Students Suffered as Democrats Shut Down Schools

Two decades of academic progress were lost as students and parents struggled with Democrats’ school closures. Reading scores dropped the most on record — seven points — and math scores declined five points, the most in 30 years. Minority and lower-income students fared even worse.

WSJ Editorial: The 2020 NAEP tests were administered shortly before pandemic lockdowns and school closures, so this year’s results provide a snapshot of how students have weathered those two years. It’s not pretty…

Results were even worse for lower-income and minority students. Math scores fell by 13 points for black students and eight points for Hispanics compared to five points for whites. Reading scores for low-income students fell twice as much as for others…

America’s teachers unions demanded that schools be kept shut even as they remained open in Europe. At the same time unions used the pandemic to extort money from Congress. Schools received some $190 billion in federal Covid relief to safely reopen and address learning losses, but schools stayed closed and much of the money still hasn’t been spent.

As the nation measures the effects of Democrats’ devastating school shutdowns, the Biden-Harris administration, Democratic governors, progressive local officials and their allied teachers’ unions are attempting to rewrite history. In Democrat-led cities and states, schools remained closed far longer than in Republican controlled districts.

Fox News: White House officials and Democratic lawmakers have attempted in recent days to reframe their position on school reopening policies amid the COVID-19 pandemic…

Schools in states that voted for former President Trump in 2020 reopened 75% of the time while those that voted for Biden reopened 37.6% of the time during the 2020-2021 academic year, according to education nonprofit The 74.

Democrats widely condemned Trump and Republican governors like Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for aggressively pushing for schools reopening in fall of 2020.

Still, Democrats in some areas are enforcing pandemic-related restrictions. In Los Angeles and New Jersey, students and parents are navigating strict mask and vaccine requirements for school and extracurriculars as a new school year kicks off.

Bottom Line: Democrats are responsible for school closures and the staggering loss of academic progress that followed.