Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) refused to admit that it was a mistake to keep kids out of schools during the pandemic after a report in The New York Times last week said that the pandemic erased two decades of progress in math and reading for kids across the country.
“New numbers this week show test scores plummeted as children were kept home from school during the pandemic, the largest decline in reading in 30 years and the first decline ever in mathematics,” CNN’s Dana Bash said. “You’re a former schoolteacher yourself. And you chair now one of the most powerful committees in the Senate overseeing health and education.”
“Was it a mistake to keep children home for school so long during the pandemic?” Bash asked.
“Dana, this was a decision of local school officials and our scientific experts, trying to get their hands around a pandemic that was killing millions of Americans to protect their children, to protect their staff, to protect their communities,” Murray claimed.
When schools were being shut down across the country, the number of Americans who had COVID and died was in the thousands, not “millions.” The total number of Americans that have died from COVID is 1.04 million; more Americans have died from COVID under President Joe Biden (D) than former President Donald Trump (R).
“In retrospect, no second thoughts?” Bash later asked. “And I know hindsight is always 20/20, but, given the numbers that you’re seeing and the decline that we just talked about, you still feel comfortable with the way that school districts, even in your home state, handled the pandemic?”
“I think we were under unprecedented times at that point, where people were struggling to figure out what was the best thing to do to make sure that their kids, their families, their children were safe,” Murray said. “Remember, people were dying by the hundreds of thousands. We did not want that to continue. People had to make choices based on the best scientific and personal evidence that they had.”
WATCH:
Despite data proving its destructive impact on a generation of children, Sen. @PattyMurray refuses to admit closing schools for two years was a mistake: “A decision of … our scientific experts, trying to get their hands around a pandemic that was killing millions of Americans” pic.twitter.com/9q2weBZZf6
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 4, 2022