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‘Huge Economic Impact’: Here’s How Much Lockdowns Could Cost Students In Lifetime Earnings

   DailyWire.com
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Learning losses from school lockdowns could cause affected students to lose between 2% and 9% of their lifetime earnings as they miss the opportunity to gain critical skills, according to a new study.

The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that average reading scores for nine-year-olds plummeted five points and average mathematics scores dropped seven points, constituting the first score decline for reading in three decades and the first score decline for mathematics in the history of the initiative. Stanford University economist and Hoover Institution senior fellow Eric Hanushek used the results in a recent study to approximate state-by-state impacts arising from the worsened educational outcomes.

“The pandemic has had devastating effects in many areas, but none are as potentially severe as those on education,” the analysis remarked. “There is overwhelming evidence that students in school during the closure period and during the subsequent adjustments to the pandemic are achieving at significantly lower levels than would have been expected without the pandemic.”

Output growth depends upon the quality of a state’s labor force, especially in the United States, where the economy “rewards skills more than almost all other developed countries.” The same reality implies that the economy “punishes those without skills more than other countries.”

According to the study, the typical American student impacted by school lockdowns can expect to lose 5.6% of lifetime earnings. Losses are most severe in Oklahoma, where lifetime income is expected to fall 9% among affected students, and least severe in Utah, where lifetime income is slated to decline 2% among affected students. The phenomenon is most salient among “disadvantaged students” who “tended to fare worse” during the school closures, according to the study.

Similar calculations indicate that state economies could lose between 0.6% and 2.9% of economic output over the next century relative to the baseline, with nationwide output losses averaging 1.9% of gross domestic product. The state of California, which is the largest in the U.S., could lose $1.3 trillion, although learning losses among students in the state were among the least severe in the nation.

“Because the affected students are in school and have yet to enter the labor force, the immediate impact on the states’ economies is zero,” the study said. “And, because the impact is not felt until these students finish school, enter the labor force, and become a substantial part of the labor force, people are prone to ignore the real impact. That is a mistake, because the economic impact is truly significant.”

The study from the Hoover Institution follows similar analyses from other leading economists. Disruptions caused by lockdowns may cost the economy between $128 billion and $188 billion per year, according to an estimate from consulting firm McKinsey & Company, while a study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School concluded that learning losses would reduce gross domestic product by 3.6% over the next three decades.

Parents concerned about the impact of lockdowns on education have removed their children from government schools at an unprecedented rate. The portion of American households opting to homeschool their children surged from 5.4% in the spring of 2020 to 11.1% by the end of the year, according to data from the Census Bureau.

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