A teachers union executive in Virginia defended remote learning during the pandemic by suggesting that since all students experienced learning loss, “aren’t we all equal?”
Melvin Hostman, a newly elected member of the executive board of the Richmond Education Association, made the remarks in an interview with ProPublica published Monday.
“The whole thing about learning loss I found funny is that, if everyone was out of school, and everyone had learning loss, then aren’t we all equal? We all have a deficit,” Hostman told the interviewer.
The interviewer then referenced data showing learning loss was worse among racial minorities.
“Of course — because our society is inherently unequal,” Hostman responded.
Hostman, who has taught high school history for six years, told ProPublica he was reluctant to agree to a push for additional instructional time because of more pressing problems like a lack of toilet paper, school buses arriving late, and widespread absenteeism.
He emphasized the needs of the teachers, saying many teachers felt like “the only time they had a work-life balance acceptable to them was during virtual school.”
Remote learning gave teachers more time to run errands, walk their dog, and exercise, “just like other professionals doing remote work,” ProPublica reported.
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Richmond school administrators are considering lengthening the school year to address learning loss. The teachers union is opposed to extending the school year.
School lockdowns during the COVID pandemic caused massive learning loss across the country among K-12 students in public schools.
In 2022, eighth graders had the lowest U.S. history scores on record and among the lowest civics scores, the Department of Education revealed in May. Only about 13% of eighth graders met proficiency standards for U.S. history last year, and only about a fifth of students were proficient or better in civics.
Math and reading scores have also suffered over the pandemic, the Education Department revealed last year. Math scores plummeted among fourth and eighth graders in almost every state, the Education Department reported back in October. Reading scores have also sunk across the country, erasing the last three decades of progress.
Many students returned to classrooms last year reading at the same level as when the pandemic started, putting them two grade levels behind. A January study suggested that students lost about 35% of a normal school year’s worth of learning, starting when remote learning began.
Learning loss caused by many months of remote learning during the pandemic spurred parents across the country to demand schools return to in-person learning, especially after data showed that children were low-risk for serious cases of COVID.
Some parents even ran for school board positions and won, hoping to stop the learning loss in their district.
In Florida, mom and new board member Stephanie Meyer said failing grades and student behavioral problems made her unwilling to send her own children to the same schools she once attended.
In Michigan, Tom Payne, a grandfather and new school board president, dubbed the district’s academic performance before he was elected “mediocre at best.”