The Kindergarten Exodus; Blue State Lockdowns Worsen Gap Between Poor and Well-to-Do (public schools, grades)

[JBG]

The Kindergarten Exodus (link) was sparked by the closure of schools during the pandemic, and continuing through last year. Excerpt from article:

Quote:

Originally Posted by New York Times The months of closed classrooms took a toll on nearly all students, and families of all levels of income and education scrambled to help their children make up for the gaps. But the most startling declines were in neighborhoods below and just above the poverty line, where the average household income for a family of four was $35,000 or less. The drop was 28 percent larger in schools in those communities than in the rest of the country.

And there is little doubt that the lockdowns were largely at fault. Excerpt from article:

Quote:

Originally Posted by New York Times Districts that went strictly remote experienced 42 percent more decline than those that offered full-time in-person learning, according to a new research paper by Professor Dee and colleagues, posted Saturday. While some of these schools were losing students before the pandemic, the declines between fall 2019 and fall 2020 were significantly steeper.

Meanwhile, the well-to-do and educated ensured their children's education, see PODS, or Parent Organized Discovery Sites Upending Public Education in Age of COVID, so the human educational losses were much less significant. So far, the efforts to promote "equity" have focused on bringing down the educationally successful. See Boston Public Schools Suspends Test For Advanced Learning Classes; Concerns About Program’s Racial Inequities Linger (linked article) As always, the lower classes, the disadvantaged and the vulnerable wind up taking the brunt of the suffering from disasters, while the teachers' unions prattle about safety and some politicians also prattle about equity and fairness. As for the thread title, the map of the districts showing a 20% or more decrease in enrollments is focused on the "Blue States."

How can we raise the people who need help rather than throwing obstacles in the way of those managing to find a way to succeed despite disasters such as Covid?