Republicans and Democrats agree that pandemic-related school closures contributed to an academic crisis \u2014 what one witness during a Wednesday Congressional hearing called a \u201cgenerational tragedy.\u201d But debate over the necessity of the extended shutdown and ways to help students recover still breaks down along partisan lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Members of the House\u2019s GOP majority and their witnesses used the education subcommittee gathering to lay blame on the teachers unions for delays in reopening during the 2020-21 school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis whole thing was like a jagged little pill,\u201d said Florida Republican Aaron Bean, using a \u201890s music reference to describe the slow return to in-person learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats, meanwhile, argued that extreme caution was needed to protect both teachers and students.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. <\/em>Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p> \u201cI appreciate all the Monday morning quarterbacking here today, but we don’t need \u2026 data to tell us that if kids are not in school they won’t learn,\u201d said Connecticut Democrat Jahana Hayes, the 2016 National Teacher of the Year. \u201cWe also know if kids are dead, they don’t learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nat Malkus, deputy director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, countered by offering up data showing that schools overall proved not to be COVID \u201csuperspreaders\u201d<\/a> and that rates of death among children were less than 1%<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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