As we begin 2025, the pandemic disruption to K-12 public schools continues to haunt America’s young people. Some of its effects result from school closures, while others predate the pandemic but were made worse by these closures.
“We’re in the midst of an education depression. By depression, I mean an extended era of shrinking outcomes and opportunity. This goes far beyond the pandemic,” writes Tim Daly in The Education Daly.
So our young people, especially the most vulnerable, face a diminished future. Stanford University economist Eric Hanushek calculates that if learning loss is not reversed, the average student’s lifetime earnings will be 6% lower, the equivalent of a 6% income tax surcharge on students’ working lives. Nor will these losses be equally distributed as the most disadvantaged will suffer the worst consequences.
