Quote:A new report reveals that school shutdowns in 2020 may cost the United States economy up to $188 billion per year.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company states that the decision to close schools due to the arrival of COVID-19 in the United States will severely limit the ability of students — who, on average, lost five months of math education and four months of reading education — to participate in the economy.

As the report explains:

The fallout from the pandemic threatens to depress this generation’s prospects and constrict their opportunities far into adulthood. The ripple effects may undermine their chances of attending college and ultimately finding a fulfilling job that enables them to support a family. Our analysis suggests that, unless steps are taken to address unfinished learning, today’s students may earn $49,000 to $61,000 less over their lifetime owing to the impact of the pandemic on their schooling.

Once the cohort of affected students enters the workforce, American economic performance may diminish by as much as $128 billion to $188 billion every year.

Their report also explains that the shutdowns were particularly harmful to disadvantaged students:

In math, students in majority Black schools ended the year with six months of unfinished learning, students in low-income schools with seven. High schoolers have become more likely to drop out of school, and high school seniors, especially those from low-income families, are less likely to go on to postsecondary education.

Students in majority-Black schools ended the school year six months behind in both math and reading, while students in majority-white schools ended up just four months behind in math and three months behind in reading.

The report noted an alarming uptick in mental health problems among young people:

McKinsey surveyed more than 16,000 parents across all 50 states. At least 35 percent said they were “very” or “extremely” concerned about their children’s mental health. Nearly 80 percent indicated some level of concern. Meanwhile, parents reported a 6 percent increase in clinical-level anxiety and a 5 percent increase in clinical-level depression among their children. They also reported increased social withdrawal, self-isolation, lethargy, and irrational fear.

For months prior to the comprehensive McKinsey report, various findings of the ominous implications of school shutdowns on economic performance, educational outcomes, and mental health for young people have emerged.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School forecasted that American economic productivity will be reduced by 3.6% over the next three decades as a result of school closures. Funding an extra month of schooling added to the upcoming school year would offer a sixteen-to-one return for the United States economy.

Meanwhile, four in ten public high school students in Baltimore earned a 1.0 GPA during the past school year. Only 21% of students earned above a “B” average.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention likewise revealed that the number of emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts rose by 51% among teenage girls during 2020. Although the number of incidents fell between spring 2019 and spring 2020, the rates drastically increased at the onset of government lockdowns.

Quote:The mass experiment in remote learning was an unmitigated disaster, according to a new report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The report quantified the harm done to children of all grade levels, and demonstrated negative effects to all facets of education.

The report examined test results in first through sixth grade across 40 states, comparing 1.6 million elementary students’ testing performance to pre-pandemic student scoring. The results showed that the children who learned remotely as a result of school lockdowns were about four months behind in reading and five months behind in math. The children in the study learned remotely in time periods ranging from months to a year.

The past year’s COVID lockdowns also disproportionately affected minority and low-income school districts. In math, students in majority black schools concluded the year six months behind, and students in low-income schools ended seven months behind.

Older students failed to attend class at more than double the rate from before the pandemic. The number of chronically absent 8-12th grade students increased from 3.1 percent to 5.4-7.7 percent.

The repercussions of school shutdowns are not only immediate, but also long-lasting, as McKinsey estimated that an additional 617,000 to 1.2 million 8-12th graders could drop out of school altogether if they are not properly re-engaged in learning.

A survey in the McKinsey report also found that less students will attend college because of the shutdowns. Seventeen percent of high school seniors who planned to pursue postsecondary education said they had abandoned those plans. The number of students abandoning college plans was higher among low-income high school seniors: 26 percent of these students said they had abandoned plans for college.

Online learning also lead to increases in mental health problems. McKinsey surveyed 16,370 parents across all states and found that 35 percent of parents said they were very concerned about their child’s mental health.

According to the CDC, there was a 22.3 percent spike in ER trips for potential suicides by children ages 12 to 17 in summer 2020 compared to 2019. ER visits for potential child suicides were also up 39.1 percent in winter.

The data company Burbio concluded that by the end of the 2020 spring semester, most students could attend school at least part-time. Yet teacher unions’ demands kept that progress at bay, resulting in some districts only returning for in-person learning for a few days or hours per week.