EDITORIAL: Where are ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery?

The stain of pandemic school closures continues to mar the country’s educational landscape. Is it any wonder that parents across the nation are flocking to find alternatives to union-run public schools?

Nevada Democrats remain staunchly committed to the hidebound education establishment. Carson City is where education reform goes to die — that has been the case for decades. In other states, however, school choice initiatives are on the march.

In 2023, according to The Hill, at least eight states have enacted choice programs designed to provide families with increased options. COVID only exacerbated the demand. Nationally, public schools lost 1.3 million students between 2019 and 2021, the National Center for Education Statistics reported. Private schools and charters picked up the slack. The number of kids being taught at home doubled.

Thank teacher union intransigence for the flight. Labor leaders demanded that schools remain closed during the pandemic for much longer than necessary. They then raised the specter of children being hauled out in body bags as a means of intimidating parents into consenting to keep campuses shuttered — in some places for parts of three school years.

The depths of the disaster are now unfolding. On Wednesday, the results of the Nation’s Report Card revealed that math and reading scores for eighth graders had fallen to their lowest level in decades. Math scores fell by the largest margin ever recorded.

“While earlier testing revealed the magnitude of the learning loss” during pandemic school closures, The Associated Press reported, “the latest test casts light on the persistence of those setbacks, dimming hopes of swift academic recovery.”

Between 2020 and 2023, average math scores dropped 9 points. Reading scores fell 4 points. The declines erase gains made in the years leading up to 2012. As expected, struggling students bore the brunt of the decline. Notably, “pandemic setbacks appear to be lingering,” the AP reported, “even as schools across the U.S. spend billions in dollars to help students catch up.”

Biden administration officials struggled to put a positive spin on the results. Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education statistics, a branch of the Education Department, fretted about the “worrisome signs,” saying, “The ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized.”

Will teacher union officials be held accountable for these disastrous school closures? Pathetically, Randy Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers is busy attempting to distort the historical record about her union’s role in this fiasco. But as more states realize that school choice can help kids recover academically, America’s families may get the last laugh.