Let’s Prioritize Our Children
[Ed note: the following is an op-ed that was rejected as too polarizing to both Democrats and Republicans. But since we are only aligned with the children and families of New York we’ll just happily post the piece here]
I am a registered Democrat and I don’t want Trump to be our next president. But every time I listen to Democrats in Washington, I wonder if my party still wants the votes of parents like myself?
Last week, the Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on the pandemic and learning loss. It is widely documented that the impact of school closures on learning has been massive: our reaction to the pandemic erased 20 years of progress in student learning.
If we also consider measures of physical and mental health, the effects on children are even more dramatic – from a huge increase in the rate of youth suicides to an increase in ER visits.
A Scathing Indictment
Almost all the testimonies given during the late July hearings talked about the mistake that our Government made in closing schools and questioned how the $190 billion in aid to school districts impacted positively our children. And what did our Democratic Congressmen say at the hearing in response?
Well, New York Congressman Jammal Bowman insisted that our kids were actually vectors for the disease: “If we would have kept schools open more, people would have died due to COVID,” he said. A shocking statement given that the notion was thoroughly disproven by multiple studies more than two years ago.
Bowman also indicated that there was no learning loss – but only disrupted learning – and no need to catch up our students academically.
I Come With Receipts
I vehemently disagree with the New York congressman as someone with objective proof:
Over the past six months I have spent countless hours and resources catching up my sons who were victims of the public school closures and toddler mask mandates enacted by two successive New York City Democratic Mayors.
April 2022 Phish concert at MSG
I still remember how I could go to a restaurant and to the gym – but my third grader could not go to school. I still remember how Madison Square Garden was full of unmasked people at concerts, but my 4-year-old son still had to wear a mask every day at his pre-school.
These measures had a huge impact on all NYC children and parents like me are now scrambling to ensure that our kids are not part of the least educated American generation in decades. As Derrell Bradford testified: this is “the biggest domestic policy tragedy or failure of our lifetime”.
Democrats Doubling Down
Even with such a clear and provable declaration by Bradford, the response from Democrats got worse: Congresswoman Jahana Hayes repeated the lie that part of the problem is decades of disinvestment in our public schools.
Again, an exhaustive and easily disproven statement because across the nation per pupil spending has been increasing year-after-year (adjusted for inflation) without any positive impact on student achievement. NYC now spends almost $38,000 per child according to the latest report of the Citizens Budget Commission.
Congressman Hayes also asked: “If we have another pandemic, are you proposing that we don’t shut schools down?”
Voting for My Kids
Yes, Ms. Hayes, this is EXACTLY what parents like me want to hear. Why is saying we will not again close schools so hard?
I will not vote for any candidate who cannot guarantee that my kids will be their absolute #1 priority in any public policy decision at the next pandemic. Will you?
It should not be controversial to demand that the well-being of our kids will have priority over restaurants, gyms, and music concerts. And if any elected official of the party I’m a part of can't offer me this guarantee, then I guess I need to start praying that Republicans nominate anybody but Trump.
