Fresh confirmation of pandemic learning loss dropped Tuesday with the release of 2022 US scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, which showed a dramatic drop in 15-year-olds’ math scores since the last, pre-COVID exams.
It proves once and for all that shutting down schools and pushing “remote learning” — for more than a year in some places — was a horrible mistake that devastated a generation of children.
And who’s to blame?
Pandemic scientist Anthony Fauci and school-union boss Randi Weingarten.
They said “follow the science,” yet ignored it.
In Weingarten’s case, she would pay lip service to school openings, and then set impossible conditions, like the complete eradication of the virus.
She pushed the CDC to include all kinds of exceptions to keep teachers home — even though studies showed schools were not super-spreaders.
Weingarten knows she was wrong.
That’s why she’s desperately rewriting history, trying to claim that she was an advocate for return to classroom.
No, Randi: Well into 2021, long after it was obvious that school reopenings were safe, you worked your connections to keep them shut.
Meanwhile, the 31 nations that maintained or improved upon their 2018 PISA math scores in 2022 shared some common characteristics, including shorter COVID school closures.
Here in America, schools stayed closed the longest wherever teachers unions were strongest: There’s no stronger proof that those unions don’t really care about the kids at all.