Ashley Varner, vice president of communications for the Freedom Foundation, says her organization's new report details the struggles.
"Parents, all of us have been screaming for years now that the COVID shutdowns were not good for our kids," she notes. "They were not helpful, they did not help stop COVID, they did not help slow COVID, and they caused more problems that we are now only beginning to see."
Right now, the harms are playing out in test scores and student behavior.
"Kids who have been out of school for months, in some states years … they have had a bad time readjusting," Varner details. "They have had their mental, emotional development just uprooted, and we're going to be dealing with this for decades."
She reiterates that is something many saw coming.
"The problem is that the school boards, the local city councils, some of the state governors -- they were controlled by teachers' unions who had a political agenda that had nothing to do with keeping our kids safe or getting them back into the classroom," says Varner.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress released what is referred to as the nation's report card in February. It reveals that math and reading scores have been at their lowest since the 1990s, dropping five points among nine-year-olds compared to 2020. Likewise, math scores among 13-year-olds dropped nine points since 2020.
Varner warns that depriving kids of necessary fundamentals today will affect society tomorrow.
"We're going to depend on these people to build our roads, our bridges, our buildings in decades to come, and we have set them back by 30 years now," she laments. "It is a travesty, and no one has been held accountable."
That is why the Freedom Foundation is helping teachers across the nation get out of teachers' unions.
