Two years after consecutive months of disrupted learning caused serious setbacks in the education of America's school-aged children, the Biden administration is blaming the COVID-19 pandemic—not the government-mandated school closures.
CLAIM: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was grilled at Monday's press briefing about the devastating learning loss in the U.S. education system as documented by the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The test scores, known as the Nation's Report Card, released Monday demonstrate that the United States has had the largest-ever recorded declines in mathematics for fourth- and eighth-graders. Math scores plummeted for those grades in almost every U.S. state and district between 2019 and 2022, and about four in 10 eighth-graders failed to grasp basic math concepts.
"The results show the profound toll on student learning during the pandemic... They underscore the importance of instruction and the role of schools in both students’ academic growth and their overall wellbeing.” says @EdNCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr.
— NAEP, The Nation's Report Card (@NAEP_NCES) October 24, 2022
3/16 #EdPolicy #EdChat pic.twitter.com/CKBviaYZXz
Dropping to 1992 levels, reading scores across America also plunged in most states, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which released the abysmal results. This year, the average fourth-grade math score decreased by 5 points to its lowest level since 2005 while the average eighth-grade math score went down by 8 points to its lowest level since 2003.
The @NAEP_NCES has officially released its full 2022 #reading results. The report reveals that reading scores among students in grades 4 and 8 have dropped on average 3 points from where they were in 2019. (1/4) https://t.co/vP0rO0EMm1 pic.twitter.com/S6DckF2XVX
— Reading Partners NYC (@RPnewyorkcity) October 28, 2022
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"The government mobilized a whole-of-government effort, including legislation, to respond to the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Are there any plans to mount a similarly widespread, wide-ranging, and comprehensive effort to respond to the educational consequences of this pandemic?" one of the reporters present questioned the White House press secretary.
Jean-Pierre stressed that when President Joe Biden took office, it was "a top priority for him to safely reopen schools."
"And he did that, especially for our kids—right—across the country, millions of kids," Jean-Pierre continued, claiming that the national COVID-19 response was "incredibly mismanaged" by the former Trump administration. "And he understood: Just because it was mismanaged, that action could not come at the expense of our children. So, he said he'd get to work."
Jean-Pierre acknowledged that the recent NAEP test scores are concerning. "Look, we understand, as [Education] Secretary Cardona said this morning, the results of this data are unacceptable," she stated. "That is something that the President believes...So we always knew that getting schools open would not be enough. That's why it was the first thing that we had to do."
When asked about devastated learning loss because of school closures, KJP blames the pandemic and not lockdowns. pic.twitter.com/10WbyjXmAc
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 24, 2022
That's when Jean-Pierre pointed the finger of blame at the coronavirus outbreak, instead of finding fault with the COVID-19 lockdowns themselves: "A once-in-a-generation virus has had profound impacts on our students, as we've seen from the data."
FACTS: Young students are missing crucial benchmarks because of the policies that a powerful and influential teacher's union championed, which conspired with the feds to slow-walk a return to in-person learning to the detriment of educational progress.
One of the largest teacher's unions in America, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), lobbied the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the federal agency's school-reopening guidance that was released in February of 2021.
Emails between top CDC, AFT, and White House officials show collusion among the national public health agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the powerful teacher's union, and the Biden White House. The documents specifically show close communications between CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, her advisors, and union officials, along with Biden officials looped in at the White House, in the days before the February 12, 2021, announcement on school reopenings.
"Thank you again for Friday's rich discussion about forthcoming CDC guidance and for your openness to the suggestions made by our president, Randi Weingarten, and the AFT," wrote AFT Senior Director for Health Issues Kelly Trautner in a February 1, 2021, email, which considered the union the CDC's "thought partner." Trautner added that the ATF reviewed a copy of the draft guidance and provided initial feedback to several staffers about "possible ways to strengthen the document," asserting that the union's "experiences on the ground can inform and enrich thinking around what is practicable and prudent in future guidance..."
The lobbying worked. In at least two instances, language "suggestions" offered by the union were adopted almost verbatim into the final text of the CDC document, showing a payoff of the intimate back-and-forth communications. ATF head Randi Weingarten even admitted that the Biden administration "asked" the union for "language" the CDC could use in creating such guidance.
RATING: The Biden administration's claim that the pandemic alone is to blame for the damage dealt to a generation of children falling behind in school is FALSE. A prominent political group influenced a major U.S. public health organization's decision on when and how to reopen schools. The union boss acknowledged that the organization indeed gave the Biden White House input.
This political meddling took place despite repeated assurances from the CDC that the guidelines are free of political interference.
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