Progressives, Not the Pandemic, Hurt Kids’ Education

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Posted: Sep 02, 2022 12:01 AM

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“The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading,” read the New York Times headline. The subtitle declared, “The results of a national test showed just how devastating the last two years have been for 9‑year-old schoolchildren, especially the most vulnerable.” But the pandemic is not really to blame. Progressives’ preferred policies are to blame.Down where I am in Georgia, progressive writer Amanda Mull in The Atlantic wrote a condemnatory article in 2020 about the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, reopening Georgia when even then-President Donald Trump insisted he should not. Mull titled her article “Georgia’s Experiment in Human Sacrifice.” The experiment went quite well. Georgia weathered COVID-19 far better than many other states, its economy rebounded faster, and children’s educational standards were far better than many other states’.In fact, that difference is getting glossed over in a lot of reporting. Not every state and county in the nation saw massive declines in education for students. Only areas of the country wherein children and parents were held hostage to the whims and fears of a progressive elite suffered.The media has largely glossed over that fact. The Times reports it thusly: “In some parts of the country, the worst of the disruptions were short lived, wi …