Children Are Skipping School at Record Rates

Eliminating in-person school during the epidemic was unnecessary, pointless and extremely damaging.  It was done in a herd mentality by governors.  There was no excuse for it, none.  It was pure panic, without a moment’s thought what it would mean for children.  And what it meant was a sharp decline in academic achievement, already trending down, and a sharp rise in absenteeism, mental health issues and other problems.  A new report shows how much chronic absenteeism grew in each state.   The rate of children displaying this behavior rose by 30%, 40% or more depending on the state.  Just eyeballing states in the chart, Florida, which limited “virtual” learning, did better than most states, and those states that were most restrictive had larger increases in the rate of chronic absenteeism.  And as I always point out, pro(re)gressives, who pushed hardest for closing schools, hate minorities and low-income children, because their rates of absenteeism rose the most.  (OSF Report)

Now here is something interesting, Minnesota is one of only two states that did not report rates for 2022.  I wonder why?  Can’t be because we aren’t spending a fortune on our Department of Education.  Minnesota has one of the most bloated bureaucracies in the country.  Hard not to suspect that something is being hidden.  Minnesota had one of the longest non-in-person school periods in the country.  A lot of young people turned to crime and drugs and we already know from anecdotal reports and other data that they never did “virtual” learning and never returned to in-person school.  Based on past experience, Little Timmy is intentionally withholding the data, and probably manipulating it to hide the truth.  And whenever it is released, he will lie about what it says.  But it is far too suspicious that somehow the state hasn’t released the data yet.