The Economic Stress of Learning Loss During Covid May Far Outlive the Pandemic, Unless Relief Comes

We must create sustainable solutions to the losses endured by young learners, and we should do so sooner rather than later.

The Covid-19 pandemic is one that took most by surprise, and left many of us feeling more uncertain than ever about our future, and the future of our loved ones. According to the editorial board at The Wall Street Journal, the long term economic impact on a generation of kids in grade schools across the United States is also a cause for genuine concern after many students have fallen behind in their learning journey.

“If the recent learning loss can’t be reversed, it would equate to a 1.6% drop in lifetime earnings for the average K-12 student, or a nationwide total of some $900 billion.” (Wall Street Journal, 2022)

A study conducted by researchers at Harvard and Dartmouth discovered that after three decades of improved math performance within eighth graders across the United States, an estimated 40% of progress made was lost between the years 2019 and 2022. Furthermore, the study suggested that if these learning losses accrued during the pandemic were not somehow made up for, the long term implications would amount to a “1.6 percent decline in present value of lifetime earnings for the average K-12 student (or $19,400), totaling $900 billion for the 48 million students enrolled in public schools during the 2020-21 school year.”

As the article published in the Wall Street Journal mentions, learning losses for students from more affluent families, neighborhoods and schools are not nearly as dramatic or concerning. The major concern comes into play with lower income public school families, most of whose children qualify for free or reduced cost lunch (for perspective). Parents who cannot afford to whisk their children away from insufficient or otherwise dissatisfactory learning opportunities and environments are in dire need of an alternative to help secure a better future for the next generation of their families. 

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.

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