Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday ripped “lockdown” New York and California for shutting down schools during the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously touting his state’s performance in reading and math in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the nation’s report card.
The lockdown-focused blue states suffered by comparison.
“We insisted on keeping schools open and guaranteed in-person learning in 2020 because we knew there would be widespread harm to our students if students were locked out. Today’s results once again prove that we made the right decision,” DeSantis said in a press release.
“We also knew that younger and at-risk students would be the most impacted if schools were closed, and the results speak for themselves. In Florida our 4th grade students rank #3 in Reading and #4 in Math, achieving top 4 in both English and Math for the first time in state history, while lockdown California and New York aren’t even in the top 30.”
Results from the NAEP show dramatic and sobering declines in math and reading scores for the U.S.’ fourth and eighth graders. Results were so poor — math scores for grades four and eight on the test showed the largest declines since NAEP testing began in 1990 — that U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called for a nationwide effort to address the issue.
“Let me be very clear: These results are not acceptable,” Cardona said. “We need to continue to approach the task of catching all of our students up with the urgency that this issue warrants. We must redouble our efforts to accelerate student recovery."
National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy Carr attributed the historic “troubling” declines to student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"What we need to do as researchers, as educators, as analysts is now take a second deeper dive to understand exactly what role it did play, along with all the other factors that were influencing students' lives like mental health and like disruptions in behaviors," Carr said, "to help students' chances of recovery."
DeSantis, who is up for reelection in November and is eying a possible 2024 presidential run, has hammered other states for shutting down during COVID-19.
“Florida has become the escape hatch for those chafing under authoritarian, arbitrary and seemingly never-ending mandates and restrictions,” DeSantis said in January. “These unprecedented policies have been as ineffective as they have been destructive. They are grounded more in blind adherence to Faucian declarations than they are in the constitutional traditions.”
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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