THE COVID LOCKDOWN DISASTER: THREE YEARS LATER Unless things change in a hurry and learning losses are reversed, the country’s current crop of K-12 students will grow up to be less educated, lower-skilled, and less productive adults. Per Eric Hanushek, a Stanford University economist, they will earn 5.6% less over the course of their lives than students educated just before the pandemic. Dr. Hanushek maintains that the losses could total $28 trillion over the rest of this century, adding, “The economic costs of the learning losses will swamp business cycle losses.”
There has been nothing but awful news about the unnecessary Covid-related shutdown of American schools. Study after study and a mass of anecdotal evidence show the harm done by the forced lockdowns.
Yet more research, released in January, extends the grim scenario. A meta-analysis of 42 studies across 15 countries assessed the magnitude of learning deficits during the pandemic, and finds “a substantial overall learning deficit…which arose early in the pandemic and persists over time. Learning deficits are particularly large among children from low socio-economic backgrounds.”