BOSTON (AP) 鈥� As the harmful effects of extended pandemic school closures become more apparent, some educators and parents have regrets.
They're questioning decisions in cities across the U.S. to remain online long after emerged that 鈥� and months after life-saving adult vaccines became widely available.
In Chicago, Marla Williams initially supported the decision to instruct students online during the fall of 2020. Williams, a working single mother, has asthma, as do her two children. She enlisted her father, a retired teacher, to supervise her children鈥檚 studies. It didn't work.
Her son lost motivation and wouldn鈥檛 do his assignments. Once he went back on a hybrid schedule in spring 2021, he started doing well.
鈥淚 wish we鈥檇 been in person earlier,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淥ther schools seemed to be doing it successfully.鈥�
There are fears for the futures of students who don鈥檛 catch up. They risk , long a precursor for dropping out of school. They might never master algebra, . The pandemic decline in college attendance could accelerate, crippling the U.S. economy.
In a sign of how inflammatory the debate has become, there鈥檚 sharp disagreement even about how to label . 鈥淟earning loss鈥� has become a lightning rod. Some fear it might brand struggling students or cast blame on teachers. They say it overlooks the need to save lives during a pandemic.
Regardless of what it鈥檚 called, the casualties of Zoom school are real.
The scale of the problem and the challenges in addressing it were apparent in Associated Press interviews with nearly 50 school leaders, teachers, parents and health officials, who struggled to agree on a way forward.
Some warned against second-guessing school closures for a virus that killed over a million people in the U.S. More than .
鈥淚t is very easy with hindsight to say, 鈥極h, learning loss, we should have opened.鈥� People forget how many people died,鈥� said Austin Beutner, former superintendent in Los Angeles, where students were online from March 2020 until the start of hybrid instruction in April 2021.
The question isn鈥檛 merely academic. It鈥檚 conceivable another pandemic might emerge 鈥� or a different crisis.
But there鈥檚 another reason for asking what lessons were learned: the kids who have fallen behind. Some third graders struggle to sound out words. Some ninth graders have because they feel so behind they can鈥檛 catch up. The future of American children hangs in the balance.
When COVID-19 first reached the U.S., scientists didn鈥檛 fully understand how it spread or whether it was harmful to children. American schools, like most around the world, understandably shuttered in March 2020.
That summer, scientists learned kids didn鈥檛 face the same risks as adults, but experts couldn鈥檛 decide how to operate schools safely.
The risk assessment varied depending on how vulnerable a community felt to the virus. Politics was a factor, too. Districts that reopened in person tended to be in areas that voted for or had largely white populations.
By winter, showed that used masks and distancing weren鈥檛 to increased COVID-19 spread in the community. Once the vaccine was available, some Democratic-leaning districts started to reopen.
Yet many schools stayed closed well into the spring, including in California, where the state鈥檚 powerful teachers unions citing lack of safety protocols.
Nationally, kids whose schools met mostly online in the 2020-2021 school year performed in math and 8 percentage points lower in reading compared with schools meeting mostly in person, according to a 2022 study by Brown University economist Emily Oster.
The setbacks have some grappling with regret.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine a situation where we would close schools again, unless there鈥檚 a virus attacking kids,鈥� said Eric Conti, superintendent for Burlington, Massachusetts.
Still, many school officials said with hindsight they鈥檇 still keep schools online well into 2021. Only two superintendents said they鈥檇 likely make a different decision.
In some communities, loomed large. In the South, Black Americans鈥� fear of the virus was sometimes coupled with mistrust of schools rooted in segregation. Cities from Atlanta to Nashville to Jackson, Mississippi, shuttered schools 鈥� in some cases, for nearly all of the 2020-2021 school year.
In Clayton County, Georgia, home to the state鈥檚 highest percentage of Black residents, schools chief Morcease Beasley said the fear in his community was overwhelming.
鈥淚 knew teachers couldn鈥檛 teach if they were that scared, and students couldn鈥檛 learn,鈥� he said.
Among teachers, there鈥檚 some dispute about online learning鈥檚 impact on children. But many fear some students will be scarred for years.
鈥淪hould we have reopened earlier? Absolutely,鈥� said teacher Sarah Curry in California's rural Central Valley.
But the nation鈥檚 3 million public school teachers are far from a monolith.
Jessica Cross, who taught ninth grade math on Chicago鈥檚 west side at Phoenix Military Academy, feels her school reopened too soon.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 feel entirely safe,鈥� she said.
A representative from the American Federation of Teachers declined in an interview to address whether the union regrets the positions teachers took against reopening schools.
鈥淚f we start to play the blame game," said Fedrick Ingram, AFT鈥檚 secretary-treasurer, 鈥渨e get into the political fray of trying to determine if teachers did a good job or not. And I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 fair.鈥�
Regrets or no, experts agree: America鈥檚 kids need more from adults if they鈥檙e going to be made whole.
The country needs 鈥渋deally, a reinvention of public education as we know it,鈥� Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. Students need more days in school and smaller classes.
Experts say intensive tutoring, Saturday school or doubling up on math or reading during a regular school day would also help.
Too few school districts have made those investments, Harvard economist Tom Kane said. Summer school is insufficient, Kane says 鈥� it鈥檚 voluntary, and many parents don鈥檛 sign up.
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Gecker reported from San Francisco. Collin Binkley in Washington, D.C., Sharon Lurye in New Orleans, Arleigh Rodgers in Indianapolis, Claire Savage in Chicago and Brooke Schultz in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.
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Rodgers, Savage and Schultz are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Bianca V谩zquez Toness And Jocelyn Gecker, The Associated Press
