As the midterm elections approach and voters weigh their options at the ballot box, every American should remember a simple fact: when Democrat politicians had a choice between keeping our kids in the classroom or mortgaging their futures with devastating school lockdowns, they chose to put our kids last.
Protecting our children and putting them in a position to succeed – both academically and personally – should be a non-partisan issue. Unfortunately, Democrats led by Joe Biden lost all credibility when they chose to waste billions, bailing out wealthy voters instead of getting our children back in the classroom.
Biden’s CDC worked hand-in-hand with far-left teachers unions to slow-pedal a return to in-person learning. The Biden administration was in the driver’s seat of school closures and they knew damage was being done to students. The results have been devastating.
According to The New York Times, 9-year-olds who suffered through remote learning are turning in the worst math and reading test scores in more than 30 years, erasing decades of progress in our kids’ education. This radical downturn was most evident among “lower-performing students,” meaning that kids who already had to work harder to keep up have been saddled with a near-insurmountable disadvantage.
Democrat lockdown policies have widened the education inequality gap and made it even harder for students with fewer resources, with studies showing that pandemic learning negatively impacted minority students the most.
It gets worse the longer you look at the data. Seventy-two percent of public schools have reported a spike in chronic absenteeism – and once again, the impact is disproportionately felt by low-income and minority students. There is also a significant increase in students who need to repeat an entire grade level. Meanwhile, Democrat mask mandates prevent kids from seeing their teachers’ faces, which per the Washington Post, “affects learning and development, particularly for our youngest learners.”
School lockdown chaos has also had a heartbreaking – but predictable – effect on our children’s mental health. There has been a 51% increase in young women visiting the emergency room for self-harm; recent spikes in teen mental health struggles and suicide rates have been linked to forced school closures.
Everyone knows that elections have consequences. Biden’s education crisis has made that clearer than ever before – at a devastating cost. Eighteen of the bottom 20 states for getting kids back to school in the 2020-2021 school year were led by Democrats. Conversely, 19 of the best-performing states were led by Republicans.
In simpler terms, electing Democrats to run your city or state meant longer school lockdowns, unreliable and unequal remote learning, and setbacks for your kids.
We can’t forget that Democrats have passed trillions in COVID spending. What do they have to show for it? A generation of students in crisis, years behind on basic educational metrics, struggling with mental health, and robbed of precious time with friends and teachers that they simply can never get back.
The fallout of Biden’s education crisis makes his recent student debt bailout all the more disappointing. Instead of trying to save children from the devastating effects of Democrat-led school lockdowns, Biden is focusing on bailing out rich adults with college degrees – at the cost of possibly more than a trillion in taxpayer dollars during a historic inflation crisis. Maybe if our children were 18 and able to vote for Democrats, Biden would have something for them. But instead of ensuring that your 4th-grader could learn math in a classroom and play with friends at recess, this failed president would rather see blue-collar Americans bail out Ivy League lawyers.
As a mother who helped my kids navigate the confusion of remote learning, this issue is personal to me. It’s infuriating to think that Democrat politicians are so willing to leave our children behind. It’s terrifying to think that mothers across America won’t even know the full impact of this failure until years have passed as we try to help our kids catch up.
Biden and Democrats’ abandonment of our kids is one of the greatest moral failures we’ve ever seen from an American president. Thankfully, we have an opportunity to hold the left accountable this November.
When you go to vote, remember that a vote for Republicans is a vote to put our precious children first.
Ronna McDaniel is the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.