Local Opinion: Kids get schooled in politics

It’s been a rough few years for public education, primarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And what was a challenging time for students was made worse by activists on the left and right. They decided to use public schools to score political points.

And it’s still going on.

In Kansas, the Republican candidate for governor wants Gov. Laura Kelly, his Democratic opponent, to swear that she will never, ever close schools again, as she did in the spring of 2020.

In Arizona and elsewhere, Republicans continue to undermine public schools by diverting funds to private schools, with little or no accountability for how public money is spent.

On the other side of the political aisle, teachers unions, which support Democratic causes and candidates almost exclusively, were among the leading forces keeping many schools closed in the fall of 2020, and many continued to insist that schools should not reopen even after vaccines became available.

Faculty and staff at many schools and universities across the nation used the pandemic to leverage other issues. Several went on strike or threatened strikes to win bigger pay increases and other benefits.

Democrats also used the pandemic to “pause” repayment of students’ college loans, a precursor to making taxpayers foot the bill for millions of students who took on debt to pay for college.

Republicans then ramped up the debate, calling into question the moral values of everyone associated with public schools and making bizarre claims about everything from curricula to bathroom litterboxes.

While activists were busy scoring political wins, students were suffering huge losses where it counted most: the quality of their education.

Test scores fell substantially. Fourth graders math scores dropped 7 percentage points, and reading scores dropped 5 points, according to a piece in the Washington Post. The drop between early 2020 and early 2022, according to the story, was the largest in 30 years.

This is not surprising.

School is important. And public schools — from preschools to research universities — are vital to the nation’s continued growth and progress.

American leaders understood that even 200 years ago, when they created laws and policies that encouraged state and local governments to find ways to provide education to everyone.

Well, OK, not everyone. Not Black people, nor native Americans, nor females. And not Americans with developmental disabilities.

Our founders were progressive for their time, but they also suffered from the prejudices and biases of their era.

As the nation progressed — largely through educations provided by public schools — the benefits of universal education became apparent.

More Americans could read, write and handle simple math. They could perform lots of jobs that were once beyond their skill sets. That helped the economy grow and allowed individuals and families to earn financial security.

Although far from perfect, public schools continue to be a primary means of ensuring opportunity for Americans individually and for the nation collectively. As our universe of knowledge and information continues to expand, the need for public education continues to grow as well.

Still, it made sense to close schools in March 2020, in the face of a deadly, contagious new virus about which little was known. (It would make sense to close them again in a similar scenario.)

By September 2020, though, the virus was better understood. Schools could have reopened, with accommodations made for students and staff who were medically compromised, and with universal mask mandates.

Instead, our schools were turned into political battlegrounds, with the now-predictable onslaught of lawsuits, legislation and executive mandates.

And rather than end the fighting as vaccines and better treatments made COVID-19 even more manageable, many on the right and the left chose instead to broaden the war.

Now the right screams about pronouns and banning books.

While the left scares people with warnings of long COVID-19 and school shootings.

Without doubt, across the country, students would benefit most from leadership that puts education before political gamesmanship. That means making sure education remains accessible, effective, accountable and affordable.