By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

A report issued by the respectable National Assessment of Educational Progress traced the long-term trend (LTT) in reading and mathematics progress for children at the 9 year age level to examine student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and progress showed what we all suspected there was severe learning loss throughout this period.

The NAEP reports on the measure of performance in math and reading and what they reveled were a sobering assessment showing that children at the age studied regressed culminating in decades of lost learning which will further hamper their educational and economic progression.

The most sobering aspect of this report was that the losses were not evenly distributed, as those who were high performing students dropped only a little, but the worst losses were those who were already struggling in math and English, and especially in the minority communities.

These dismal results were directly related to the disastrous results of the forced shutdown of the nation’s schools because of the pandemic, when in the summer of 2020 we knew that children were the least likely to be impacted by the coronavirus.

This report by the NAEP showed which numerous studies have analyzed that school closures had a disastrous effect on student, many falling a full academic year behind, and again those in the low-income and minority community bearing the brunt of this policy.

Even before the pandemic minority children especially black and Hispanic students across the country 70% couldn’t do math or English to grade level despite billions spent from the federal, state and local level on K-12.

The 74 a non-profit, non-partisan news site covering education in America representing the 74 million school age children wrote that the one way to make the magnitude more tangible is to restate the loss in terms of students’ future earnings. Using the relationship between achievement test scores and earnings among those already in the workforce, a 9 to 11 percentile point decline in math achievement (if allowed to become permanent) would represent a $43,800 loss in expected lifetime earnings. Spread across the 50 million public school students currently enrolled in grades K to 12, that would be over $2 trillion — about 10 times more than the $200 billion Congress set aside last year to help schools respond to the pandemic.

Throughout this period, the teachers unions and almost all Democrats put the their own political interests above what was best of American children, even when there was scant evidence that the coronavirus was a treat to children.

Even Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom kept 6 million of the children in his state forced to learn at home, but his own children benefited from in-person learning at exclusive private school. He also like as almost all Democrats, against school choice to attend whatever school is best for their children, forcing them to attend failing public schools. I guess private school is good for my child, just not yours!

Early in the pandemic when little was known, school closures were a reasonable reaction, but once evidence surface that children were the least likely to be effected the schools should have re-opened for the fall 2020-21 school year.

The states that did such as Florida, Georgia and others were ridiculed for placing the lives of children in jeopardy, but no child was impacted by the virus by attending in-person learning.

Throughout this period the teacher’s union lobbied various governmental organizations to keep the schools closed, despite billions allocated to get them opened, which led to substantial learning loss.

One only has to examine a 2021 Freedom of Information Act request, which showed that the American Federation for Teachers — led by Randi Weingarten — had lobbied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on school-reopening procedures. The emails showed the willingness of the CDC’s to listen and to accept the union’s suggestions, the CDC’s final text was exactly the language the AFT used and wanted.

Even in 2021, the Los Angeles teachers union published a report on when schools should begin to re-open that included political demands that had nothing to do student learning such as Medicare for All, a wealth tax, a ban on charter schools, and billions in more educational funding. Considering, the LA public schools have a dismal student achievement gap, especially for minority children.

An analysis by the American Federation for Children’s Corey DeAngelis’ showed that school reopening were about the power dynamics of the unions and their impact on the nation’s schools then anything regarding the health and welfare of children.

Even in a press briefing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre when questioned about this report focused the to blame the previous administration for the continued school closures and the mess that they had inherited.

Jean-Pierre, commented that “This President. And that was the work of Democrats, in spite of Republicans not voting for the American Rescue Plan, which $130 billion went to schools to have the ventilation, to be able to have the tutoring and — and the teachers and being able to hire more teachers. And that was because of the work that this administration did.”

The administration touts the passage of the American Rescue Plan that infused $200 billion cash into the nation’s public-education system on top of what has already been allocated by the federal government. The question how was that money spent?

Did the public schools use that money for student learning or did they use that revenue to continue spending on failed practices that have nothing to do with student achievement or was it allocated to bolster union-membership rolls.

Responding to the White House’s claim the Democrats wanted schools to re-open, and it was the Republicans who kept them closed this ad run by the Democratic National Committee ran an ad in July 2020 attacked former president Donald Trump for being “desperate to reopen schools because he thinks it will save his reelection.”

The ad accused Trump of “ignoring how the virus spreads and risking teachers’ and parents’ lives” and “going against the advice of experts.”

“Do you trust him to do what’s best for our children because this is not a test,” the ad asked. “Trump is failing.”

Does anyone wonder why parents are outraged over how their children are being educated and failure for Washington to listen will do so at their peril!