vulnerable children.” Countless parents echo Dale’s testimony. Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal editorial board points out that parents don’t need catastrophic test scores to tell them how school closures affected their kids because “they’ve been living that education horror.”
 
Why is learning loss so serious? Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research estimated such losses would represent a $43,800 loss in expected lifetime earnings for each student affected. This means learning loss could follow these students for years to come.
 
School closures didn’t affect only young students. According to the Brookings Institute, community colleges are seeing a 16 percent drop and baccalaureate degree granting colleges and are seeing a 6 percent drop in enrollment of students transitioning from high school.
 
Republicans foresaw the dangers of prolonged school closures and fought to keep schools open. When Democrats rammed their partisan American Rescue Plan through Congress in February 2021, Education and Labor Committee Republicans tried multiple times to ensure school districts accepting relief funds were open for in-person instruction. Republicans are still trying to encourage school districts to use COVID aid to address learning loss, instead of extraneous pet projects.
 
Meanwhile, Democrats resisted every attempt to reopen schools. As Nat Malkus, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in a recent issue of National Affairs, “Democrats and their teachers' union allies sounded less interested in how pandemic closures were affecting children and families than with how the closures could be used as a political bargaining chip for items unrelated to the pandemic.”
 
Malkus points to the Chicago teachers unions that demanded Medicare-for-All, a new state tax on wealthy residents, and welfare for undocumented students in order for schools to reopen. The Los Angeles teachers union also made radical demands including defunding the police and a moratorium on charter schools. The Boston teachers union joined the Democrat Socialists of America in demanding a halt to home foreclosures.
 
These examples highlight what we now know all too well: teachers unions held schools hostage to advance a radical political agenda that was totally unrelated to teaching children.
 
Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, even convinced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change its COVID school reopening guidelines, speaking publicly about her position. When the true negative effects of school closures became known, Weingarten tried to whitewash her leading role in keeping classrooms shuttered. Weingarten’s lies were met with fierce rebuttal from Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC)—the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee—who slammed the union boss’ dishonesty about her own responsibility for the learning losses students have endured.
 
Republicans are committed to ensuring such tragic learning loss is never repeated. Republicans’ Commitment to America outlines a framework to ensure every student has the chance to succeed and parents have a voice in their child’s education. When parents are supported in promoting the best interests of their child, teachers unions will be held accountable.
 
This is our commitment to America: a voice for parents and high-quality education for all students.
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