Now that school lockdowns are over, schools are wondering — where are the students?
School absences have spiked since the pandemic. Now, over three years after lockdowns began, many students are simply not showing up for class.
Nearly 10% of K-12 students were missing from school on an average day during the 2022-2023 school year, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/briefing/covid-school-absence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to preliminary state data reported by The New York Times.
About a quarter of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% or more of school days — about three and a half weeks. Before COVID, only <a href="https://www.lex18.com/news/millions-of-kids-are-missing-weeks-of-school-as-attendance-tanks-across-the-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about 15%</a> of students were chronically absent. About 6.5 million more students became chronically absent across 40 states and Washington, D.C., according to <a href="https://osf.io/bfg3p/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">absenteeism data</a> from Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist.
Black, Latino, and low-income students were more likely to be absent. Notably in some cases, absenteeism has spiked more in some blue areas where schools were on lockdown for longer during the pandemic, according to Dee&#8217;s data as well as remote schooling enrollment <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/briefing/covid-school-absence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist.
In New Mexico, Alaska, and Arizona, where school lockdowns were longer, absenteeism rates rose by more than 20 percentage points between 2019 and 2022. California and Oregon, both of which had prolonged school lockdowns, both saw their absenteeism rates rise more than 15 percentage points between those years. Washington, D.C, which also had prolonged lockdowns, had elevated levels of absenteeism as well.
Meanwhile, states like Arkansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia, which went back to in-person learning more quickly, all saw absenteeism rise by below 10 percentage points.
Some analysts <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/briefing/covid-school-absence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> one factor could be that thanks to school lockdowns, attendance now feels more optional.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1693504018745000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1RMMjCvCBOBYdpkw5O_njE">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“For almost two years, we told families that school can look different and that schoolwork could be accomplished in times outside of the traditional 8-to-3 day,” <a href="https://www.lex18.com/news/millions-of-kids-are-missing-weeks-of-school-as-attendance-tanks-across-the-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Elmer Roldan, who runs a school dropout prevention group in Los Angeles.
“Families got used to that,” he said.
Another issue is parents keeping their anxious children home from school, a decision psychologists say is understandably tempting for parents but can cause more anxiety down the road.
&#8220;The most fundamental thing for adults to understand is that avoidance feeds anxiety,&#8221; Lisa Damour, a psychologist and the author of “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/05/briefing/covid-school-absence.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times.
“When any of us are fearful, our instinct is to avoid. But the problem with giving in to that anxiety is that avoidance is highly reinforcing,” she said.
Meanwhile, students are still battling significant learning loss caused by months of remote schooling. The average math and reading test scores for 13-year-olds <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-reading-and-math-scores-for-13-year-olds-declined-to-lowest-level-in-decades-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a> to the lowest levels in decades, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) officials <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in June.
In some cases, students may actually be doing worse than before COVID.
Last month, a study <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kids-progressing-even-slower-in-reading-math-now-than-before-pandemic-new-study-shows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that fourth through eighth-grade students made even slower progress in reading and math last year than before the pandemic, dashing hopes that kids would learn faster to make up for learning loss during COVID. At the same time, college students who were in high school during remote learning are <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/many-college-students-stuck-at-9th-grade-math-level-professors-blame-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arriving</a> on campus unprepared. Many are struggling with basic math and have had to go back and learn the basics.
Some families also opted to pull their children out of public school for good, opting instead for charter, private, and parish schools or homeschooling. Public school enrollment numbers dropped precipitously after the pandemic began. Public schools lost 1.4 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cga/public-school-enrollment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Meanwhile, homeschooling rose by 30% between the school year that began in 2019 and the one that began in 2021, a study from the Urban Institute <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/homeschool-enrollment-rose-30-in-2021-2022-study.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a>.

Hollywood High School Students And Teachers Prepare For Coming School Year

Schools See Spike In Student Absences Even Though Lockdowns Are Over

Schools See Spike In Student Absences, Even Though Lockdowns Are Over

Children

COVID

Education

Lockdowns

Pandemic

Public Schools

School Lockdowns

U.S.

Enrollment for most forms of postsecondary <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">education</a> in the United States continued to decline three years after nationwide <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> forced many students to temporarily continue their degrees online, according to a new <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/CTEE_Report_Spring_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from the National Student Clearinghouse.
Public four-year institutions saw a 0.8% enrollment decline as of spring 2023, a somewhat less severe decrease than the 1.2% decline recorded in 2022 but more pronounced than the 0.3% decline in 2021 and the 0.2% decline in 2020. Private four-year nonprofit institutions meanwhile witnessed a 1.0% decrease in 2023, compared to the 1.2% decrease in 2022, the 0.4% decrease in 2021, and the 0.6% decrease in 2020.
There are currently 7.1 million students enrolled in public four-year colleges and 3.9 million students enrolled in private four-year nonprofit colleges, marking drops from 7.3 million and 4.0 million enrolled students, respectively, from spring 2019, the last year which was not affected by the lockdowns.
“Undergraduates at public and private nonprofit four-year institutions are still declining but at slower rates,” the analysis from the National Student Clearinghouse summarized. “Total postsecondary enrollment remains well below pre-pandemic levels.”
Community college enrollment nevertheless increased 0.5% as of spring 2023, a phenomenon driven by “dual enrolled high school students and freshmen,” while the number of students pursuing graduate or professional degrees plummeted 2.2% from last year.
The postsecondary education marketplace has been critically disrupted by the lockdowns and the advent of virtual instruction, realities which increasingly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/students-suing-after-colleges-charged-them-for-services-that-were-shut-down-during-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prompted</a> students to question the time and funds they devote toward their college degrees.
“The phenomenon of students sitting out of college seems to be more widespread. It’s not just the community colleges anymore,” Doug Shapiro, executive research director of the National Student Clearinghouse, said in an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/college-enrollment-continues-to-decline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> last year. “That could be the beginning of a whole generation of students rethinking the value of college itself. I think if that were the case, this is much more serious than just a temporary pandemic-related disruption.”
Elevated levels of student debt, which officials in the Biden administration are seeking to address through an executive order to cancel $10,000 in loans for every borrower earning less than $125,000, have also prompted many students to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/student-debt-cancellation-may-cause-some-disenrolled-college-students-to-return-poll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pause</a> or discontinue their education. The debt forgiveness policy was recently examined by the Supreme Court, which is expected to release an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-prepares-to-hear-arguments-about-bidens-student-debt-cancellation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opinion</a> on the controversial move within the next month.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1684938422021000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2-zHdFAayHoZkU-_PcCeh4">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Lockdowns also severely diminished learning outcomes at the primary and secondary levels. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> that average reading scores for nine-year-olds plummeted five points and average mathematics scores dropped seven points, marking 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 revealed in a recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/huge-economic-impact-heres-how-much-lockdowns-could-cost-students-in-lifetime-earnings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> that learning losses could cause affected students to lose between 2% and 9% of their lifetime earnings as they miss the opportunity to learn critical skills, reducing prospects for future nationwide economic growth.
Parents concerned about the impact of lockdowns on education have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">removed</a> their children from government schools at an unprecedented rate. The number of homeschooled students increased from 2.7 million in 2020 to 3.1 million in 2023, according to a <a href="https://www.nheri.org/how-many-homeschool-students-are-there-in-the-united-states-during-the-2021-2022-school-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the National Home Education Research Institute.

Empty Auditorium

College Enrollment Keeps Sliding Even Three Years After Lockdowns

College Enrollment Continues To Slide Three Years After Lockdowns

College

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/teachers-unions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Federation of Teachers</a> President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/randi-weingarten" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Randi Weingarten</a> contended that her <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/unions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">union</a> neither extended the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> which shuttered government schools for several months nor improperly helped the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cdc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CDC</a> draft their pandemic response policies.
Weingarten, who is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before members of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic about her organization’s conduct amid the pandemic, said in prepared <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Prepared-Statement-of-AFT-President-Randi-Weingarten.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> that the entire hearing is based on a “faulty” and “patently false” assertion that the union wielded its influence with Democrats to keep schools closed even after data indicated that young children were at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/only-2-of-childrens-deaths-were-from-covid-and-school-closures-didnt-reduce-the-number" target="_blank" rel="noopener">minimal</a> risk from COVID.
“Even before COVID-19, we knew that kids learn best in person, and that remote, hybrid and simultaneous instruction are not adequate substitutes,” she told lawmakers. “Being in school is essential to children’s academic, social and emotional well-being. We know this not as a matter for study or the grist for a congressional investigation. We know this because we live it every day.”
Weingarten claimed that the AFT “acted quickly” to implement “science-based measures needed to resume in-person schooling safely.” The union, however, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-cities-where-teachers-unions-are-keeping-schools-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">threatened</a> a strike days ahead of a planned reopening of District of Columbia Public Schools in February 2021, even as Weingarten insisted that her organization was “not trying to stand in the way of reopening.” As late as July 2021, Weingarten <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-claims-schools-reopened-in-spite-of-republicans-here-are-several-videos-of-democrats-defending-closed-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remained</a> cagey on school lockdowns and insisted that increasing vaccination rates was necessary to “keep kids safe” and “keep our members safe.”
She instead blamed former President Donald Trump, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, suggesting that those officials were responsible for school closures in her Wednesday remarks because they did not implement the health measures the AFT deemed necessary.
“We knew that the safety protocols we advocated for were not an obstacle to reopening schools, as some officials claimed at the time,” she continued. “Health and safety protocols were the pathway for students and staff to get back to school and stay in school and to create trust throughout the school community.”
Weingarten additionally claimed that polls now show parents believe “schools acted appropriately in pivoting to remote and hybrid learning and back to in-person learning.” The school lockdowns, however, drove unprecedented learning loss among children who attended government schools: average reading scores <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plummeted</a> five points and average mathematics scores dropped seven points among 9-year-olds who took the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Parents have since responded to disruptions in the nation’s education system, which also included the spread of radical gender theory and other Left-wing ideologies, over the past three years by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homeschooling</a> their children at record levels, a phenomenon which Weingarten <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/extremist-scheme-teachers-union-boss-blasts-education-reforms-homeschooling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> an “extremist scheme” to “erode trust in public schools by stoking fear and division.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1682517572037000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0eoxTLnzKr3rl49f2LXGnU">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
The AFT also provoked controversy after House Republicans <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-gave-teachers-union-unprecedented-access-to-shape-national-covid-19-guidelines-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the CDC offered Weingarten and other union officials “unprecedented access” to view and shape pandemic response guidelines, a privilege that the officials reportedly used to implement a “trigger” provision that would cause schools to automatically close should COVID test positivity rates reach certain thresholds. Weingarten claimed on Wednesday that the involvement of the AFT in crafting public health policies was “completely fitting and proper” since the CDC should be expected to “consult with education groups.”
“Not surprisingly, the CDC would want to consult with the leadership of the country’s largest teachers union to consider our insights, expertise and suggestions on a strategy that would directly affect our membership in matters of life and death,” she asserted. “AFT leadership was keenly aware of the hopes and fears of our members, whose trust and acceptance were necessary for the success of any operational strategy.”

Randi Weingarten

Teacher Union Boss Randi Weingarten Denies Group Delayed School Openings Or Wrongly Meddled With CDC Guidelines

Teacher Union Boss Denies Group Delayed School Openings Or Meddled With CDC Guidelines

Teachers Unions

Unions

Authors <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/explosive-book-on-stolen-youth-examines-the-lefts-indoctrination-and-arms-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karol Markowicz and Bethany Mandel</a> warned parents that the Left is out to indoctrinate America&#8217;s children and won&#8217;t stop pushing its agenda of fear and confusion unless conservatives stand up, in an interview Monday with The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/author/ben-shapiro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Shapiro</a>.
The pair, whose new book &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Youth-Progressives-Replacing-Radicalism/dp/1956007083/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UH9OEB9AISKG&amp;keywords=Stolen+Youth&amp;qid=1678226763&amp;sprefix=stolen+youth%2Caps%2C150&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation</a>,&#8221; published by <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/collections/dw-books-1?_gl=1*13iqqxk*_ga*ODM3NDU0Ny4xNjc2NTg1OTky*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY3ODIyODAwMC40OS4wLjE2NzgyMjgwMDIuNTguMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DW Books,</a> said the left&#8217;s woke ideology push went into overdrive during the pandemic. The chat came during the extra section of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Ben Shapiro Show</a>&#8221; on Monday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Why are kids the target of woke indoctrination?<a href="https://twitter.com/karol?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@karol</a>: &quot;During the pandemic&#8230;they were using the kids as child soldiers to push the spectacle&#8230;I was born in the Soviet Union. It was so reminiscent of the stories that my parents, my grandparents had told me that kids were the… <a href="https://t.co/iTcYo0rjmY">https://t.co/iTcYo0rjmY</a> <a href="https://t.co/4X2mqVPwmz">pic.twitter.com/4X2mqVPwmz</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1633507113262620679?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;So one of the things that we talk about in the book is that birth rates are so low for the left and that they are trying to indoctrinate our children,&#8221; Markowicz, a veteran journalist, said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not their own children. And it really is telling that they&#8217;re not having kids, but they&#8217;re pushing all the agendas that affect kids.&#8221;
She added that the book&#8217;s message is &#8220;parents should be afraid of this&#8221; and that it offers advice on how to fight back and protect children.
When it comes to the woke push against kids in school, during the pandemic and a little before,  concepts that had always existed in schools, such as the &#8220;No Place for Hate&#8221; signs, began moving further to the left.
&#8220;It became like, it&#8217;s not enough that we focus on climate change all the time,&#8221; Markowicz added. &#8220;We need to put on a protest with the children to show that we&#8217;re really against climate change. And it showed that it wasn&#8217;t just pushing the ideology. They were using the kids as child soldiers to push the spectacle &#8230;&#8221;
During the pandemic, it became forbidden for parents to say schools should open.
&#8220;It became, &#8216;You want teachers to die. You are a [Donald] Trump supporter. You are a terrible person and you might be shunned by your community,'&#8221; Markowicz said. &#8220;So parents saw this and they realized if it&#8217;s happening to us, it&#8217;s happening to our children and we need to do something,&#8221; Markowicz added.
Mandel said it&#8217;s evident leftists &#8220;don&#8217;t care about math and arithmetic because children can&#8217;t do math and arithmetic. It&#8217;s evidenced right in the test scores. Twenty-three schools in Baltimore, and not a single student can do math on level. They are achieving their goals.&#8221;
Markowicz said what we are seeing is the woke agenda is being pushed from corporations to colleges and down to grade and nursery schools.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
The journalist added that kids are &#8220;only allowed to have this one perspective. And it&#8217;s not good for anybody. It&#8217;s not good for society, it&#8217;s not good for the kid. And nobody seems to really care on the left. This is causing so much damage.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/authors-assert-building-resilience-is-essential-for-todays-young-adults-in-new-book-stolen-youth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Authors Assert Building Resilience Is Essential For Today&#8217;s Young Adults In New Book &#8216;Stolen Youth&#8217;</a>

16x9Stolen Youth-2

‘Stolen Youth’: Co-Authors Tell Ben Shapiro Of Left’s Relentless Woke Push On Kids

'Stolen Youth': Co-Authors Tell Ben Shapiro Of Left's Relentless Woke Push On Kids

Ben Shapiro

COVID-19

The Ben Shapiro Show

The following is an excerpt from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Be-Free-Floridas-Blueprint/dp/0063276003/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Courage To Be Free</a>, by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (HarperCollins/Broadside Books).
<div class="page" title="Page 1">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<h2>Make America Florida</h2>
When I became governor, I threw caution to the wind by rejecting polls and by dedicating myself to being an energetic executive who would take on issues aggressively. I governed with a sense of urgency and a willingness to take risks to accomplish what I set out to do.
We were able to achieve major successes, in part, because I led based on conviction and did not try to conform to what Alexander Hamilton once called “every sudden breeze of passion, or to every transient impulse” among the public. We had our true north, and we were not going to be diverted by media narrative and background noise.
We were also strategic in our approach. I pursued our agenda, mindful of the reality that I was the elected executive within a constitutional system that included checks and balances from other branches and other levels of government. I understood the authority I possessed under the laws and constitution of Florida, understood the various pressure points in the system, and understood how to leverage my authority to advance our agenda through that system.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="page" title="Page 2">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
We live in a bizarre time in which narrative has supplanted facts, and I had no illusions about how my flurry of activity would be met by corporate media outlets, who like those Republicans who refuse to do anything substantive and dutifully accept leftist narratives. Indeed, during the coronavirus pandemic I was the governor most targeted for smears by corporate media and, since January 20, 2021, no Republican officeholder faced more consistent — and erroneous — attacks.
This is the cost of exercising leadership in modern America. A governor who leads by aggressively pursuing policies that defy the leftist ideology of the nation’s elites will face fire — not only by the legacy media but also from activist groups, Big Tech, and corporate America.
To be successful, a leader must be willing to take these hits. It is not always easy, especially when so many of the attacks are blatant lies, but this is simply the price one must pay for exercising leadership. It is a price worth paying. When I took strong stands against the prevailing narrative on draconian coronavirus policies, I may have been vilified by the usual suspects, but I was able to save the livelihoods of millions of people throughout Florida. The Fauci-worshipping coastal elites had no regard for these people, and it fell to me to protect the people of Florida from the destructive biomedical security state.
Taking strong stands will engender blowback from the left-media complex and may temporarily impact a leader’s political standing. Far too often, elected officials permit immediate political considerations to trump doing what is right. For example, when Florida led the nation on requiring schools to be open during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, we faced massive opposition — from Democrats, teacher unions, legacy media, and even some Republicans — such that public opinion was strongly against our policy. Rather than bow to the current public impulse, we stood by parents and students. We beat the unions in court. And we defied the media hysteria which was completely divorced from the data. As evidence has piled up vindicating our approach, our decision has garnered overwhelming support such that those who opposed us typically no longer admit they did.
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="page" title="Page 3">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
It might be the case that, when making a tough decision, the politics do not work out. One could even lose an election due to standing on principle. This is a risk that a leader simply must take. If doing the right thing results in losing an election, then so be it.
It is not worth contorting oneself into a pretzel simply to try to cling to an elected office.
Ron DeSantis is the 46th governor of the state of Florida.
</div>
</div>
</div>
Excerpted from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Courage-Be-Free-Floridas-Blueprint/dp/0063276003/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;qid=&amp;sr=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Courage to Be Free</a> by Ron DeSantis. Copyright 2023 by Ron DeSantis. Published with permission from Broadside Books and HarperCollins Publishers.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-ELECTION-FLORIDA-DESANTIS

DESANTIS: Governing With A Sense Of Urgency

Books

Florida

Readers Pass

Ron DeSantis

Learning losses from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school lockdowns</a> 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> 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 <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/economic-cost-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-2020-school-shutdowns-to-cost-economy-up-to-188-billion-per-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimate</a> from consulting firm McKinsey &amp; Company, while a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/covid-school-closures-will-hurt-us-economy-for-decades-economists-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unprecedented</a> 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homeschooling-rates-doubled-during-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Census Bureau.

Empty school cafeteria

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

Students Hit By Lockdowns Could Lose Up To 9% Of Lifetime Earnings

Economy

American Federation of Teachers president <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/randi-weingarten" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Randi Weingarten</a> faced heavy scrutiny after publicizing her support for an article published Monday, which called on its readers to declare &#8220;amnesty&#8221; for spreading misinformation during the COVID pandemic.
Brown University economist Emily Oster penned the article for The Atlantic, dubbed &#8220;Let&#8217;s Declare A Pandemic Amnesty,&#8221; on Monday, urging everyone to &#8220;forgive one another&#8221; for their words and actions over the virus.
Weingarten, who used her influence to ensure schools kept their doors closed to children during the pandemic and forced mask mandates on children that led to disastrous consequences for students, retweeted the author sharing her latest article, saying, &#8220;I agree with @ProfEmilyOster on this.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I agree with <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfEmilyOster?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ProfEmilyOster</a> on this <a href="https://t.co/lXLjxRcj0E">https://t.co/lXLjxRcj0E</a>
&mdash; Randi Weingarten 🇺🇦🇺🇸💪🏿👩‍🎓 (@rweingarten) <a href="https://twitter.com/rweingarten/status/1587180773186015232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
However, asking for a pardon has fallen on deaf ears for those who suffered the consequences of Weingarten&#8217;s previous words and actions — among many others who enacted destructive policies during the pandemic.
Aside from governments forcing businesses to shut down, teacher unions locking up their classrooms, and friends and families becoming divided over wearing masks or how easily the virus would spread — an entire generation of students has been left with academic deficiencies.
The Nation&#8217;s Report Card published the 2022 Mathematics and Reading Report Cards for Grades 4 and 8 last week, which showed average scores in both subjects and grades for most states — and students&#8217; confidence in their mathematics and reading skills — declined.
According to the <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, the average mathematics score for fourth graders fell five points since 2019, while the score for eighth graders dropped eight points.
In reading, average scores for both grades fell three points.
&#8220;The results show the profound toll on student learning during the pandemic, as the size and scope of the declines are the largest ever in mathematics,&#8221; Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education&#8217;s National Center for Education Statistics, said in a statement.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ted-cruz-puts-aft-president-randi-weingarten-blast-pandemic-amnesty-hell-no" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that the Department of Education published a report in September that showed school closures and online learning contributed to a dramatic decline in test scores.
&#8220;Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020,&#8221; the report said. &#8220;This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics.&#8221;
The union president tweeted on Friday that her camp is &#8220;now focused on the urgent need to help kids recover and thrive.&#8221;
&#8220;The bottom line is everyone suffered in the pandemic […] because of the pandemic,&#8221; Weingarten <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/rweingarten/status/1586731593703559168" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The disruption was everywhere, and it was bad regardless of whether schools were remote or in person.&#8221;
Republican Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears slammed the union boss Tuesday on &#8220;<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/winsome-sears-levels-randi-weingarten-calls-pandemic-amnesty-forget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox &amp; Friends</a>,&#8221; saying she was one of the major proponents of closing schools that most Democrat governors followed her advice.
&#8220;Now they&#8217;re saying, oh, you know, just forget about it,&#8221; Sears said. &#8220;No, the problems are existing where our children did not learn.&#8221;
Jeremy Redfern, a spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said, &#8220;Randi, of all people, doesn&#8217;t get anything resembling &#8216;amnesty.’”
&#8220;Just like the children she wanted to keep out of school don&#8217;t get amnesty from their learning loss,&#8221; Redfern said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Randi, of all people, doesn’t get anything resembling “amnesty.”
Just like the children she wanted to keep out of school don’t get amnesty from their learning loss. <a href="https://t.co/jq1HJ42e2Z">https://t.co/jq1HJ42e2Z</a>
&mdash; Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeremyRedfernFL/status/1587196999148912642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Matt Whitlock, a Republican strategist, called Weingarten the &#8220;grim reaper of COVID school lockdowns,&#8221; adding she &#8220;won&#8217;t admit she did anything wrong.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m dying over this. 
The grim reaper of COVID school lockdowns won’t admit she did anything wrong. 
NEVERTHELESS she’d like a pandemic amnesty. <a href="https://t.co/x85BKBxD8a">https://t.co/x85BKBxD8a</a> <a href="https://t.co/GfMsyBIJVP">pic.twitter.com/GfMsyBIJVP</a>
&mdash; Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1587211227310211075?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

PowerUp & Build Back Better With Care

Second Largest Teachers Union Boss Slammed After Agreeing With ‘Pandemic Amnesty’ Plea

Second Largest Teachers Union Boss Slammed After Agreeing With 'Pandemic Amnesty' Plea

Are you ready to forgive and forget the COVID nuts who wanted to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lock down</a> the whole country, mentally <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stunted</a> an entire generation of students, practically killed<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whitmer-says-small-businesses-have-her-support-these-small-business-owners-havent-forgotten-her-shutdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> small businesses</a>, and accused you of premeditated murder because you wouldn&#8217;t do things like wear a mask while raking leaves by yourself?
Probably not, but a writer for The Atlantic is requesting that the entire nation just move on from that insanity anyway.
Emily Oster, a professor at Brown University, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twitter-blows-up-at-professor-after-demanding-pandemic-amnesty-in-atlantic-op-ed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> a story titled &#8220;Let’s Declare A Pandemic Amnesty.&#8221;
&#8220;We need to forgive one another for what we did and said when we were in the dark about COVID,&#8221; Oster wrote.
Of course, as one Twitter user pointed out, the only reason Americans were kept in the &#8220;dark&#8221; was that the medical establishment, legacy media, and the Left worked hand-in-hand to demonize anybody who offered different viewpoints about COVID, its origins, or appropriate policies to handle the pandemic.
Those who lost their minds over COVID had no interest in seeing the light. Instead, their desire for power and a providential solution to the virus handed down from government bureaucrats blotted out any rational thinking.
In turn, untold misery ranging from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/record-number-of-americans-died-from-drug-overdoses-in-2021-cdc-data-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drug overdoses,</a> to education gaps, to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elder-abuse-skyrockets-during-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elder abuse</a> and so much more plagued the country — despite people warning such things would happen under lockdowns.
According to Oster, however, all should be forgotten because anti-freedom folks were allegedly only enacting those draconian policies — like siccing authorities on surfers out in California — because they wanted to help.
&#8220;But most errors were made by people who were working in earnest for the good of society,&#8221; Oster said of government missteps.
Of course, that&#8217;s what the Left always says when their tyranny fails. Doing something for the &#8220;good of society&#8221; is often used as the rationale behind egregious acts — such as communist dictators killing millions or socialist governments impoverishing an entire nation.
This is not to compare America&#8217;s pandemic pandemonium with the same horrors of communism, but only to say that Oster&#8217;s excuse falls in the same line of thinking as those collectivist ideologies.
Leftists of all stripes believe that a centrally planned society run by experts is what&#8217;s best for the benefit of all mankind — despite countless examples of it ending horribly.
To that extent, Oster&#8217;s piece also asserts that the problem with COVID policies isn&#8217;t that the Left wanted government control of your life, but rather that those in charge were operating off faulty data.
If only they had better data, then the government could have made better decisions, she implies.
This, of course, is nonsense.
GOP Governors like Florida&#8217;s Ron DeSantis, South Dakota&#8217;s Kristi Noem, Georgia&#8217;s Brian Kemp, and others looked at the data from all angles. They concluded that the best course of action was to re-open society and schools far earlier than what other experts were saying.
Now, conservatives want the Left to admit their mistakes. They want government leaders who enacted the misery to face political consequences. And they want to vote for politicians who will never repeat those mistakes.
The problem is that the worst offenders during the pandemic have yet to really admit they did anything wrong.
Folks like Governors Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Kathy Hochul (D-NY), Dr. Anthony Fauci, and so many more have never truly admitted that they were, by and large, wrong about COVID.
As recently as December 2021, Fauci still <a href="https://www.self.com/story/dr-fauci-in-our-power-to-control-covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed,</a> &#8220;Without a doubt, it is within our power and within our capability&#8221; to control COVID.
Hochul says she would do things like <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1585060486378229760?s=20&amp;t=UC5SZPff8xg5CwLwM-oorQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">firing unvaccinated workers</a> all over again. Whitmer<a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/dissecting-gretchen-whitmers-false-claim-that-michigan-students-were-only-out-of-classrooms-for-three-months/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> recently falsely claimed</a> she only shut down schools for three months.
Nonetheless, Oster wants us all to grant absolution to those officials anyway.
&#8220;We have to put these fights aside and declare a pandemic amnesty,&#8221; Oster claims. &#8220;We can leave out the willful purveyors of actual misinformation while forgiving the hard calls that people had no choice but to make with imperfect knowledge.&#8221;
But true reconciliation requires three things from those requesting it: remorse for one&#8217;s actions, the admittance of guilt, and a firm commitment to not repeat those mistakes.
The Left, and Oster herself, haven&#8217;t done any of that.
They don&#8217;t regret their actions because they thought it was all in the best interest of the country. The Left doesn&#8217;t admit guilt because they blame evolving science for errors. There is no plan to avoid repeating their mistakes because doing so would mean admitting that their entire political philosophy is a failure.
The pandemic wasn&#8217;t the cause of the Left&#8217;s awful governing policies — it was always there. COVID just exposed those flaws.
The end result of a collectivist society is an unmitigated disaster in one form or another, while the excuse is always the same: &#8220;We did it for the greater good and based on the data at the time. We&#8217;ll get it right next time.&#8221;
Until the Left abandons the idea that government experts know best and should interfere in your life, there can be no &#8220;pandemic amnesty.&#8221;
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Not A Chance: Atlantic Writer Begs For ‘Pandemic Amnesty,’ Forgiveness For COVID Tyranny

Atlantic Writer Begs For 'Pandemic Amnesty,' Forgiveness For Pandemic Tyranny

Legacy Media

Media

Dr. Anthony Fauci denied that he misled the American people on COVID mitigation measures and policies.
In an interview with ABC&#8217;s Jonathan Karl on &#8220;<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dr-fauci-prepares-exit-reflects-legacy-covid-decisions/story?id=91553536" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Week</a>&#8221; that aired on Sunday, Fauci said the biggest misconception about him was that he misled the public when narratives changed, especially regarding face coverings and school closures.
&#8220;So, what&#8217;s the biggest misconception about you?&#8221; Karl asked.
&#8220;I think the misconception is that I was misleading people,&#8221; Fauci replied. &#8220;You know, to say that I, who have been adviser to seven presidents, and have never ever veered one way or the other from an ideological standpoint, and for somebody to say that, you know, I&#8217;m&#8230; political, I mean that&#8217;s completely crazy.&#8221;
But Fauci acknowledged that mistakes were made, resulting in changes as health officials learned more about COVID and how it was transmitted.
&#8220;Would you take back what you said about masks?&#8221; Karl asked. &#8220;Obviously, the guidance changed&#8230; but you were very definitive. You said there&#8217;s absolutely no reason for people to be wearing masks.&#8221;
&#8220;Yes. I mean, sure, if I had to do it over again, of course. I would have analyzed it a little bit better,&#8221; said Fauci.
Karl then asked Fauci if it was a mistake to close schools for much of the pandemic.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to use the word &#8216;mistake,&#8217; Jon, because if I do it gets taken out of the context that you’re asking me the question on,&#8221; Fauci equivocated. &#8220;I would say that what we should realize and have realized, that there will be deleterious collateral consequences when you do something like that. This idea that this virus doesn&#8217;t afflict children is not so. It does. We&#8217;ve lost close to 1,500 kids so far&#8230; So, it isn&#8217;t without consequences.&#8221;
&#8220;If you go back, and I ask anybody to go back over the number of times that I’ve said we&#8217;ve got to do everything we can to keep the schools open, no one plays that clip. They always come back and say, &#8216;Fauci was responsible for closing schools.'&#8221;
&#8220;But a lot of schools were closed,&#8221; Karl pressed. &#8220;[T]here was a lot of remote learning&#8230; It went on&#8211; in some jurisdictions for the better part of two years&#8230; And we&#8217;ve seen the impact. We’ve seen what’s happened in terms of lower reading scores, lower math scores&#8230; And who knows the psychological impact&#8230; I mean it was a steep cost.&#8221;
&#8220;It was,&#8221; Fauci admitted. But &#8220;[t]he most important thing is to protect the children,&#8221; he added.
In August, Fauci announced plans to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-fauci-reveals-he-will-retire-this-year-pursue-next-chapter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retire from his posts</a> as the president’s top medical adviser and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” he said. “After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.&#8221;
“I want to use what I have learned as NIAID Director to continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats.”

Anthony Fauci

Dr. Fauci: ‘The Misconception Is That I Was Misleading People’ About Face Masks, School Lockdowns

Dr. Fauci: 'The Misconception Is That I Was Misleading People' About Face Masks, School Lockdowns

Face Masks

This Week

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a> Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro is nodding to certain <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-choice">school choice</a> initiatives — an unusual play for a swing-state progressive with a lengthy history of supporting government education.
In the aftermath of school <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lockdowns</a> that ravaged learning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outcomes</a> across the United States, education has become a top issue for citizens casting a ballot in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/2022-midterms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">midterm</a> elections. Roughly 74% of registered voters support school choice, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-more-parents-now-support-funding-students-not-systems-after-year-of-covid-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> from RealClear Opinion Research, while search engine <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/community-family/midterms-2022-here-are-the-issues-pennsylvania-voters-care-about-the-most" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> analyzed by the Washington Examiner appears to indicate that education is a particularly salient issue for voters in Pennsylvania.
The national <a href="https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/providing-a-world-class-education-in-every-zip-code/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">platform</a> for the Democratic Party expressly opposes “private school vouchers and other policies that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from the public school system.” Shapiro, the attorney general of the Keystone State, nevertheless supports “adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania,” according to his campaign <a href="https://joshshapiro.org/policy-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> in language that was added only last month, as revealed by online <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220907020922/https:/joshshapiro.org/policy-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">archives</a>.
The commonwealth’s lifeline scholarship <a href="https://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&amp;sessYr=2021&amp;sessInd=0&amp;billBody=H&amp;billTyp=B&amp;billNbr=2169&amp;pn=3288" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legislation</a>, which passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and advanced beyond the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee earlier this year, would reallocate funds from the bottom 15% of districts to help families pay for tuition at alternative schools. Shapiro also promises to appoint at least two parents to the State Board of Education, according to his campaign website.
“Shapiro’s shift towards supporting school choice is a wise political move,” American Federation for Children National Director of Research Corey DeAngelis told The Daily Wire, noting that the vast majority of Pennsylvanian parents approve of policies such as education savings accounts. “It looks like Shapiro is reading the tea leaves. He saw what happened to Terry McAuliffe in Virginia — Republican Glenn Youngkin won on education in a state that went 10 points to Biden just the year before — and Shapiro doesn&#8217;t want to face the same fate.”
On the other hand, Shapiro is <a href="https://joshshapiro.org/endorsements/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed</a> by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a teachers union representing more than 187,000 employees, and filed an <a href="https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/taking-action/ag-shapiro-files-brief-in-support-of-fair-funding-in-pennsylvania-schools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">amicus brief</a> earlier this year against plaintiffs challenging the commonwealth’s system of funding government schools. The Daily Wire reached out to the Shapiro campaign to ask if the candidate supports any other school choice legislation, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The amalgam of support for government education and nods toward school choice is unorthodox for a Democratic candidate, especially one who sends his four children to a Jewish day school that <a href="https://delawarevalleyjournal.com/backed-by-teachers-unions-fetterman-shapiro-send-their-kids-to-private-schools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">costs</a> more than $30,000 per year. DeAngelis argued that the atypical policy platform indicates a “seismic shift” in American politics.
“In a way it doesn&#8217;t really matter whether this was a true change of heart or a political move — that a high-profile Democrat running for governor, who is up in the polls, felt compelled to switch his stance less than two months before the election is good news for families,” he explained. “School choice is emerging as a political winner because parents are pushing back, which could be the path towards widespread bipartisan support for education freedom.”
Polls have indeed shown Shapiro with a sizable lead over Republican rival and state lawmaker Doug Mastriano, who promises to “fight like hell” for school choice in a manner that gives government schools “the competition that will make them great,” according to his <a href="https://www.doug4gov.com/the_plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>.
Some operatives <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election2022/2022/10/09/mastriano-campaign-republican-support-pennsylvania-governor-race-polls-shapiro-trump/stories/202210090145" target="_blank" rel="noopener">note</a> that Mastriano has assembled a more robust grassroots base than his opponent. However, DeAngelis suspects that the attorney general’s openness toward school choice is more than an eleventh-hour ploy to hedge against an election upset because of his decision to explicitly identify the lifeline scholarship proposal — a bill that passed the Pennsylvania House with only one affirmative Democratic vote.
“It&#8217;s a lot harder to back out of support for a specific piece of legislation than a broad concept that politicians can redefine and pivot away from later on,” DeAngelis said.

Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Josh Shapiro Campaigns In Bethlehem, PA

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Candidate Makes Unorthodox Nod To School Choice In Final Weeks Of Campaign

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Candidate Josh Shapiro Expresses Support For School Choice

2022 Election

2022 Midterms

Pennsylvania

School Choice

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> will release a new ranking of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">educational</a> freedom among the states on Friday, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-ranking-for-education-freedom-11662659868">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal.
The unveiling of the conservative think tank’s latest project occurs as the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades">shows</a> average scores for nine-year-olds plummeting five points in reading and seven points in mathematics. Amid the rapid decline in education outcomes — which immediately follows <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school lockdowns</a> that disrupted learning in the spring of 2020 — parents are increasingly concerned over the encroachment of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical gender theory</a> and other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/critical-race-theory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">left-wing ideologies</a> into classrooms.
Beyond performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and access to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school choice</a>, Heritage’s “Education Freedom Report Card” considers spending per pupil, teacher-to-non-teacher staff ratios, and unfunded teacher pension liabilities as a proportion of state gross domestic product. The top-ranked state in the group’s inaugural report is <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a>.
“The Sunshine State embraces education freedom across the board,” the analysis explained. “Florida does exceptionally well in allowing parents to choose among private, charter, and district schools, is home to a strong ESA program, and ranks third overall for education choice. Florida ranks first among states for academic transparency. Among other protections, state lawmakers set a high standard for academic transparency, and reject critical race theory’s pernicious ideas.”
New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., ranked at the bottom of the list as policymakers neglect to “provide transparency, accountability, and choice to families.” In second place, however, was Arizona, which recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arizona-to-become-the-nations-gold-standard-for-school-choice-passing-universal-bill-for-one-million-students">greenlit</a> $6,500 in tuition vouchers per child that parents can apply to private schools, homeschools, or learning pods.
Many parents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack">turned to homeschooling</a> and private schools as their local districts continued with virtual instruction. Homeschooling rates across the country grew from 5.4% to 11% between March 2020 and September 2020 alone, one <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html">report</a> from the Census Bureau found last year.
While responding to a question about dismal readings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-faces-backlash-over-response-to-question-about-lockdowns-school-closures-this-is-absurd">provoked criticism</a> by suggesting that Republicans prevented schools from reopening sooner amid the rollback of government lockdowns.
“That was the work of this president. And that was the work of Democrats, in spite of Republicans not voting for the American Rescue Plan,” she explained, referring to $130 billion in funding for schools greenlit by the $1.9 trillion legislation. “Every Republican in Congress voted against that money. That is the reality. We had to do this on our own.”
However, several Democratic lawmakers and politicians — including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield — had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-claims-schools-reopened-in-spite-of-republicans-here-are-several-videos-of-democrats-defending-closed-schools">pushed for a delay</a> to normal instruction. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said during a July 2021 interview with MSNBC that increasing vaccination rates was necessary to “keep kids safe” and “keep our members safe” amid attempts “to open up schools.”
More recently, teachers unions have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unions-complain-of-dire-teacher-shortages-ahead-of-new-school-year-push-for-more-funding">called for more funding</a> as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-continue-to-opt-out-of-the-workforce">labor shortages</a> impact the education sector. However, a <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_236.55.asp?current=yes">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics indicated that the inflation-adjusted yearly expenditure per American pupil rose from $4,060 to $15,424 between 1960 and 2017. Another <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543118.pdf">study</a> from the Department of Education revealed that schools increased the number of non-teaching staff by 702% between 1950 to 2009 despite hiring 252% more teachers over the same period.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference to

Conservative Think Tank Reveals Which State Has The Most Free Education System In The Country

Heritage Foundation Introduces New 'Education Freedom Index,' Reveals Which State Ranks Highest

Critical Race Theory

Heritage Foundation

Transgender

Emails obtained through public records requested from a parent&#8217;s association revealed California&#8217;s largest teachers union had a researcher allegedly spy on parents who fought for their children to return to classrooms during the pandemic.
Allison Stratton, one of the founders of the Parents Association, which is a group of North San Diego County parents in various school districts, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-teachers-union-spied-parents-fighting-reopen-schools-during-covid-emails-show">Fox News</a> that the emails from the California Teachers&#8217; Association (CTA) showed it worked against parents who wanted their children&#8217;s schools to reopen completely.
&#8220;We already suspected (it) because we see the same people show up at every school board meeting saying the same things, echoing what the union is saying,&#8221; Stratton said. &#8220;So, it&#8217;s not a surprise.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.cta.org/about-us">CTA</a>, which proudly boasts that it&#8217;s the largest democratic and member-driven organization in the state, allegedly began searching for information a month after the parent&#8217;s group successfully sued the state to reopen schools in March 2021.
The teachers union reportedly summoned strategic research specialist Ann Swinburn to uncover &#8220;some of the ideological leaning of groups&#8221; that bankrolled the lawsuits filed against school districts across the state.
In a series of exchanges, Swinburn reached out to a group of anonymous insiders who had the scoop on the Parents Association. During one of the replies, one of the parties accidentally included a principal within the San Diego Union High School District, which had been sued by a local union — backed by CTA — to stay closed in December 2020.
&#8220;I think you accidentally included Adam Camacho on your reply,&#8221; one email reads. &#8220;Not sure if we need to do any damage control.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there will be an issue,&#8221; the response said. &#8220;Unless someone does a record request for his work email.&#8221;
And Stratton, with the Parents Association, did just that.
Once the association disseminated the emails around social media outlets, Swinburn deleted her Twitter account. However, several archived tweets from Swinburn unearthed by parent groups allege that the CTA researcher believed right-wing groups and big money interests were behind the vanguard for children to return to in-person learning.
Lance Christensen, a candidate running for California superintendent of public instruction, condemned the revelations as &#8220;startling and disgusting&#8221; in a statement to Fox News.
&#8220;Conducting opposition research is a common practice in political campaigns. But to have the teachers&#8217; union dedicate personnel to politically target moms and dads protecting their own children and expressing their first amendment rights is both startling and disgusting,&#8221; Christensen said. &#8220;Entrenched special interests have used their war chests over the last two and a half years to intimidate and threaten anyone who dares to challenge their ineffective reign over public education.&#8221;
&#8220;This must end,&#8221; he added.
The CTA did not immediately return a request for comment.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 BOMBSHELL 🚨
Newly PRA’d emails show <a href="https://twitter.com/WeAreCTA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WeAreCTA</a> conducted opposition research on school reopening parent groups during the school shutdowns in CA.
Then after a principal was accidentally CC’d, the “damage control” was asking him to illegally delete the email.
1/🧵 <a href="https://t.co/uwbtdYnkpl">pic.twitter.com/uwbtdYnkpl</a>
&mdash; Reopen California Schools (@ReopenCASchools) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReopenCASchools/status/1566899054906290176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

SFChronicleSchoolsReOpen

Public Records Request Reveals California Teachers Union Allegedly Spied On Parents During Pandemic

California

Menu