Kids Locked Out As The Rich Are Bailed Out

Research

Biden And Democrats’ Far-Left Agenda Has Left A Generation Of Children Missing From The Classroom And Further Behind Academically Than Decades Before

BIDEN CARES MORE ABOUT A STUDENT LOAN BAILOUT THAN KIDS MISSING FROM SCHOOL

Biden and Democrats across the nation have put our children last as they repeatedly closed schools, forced masks on preschoolers, and pushed critical race theory (CRT) in the classroom.
Biden is only concerned about his teachers’ union donors – who influenced the Biden administration’s school reopening guidance with their suggested language included almost verbatim.
Democrats’ school closures have had devastating impacts on our nation’s children.
- The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) found that the pandemic erased two decades of progress in math and reading, with the most vulnerable students faring the worst.
As some students fall behind, others have been lost altogether with enrollment down 1.3 million students for the 2021-22 school year compared to before the pandemic.
Amid a generation of students lost and falling behind, Biden decided to bail out Ivy League elites with student loan cancellations.
- Canceling student debt will worsen economic inequality as nearly two-thirds of all student debt is owed by the top 40 percent of households.

DEMOCRAT SCHOOL CLOSURES LEFT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS MISSING

Democrats’ and teachers’ unions’ school closures alienated students and caused students to go missing from schools nationwide.
A GAO report found an estimated 1.1 million students grades K-12 registered for the 2020-21 school year but never showed up to class.
- 65 percent of high school teachers reported missing students during the 2020-21 school year, more than double the share of K-2 teachers.
- Teachers in majority-minority schools, which were overwhelmingly hurt by Democrats’ school closures, were 11 percentage points more likely to have students not show up to school.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 72 percent of public schools reported an increase in chronic absenteeism during the 2021-22 school year, with “school leaders report[ing] increased student absenteeism as a COVID-19 related problem.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) estimates up to 20,000 students are not enrolled or stopped attending school during the 2021-22 school year.
- This comes as nearly half of LAUSD students – more than 200,000 children – were chronically absent, meaning students missed at least nine percent of the academic year.
- On the first day of this school year, nearly 50,000 LAUSD students were no-shows.

DEMOCRATS’ CHILDREN-LAST AGENDA LEAVES A GENERATION OF STUDENTS IN THE DUST

Biden’s prioritization of special interests over those of children has left thousands of students behind and led to a significant increase of kids forced to repeat grades.
Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said it was the “right decision” to close schools and go virtual, even as this led to massive learning loss for students across the country.
- Democrats are still defending these decisions, like Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) who when asked if it was a mistake to keep children home so long during the pandemic said “absolutely not.”
The NAEP report, better known as “the nation’s report card,” found that reading scores fell by the largest margin in more than 30 years, while math scores saw their first ever decline since NAEP began tracking achievement in the 1970s.
- This decline was even worse for minority students, with math scores dropping by 13 points for Black students and eight points for Hispanic students.
- Low-income, Black, and Hispanic students were put at a further disadvantage due to school closures, “in part because their schools were more likely to continue remote learning for longer periods of time.”
The Harvard Center for Education Policy found that students who learned remotely for the majority of 2020-2021 “on average… lost the equivalent of about 50 percent of a typical school year’s math learning during the study’s two-year window.”
- This study also found that low income, Black, and Latino students fell further behind compared to students who are high income, White, or Asian, leading to “the largest increase in educational inequity in a generation.”
A National Burau of Economic Research analysis shows that 19 of the top 20 states for getting kids back to in-person schooling were led by Republicans.
- In contrast, 18 of the bottom 20 states and districts were led by Democrats.

DEMOCRATS BAIL OUT THE WEALTHY INSTEAD OF SUPPORTING OUR KIDS

Instead of focusing on this crisis, Biden prioritized wealthy elites through student loan giveaways that will worsen inflation and increase the costs of college.
- Not only will this worsen inflation, but it will possibly cost everyday American taxpayers over one trillion dollars over the next ten years.
Biden’s student debt bailout will benefit the wealthy while doing “little to help future college students, borrowers who have already paid off their loans and those who never went to college in the first place.”
Student loan cancellation has been referred to as “a giant welfare program for the bourgeoisie” because 40 percent of student debt is held by students with advanced degrees such as doctors and lawyers.
- Biden has even acknowledged that Democrats’ student loan policies would “disproportionately benefit students who go to ‘elite’ private colleges.”
A CNBC survey found that 59 percent of Americans worry that a student loan bailout will worsen Bidenflation.
Even liberal economists have said that bailing out student debt and extending the student loan pause makes inflation worse.
- Obama economist Larry Summers: “student loan debt relief is spending that raises demand and increases inflation.”
- The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects that Biden’s plan will worsen inflation.
Experts warn that more Americans may take out student loans with the expectation their loans will be forgiven in the future, encouraging colleges to raise tuition even higher.

DEMOCRATS FORCE MASKS ON CHILDREN AGAIN

The Biden administration and Democrats are forcing masks onto children struggling to return to normal.
- The Biden administration is still trying to force masks on toddlers in federally-funded “Head Start” programs.
- In Democrat-run Prince George’s County, Maryland, students as young as 4-year-old will be forced to wear masks this fall.
- In Philadelphia, all students will be required to wear masks for at least the first 10 days of the school year, and pre-school students as young as 3 will be forced to mask all year long.
- In Jefferson County, Kentucky, the liberal public school board has refused to end its mask mandate on its 96,000 students.
In Washington, D.C., Democrat Mayor Bowser’s anti-science mandates go even further, with 40 percent of Black students ages 12 and up potentially facing expulsion this upcoming January due to the district’s discriminatory vaccine mandate.