CNN op-ed jabs liberals for COVID school closures despite network pushing for them

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Dems, Weingarten try to rewrite history on COVID school closures

Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy and New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz sound off on the left’s attempted rewriting of their school management during COVID on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’

A CNN op-ed argued on Wednesday that progressives need to acknowledge that COVID-era school closures were a "problem" and that they should "look squarely" at their own policies and attempt to "ameliorate" the effects.

Author Jill Filipovic said it might be too late for some students to make up the setbacks caused by shuttering schools during the pandemic. 

"It did not have to be this way. And while we can’t turn back time, and while the partisan finger-pointing that is already in full effect isn’t particularly helpful, progressives can look squarely at the harms that came from our own policies and ask ourselves what we can learn and how we might ameliorate some of these ill effects," the CNN op-ed said. 

A study from the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that 9-year-old math and reading test scores plummeted. 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 27: A teacher gives a lesson to masked students in their classroom at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 on September 27, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

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Filipovic encouraged progressives to learn from the school closure mistake and said "shutting down schools in the spring of 2020 made sense." She added that in the fall, the U.S. knew much more and remained a "global outlier."

"Unsurprisingly, the students whose schools were remote for the longest periods – disproportionately Black and Hispanic students, in part because those students are more likely to be enrolled in the urban school districts that kept up remote learning far longer than their rural and suburban counterparts – experienced the most significant learning losses. This is one of the many ways in which the pandemic response has further cleaved apart already-sprawling inequities," Filipovic wrote. 

CNN personalities often came out against Republicans who wanted to re-open schools during the pandemic. When then-President Donald Trump wanted to get children back to school in the fall of 2020, CNN, in addition to other left-leaning media outlets, were quick to criticize the former president's stance. 

Filipovic said that school closures didn't just happen because Democrats were "overly cautious" and added that their efforts were about preventing kids from bringing home COVID-19 to their family members. 

FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2021, file photo, pre-kindergarten teacher Sarah McCarthy works with a student at Dawes Elementary in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool, File)

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Johns Hopkins released a study in February that found lockdowns were largely ineffective during the pandemic. The findings of the study were largely ignored by major networks such as CNN and MSNBC. 

Filipovic added that progressives were quick to write off learning losses during the pandemic as "insignificant" and often described it as students having "different learning experiences."

"Whatever one’s view on the wisdom of school shutdowns during Covid – and people can certainly have good-faith disagreements about when and why and for how long shutdowns were appropriate – it is a dereliction of adult responsibility to suggest that the impact of the shutdowns is no biggie," she wrote. 

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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 21: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, along with members of Congress, parents and caregiving advocates hold a press conference supporting Build Back Better investments in home care, childcare, paid leave and expanded CTC payments in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together)

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten slammed the criticism of school closures in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. 

Many placed blame on teachers unions and Weingarten specifically for learning loss during the pandemic.