Newhouse Condemns School Lockdowns for Jeopardizing Students’ Success

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) released the following statement after the Associated Press reported a significant drop in Washington state students’ exam scores.

“Today’s report confirms what we’ve feared would come to pass: In addition to risking children’s mental health, emotional development, and physical well-being, school lockdowns have put our children’s educational success, and ultimately their futures, in jeopardy,” said Rep. Newhouse. “We cannot continue to allow our response to the pandemic to cause more harm to our children than the virus itself. It’s far-past time we put our kids back in school.”

Background:

• Between 2019 and 2021, the overall percentage of students who met state standards on the math portion of the exam fell by 20 percentage points.
• Just 30% of children — public school students enrolled in grades 4 through 11 — met standards in math.
• In English, the portion of kids who met the standard fell by 9 percentage points.
• Washington state received $1.6 billion in the latest round of federal relief aid for schools. One-fifth of that money — or $334 million — must be spent on efforts to combat learning loss among students. As of November 2021, districts had spent only about 7% of that academic recovery money.

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