COVID-19’s long-term effects not only harm the economy and people’s health, but set back the learning of children in California’s schools.
According to new data released by the California Department of Education, on the 2022 Smarter Balanced statewide assessments, scores “declined by 4 percentage points (from 51% to 47%) for English language arts and 7 percentage points (from 40% to 33%) for mathematics” compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2018-19.
The good news, according to the department, is that comparisons with the previous year’s data suggest “recovery may already be underway.”
Released the same day were the separate National Assessment of Educational Progress scores, which showed a sharp national decline from 2019 to 2022.
For the two grades in which it’s given, math scores dropped 5 percentage points for 4th graders and 8 percentage points for 8th graders. Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the test, called the drop “stark” and “troubling.”
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to keep California’s public schools closed during the pandemic has had a disastrous impact on the state’s students,” Lance Izumi told us; he’s senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. Citing the NAEP scores, he said, “Among California 8th graders, math proficiency fell from 47% to 34% among White students, from 10% to 7% among Black students and from 15% to 10% among Hispanics.”
He said the problem was “the regular public schools were woefully unprepared to use distance learning methods when the schools were closed. Hundreds of thousands of students un-enrolled in the public schools to go to private schools and homeschooling.”
Various remedies are being advanced, including spending more on public schools.
But the 2022-23 state budget enacted in June spends more than $21,000 per student, which is plenty. The problem is how it’s spent.
“Lawmakers should support the decision of parents to choose a non-public education option for their children by enacting legislation and policies that empower parents through tools such as education savings accounts,” Izumi urged.
With respect to education savings accounts, earlier this year Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a truly innovative education reform effort that would give parents of public school students $7,000 per child, per year if they decide not to keep their child in a traditional public school. That money could be used toward tuition, tutoring and other education-related expenses.
That’s the sort of reform that’s unfortunately out of reach in California, for now.
Five years ago, the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California reported that 66% of California public school parents supported the idea of tax-funded vouchers.
Support was even higher among Black (73%) and Latino (69%) Californians.
With the traditional K-12 system in California captured by anti-reform teachers unions and repeatedly failing California’s students, it’s time for change. It’s time for an education policy that puts the interests of students first.
