A Catastrophic Error

Longtime readers of this blog have been kept informed about the school closings issue. We have, from the beginning, opposed it. And we have gathered what evidence we could find, showing that it was what New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait calls a “catastrophic error.” (via Maggie's Farm)

Clearly, Chait is a man of the left. He is also married to a woman who works in educational policy. Thus, he has offered strong support for charter schools, not because he wanted to placate his wife, but because he is well informed on the subject.

In his recent article on school shutdowns, Chait takes no prisoners. He is clear and forceful, and insists on holding the radical left, led by teachers’ unions, responsible for the policy.

It is now indisputable, and almost undisputed, that the year and a quarter of virtual school imposed devastating consequences on the students who endured it. Studies have found that virtual school left students nearly half a year behind pace, on average, with the learning loss falling disproportionately on low-income, Latino, and Black students. Perhaps a million students functionally dropped out of school altogether. The social isolation imposed on kids caused a mental health “state of emergency,” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The damage to a generation of children’s social development and educational attainment, and particularly to the social mobility prospects of its most marginalized members, will be irrecoverable.

The last word signals an important aspect of the debate. It seems increasingly clear that the damage done, especially to minority children, will not be repaired. It is irrecoverable or irreversible.

Did the policy slow the transmission of the virus? Apparently, Chait answers, not:

It is nearly as clear that these measures did little to contain the pandemic. Children face little risk of adverse health effects from contracting COVID, and there’s almost no evidence that towns that kept schools open had more community spread.

Effectively, we know, from spring 2020 that it was a mistake to close schools. And yet, ideologues on the left ignored the evidence and pushed on:

By the tail end of spring 2020, it was becoming reasonably clear both that remote education was failing badly and that schools could be reopened safely.

Within the political left, the level of debate was pathetic. Evidently, leftist radicals do not owe their jobs to their competence or their intelligence:

But the Democratic Party’s internal debate on school closings was making room at the table for some truly unhinged ideas. The head of the largest state’s most powerful teachers union insisted on the record “there is no such thing as learning loss” and described plans to reopen schools as “a recipe for propagating structural racism.”

Within blue America, transparently irrational ideas like this were able to carry the day for a disturbingly long period of time. 

But, Chait argues, persuasively, that our radical leftists should fess up, should admit to their error. How else can they move on and how else can they inspire confidence?

Most progressives aren’t insisting on refighting the school closing wars. They just want to quietly move on without anybody admitting anybody did anything wrong.

Perhaps a first step to building trust that we are not planning to repeat a catastrophic mistake is to admit the mistake in the first place.

Well said. It’s always a good thing to find integrity alive and well, no matter one’s political propensities.