Learning loss, student mental health crisis are lasting COVID closure impacts
“This is THE equity issue of our time.” – Sen. John Braun
#UnwiseWA
Students have always suffered some learning loss from one school year to another as a result of summer break. Too much time is spent at the beginning of every year recovering from this learning loss. Now, however, our students are experiencing critical learning loss from remote instruction and school closures during the pandemic. We must address this. Republicans are sponsoring legislation to spread the school year more evenly throughout the calendar year — otherwise known as “year round school” — and to provide intensive tutoring to help catch kids up to grade level.
More than 30% of Washington’s kids failed the English assessment and more than 50% failed the math assessment. Low-income children and children of color are most affected. Washington is failing its school children. We must do better.
What’s more, we’re headed for McCleary 2.0 if the majority party continues to decrease the portion of the budget going to pay for basic education. After the bipartisan, bicameral solution to the McCleary decision, education funding accounted for more than 50% of the state’s budget. Democrats have lowered that to 43%. Their actions show that our paramount duty is slipping in their list of priorities. They are allowing school districts to rely to heavily again on local levies. We must correct the course and do right by Washington’s children.
We will fight to:
- Expand local control in education
- Protect school choice and parents’ rights
- Implement strategies to recover from learning loss
- Support legislation that improves student mental health
Follow the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee
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Listen: Sen. John Braun explains why Rebooting Education is a top priority for Senate Republicans this session
Watch: Reboot Education
Read More:
OPINION: Refusal to even acknowledge K-12 learning loss is disservice to students
In the press
- EDITORIAL: County’s first charter school a positive step (The Columbian)
- COLUMN: Micromanaging lawmakers set back students and teachers (Brian Mittge/The Chronicle)
- COLUMN: Lower student achievement cannot be the new post-pandemic normal (Steve Mullin, president of Washington Roundtable/The Seattle Times)
- WA launches probe of private special ed schools as lawmakers consider reforms (The Seattle Times)
- Schoesler again offers bill to help school districts address maintenance needs (KLCK Radio)
- EDITORIAL: Legislature’s focus on special ed is overdue (The Columbian)
- Washington Legislature looks to set up state-run apprenticeship programs for students (The Spokesman-Review)
- Special education spending, oversight top priorities for WA lawmakers (The Seattle Times)
- School teachers beginning to focus on students’ mental health needs (KOMO TV)
- La Center School Board holds hearing on use of student pronouns following civil rights complaint (The Reflector)
- OPINION: The evidence is clear – education choice improves outcomes (Chris Cargill, president and CEO of Mountain States Policy Center/The Spokesman-Review)
- EDITORIAL: Long underfunded, special education finally gets lawmakers’ attention (The Seattle Times)
- Ellensburg School District facing $1 million budget cut (Daily Record)
- Wenatchee outlines budget reduction goals, cuts likely to be around $7 million (The Wenatchee World)
- EDITORIAL: Soaring graduation rates raise more questions than congratulations (The Seattle Times)
- COLUMN: Seattle Public Schools damaged youth mental health, but blames social media (Jason Rantz/MyNorthwest)
- State audit: low-income, students from communities of color most impacted by COVID campus closures (KING TV)
- OPINION: WA public schools are failing our children. We need a ‘grand bargain’ to fix it (Chris Vance, former state representative, King County Council member, and Republican state party chairman/The News Tribune)
- Walla Walla Public Schools teams with Paper to bring online tutoring to students (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
- OPINION: OSPI has failed WA’s most vulnerable students (Mary Griffin, special education attorney, Karen Pillar, director of policy and advocacy at TeamChild, and Janis White, attorney/The Seattle Times)
- U.S. teens’ loneliness, depression surprise scientist studying pandemic learning (The Sacramento Bee/The Seattle Times)
- EDITORIAL: Boost funding to fight covid’s drag on students (The Everett Herald)
- WA proposes reforms for special education schools, citing Seattle Times, ProPublica stories (The Seattle Times)
- Improving School Attendance finds ‘100 solutions’ to get homeless students to class (The Everett Herald)
- COLUMN: WA is failing students with complex disabilities. It’s happening in Tacoma, too (Matt Driscoll/The News Tribune)
- Seattle school enrollment levels off, but district still faces budget woes (The Seattle Times)
- Spokane Public Schools plans to ask legislature for more funding for special education, transportation and more (The Spokesman-Review)
- At Washington special education schools, years of abuse complaints and lack of academics (The Seattle Times)
- Invisible schools. An investigation from The Seattle Times and ProPublica (The Seattle Times/ProPublica)
- Schools struggle to staff up for youth mental health crisis (AP)
- Washington’s special education age limit is illegal, lawsuit claims (The Seattle Times)
- Do school levies put an unfair burden on rural districts? (KUOW Radio)
- What happens when a school levy fails? (KUOW Radio)
- Spokane Public Schools addresses transportation issues, learning loss (KHQ TV)