One might suggest that it is merely optics, or poor marketing that is to be held accountable for the way the study of the liberal arts and humanities is viewed today. For some reason, fewer people seem eager to perceive the value of these fields than ever before, or at least since in the last 20 years or so. Then again, the world has changed a lot in the last 20 years.

The Institute of Education Sciences published new federal data this September, confirming the fact that 53% of all K-12 public schools in the United States felt understaffed and were experiencing difficulties in filling teaching positions for the 2022-23 school year.

We can build strategy for the next generation of students until we’re blue in the face, but no longer can we deny or delay a reality that persists. Understaffed public schools diminish institutional capacity for thorough, high quality education.

The conclusion reached in the study by researchers at Harvard and Dartmouth recommends a federal pandemic relief investment of $190 billion to directly fund the reversal effort of learning loss in grade school math across the nation, however, whether or not the federal funding is supplied in time, there may now more than ever be an even stronger case for creating programs that help build integrative and deductive reasoning skills within young learners, who are soon to be the leaders of tomorrow whether they are ready by previously upheld standards or not.