School’s Out Forever
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Millions of students left school in March of 2020 and never went back.
“With 23 countries yet to fully reopen schools, education risks becoming ‘greatest divider’ as COVID-19 pandemic enters third year,” warned UNICEF in a press release dated March 29, 2022.
“In addition to data on learning loss, the report points to emerging evidence that shows many children did not return to school when their classrooms reopened,” reported UNICEF urgently, citing an exhaustive new report.
Reporting disturbing drop-out trends from Liberia to Kenya and beyond, UNICEF officials warned of the long-term economic, social, and global impact of so many at-risk kids failing to receive even the barest minimum of education.
In Los Angeles, California, the same phenomenon is occurring. In August of 2022, when LA district schools opened their doors, the school system found itself missing between 10,000 and 20,000 students.
50,000 LA public school students missed their first day in August of 2022.
Nationwide and around the world, millions of at-risk public school students, deprived of access to in-person public education opportunities, didn’t find their way back to class once schools reopened. Nor are they expected to.
The economic fallout from long-term public school closures is already estimated to be well into the trillions.
In the U.S., national test scores were just released to a chorus of lamentations. Two decades of educational gains in math, science, and reading have been lost — mostly in school districts that chose remote learning well into 2021 and 2022
As some of the dire, long-term consequences of extended public school closures have come into focus, plenty of those who formerly championed shut-downs, mandates, and strict masking in public schools have had a sudden change of heart.
Dr. Leana Wen, a frequent CNN contributor throughout Covid-19, was often outspoken in favor of requiring ever more extreme measures to stop the spread throughout 2020 and 2021.
Once Omricon hit, Dr. Wen was finally forced to the conclusion that “stopping the spread” would require an unhealthy — and unachievable — permanent level of control over the populace.
