The Pandemic? New York Times FAILS Fact CHECK

… “The Pandemic Erased Two Decades of Progress in Math and Reading.”    [ The New York Times ]

… “National test results released on Thursday showed in stark terms the pandemic’s devastating effects on American schoolchildren

… with the performance of 9-year-olds in math and reading dropping to the levels from two decades ago.”

… “Then came the pandemic, which shuttered schools across the country almost overnight”

… definition of a pandemic: “an epidemic occurring worldwide, or over a very wide area, crossing international boundaries and usually affecting a large number of people.”

… Thus, a pandemic is a disease that spreads rapidly to many people all over the world

… a pandemic can do exactly one thing: it can spread disease to many people around the world

… A pandemic cannot impose mandates or lockdowns

… A pandemic cannot impact math and reading

… A pandemic cannot cause learning gaps

… If we decide to shut down schools for months and years on end in response to a pandemic

… then it is our response that has caused whatever educational deficits and devastation to children

… It is not the pandemic

… Sweden, where schools were never shut down, and where there was no learning loss

… Blaming the pandemic for anything other than disease and/or death is misinformation

… in a factually correct way: US public health leaders and politicians mandated prolonged school shutdowns in response to the Covid pandemic

… these school shutdowns had devastating effects on schoolchildren, creating learning gaps and erasing decades of progress in math and reading

                  The New York Times