Moms sound alarm about teachers' unions, learning loss: 'We need to turn this country around'
'America producing children and graduating children that cannot read at levels they need to,' Quisha King says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A panel of mothers raised concerns Friday over teachers' unions taking over public education after children's academic performance fell below expectations during the COVID-induced closures of schools.
"I absolutely think that our side gets stronger and stronger every day. Over the last two years, the momentum that we have gained and waking parents up to what's actually going on in government schools, it's been really refreshing to see more people are getting involved," single mother of three, Cheryl Onderchain, told "Fox & Friends First."
"I actually started a chapter of Moms for Liberty here in Loudoun County [Virginia]. And that's our mantra. We are fighting for parental rights on all levels of government. We need to turn this country around. These teachers' unions are evil, and they have really taken over government education, and we need to stop it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BLUE STATE COVID LEARNING LOSS WIDENED RACIAL ACHIEVEMENT GAPS RELATIVE TO RED STATES: STUDY
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) (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MomsRising Together)
A recent study showed remote learning led to large losses in achievement for students during the pandemic, with blue states and students from low-income areas hit the hardest by the losses.
"Interestingly, gaps in math achievement by race and school poverty did not widen in school districts in states such as Texas and Florida and elsewhere that remained largely in-person," Thomas Kane, a professor of education at Harvard and one of the authors of the study, said of the study's results in an interview with the Harvard Gazette last week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Where schools shifted to remote learning, gaps widened sharply. Shifting to remote instruction was like turning a switch on a critical piece of our social infrastructure that we had taken for granted."
The study was conducted by Harvard University, the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research at the American Institutes for Research, and NWEA. The group analyzed data from 2.1 million students in 10,000 schools in 49 states, finding remote learning to be the primary cause for large losses of student achievement during the pandemic.
The researchers found that high-poverty schools were the most likely to spend more time in remote instruction, with high-poverty schools in some states outpacing others.
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Moms For America Senior Director Quisha King explained how children’s academic performance is below expectations, calling it "astonishing" how many fourth-graders are not reading at the appropriate level for their age.
"America is producing children and graduating children that cannot read at levels that they need to go on to do what they need to do in the next phases of life."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York City mother Natalya Murakhver raised concern over Mayor Eric Adams being "blind" to the crime in the city and children joining gangs. She also expressed opposition to the city potentially mandating COVID vaccinations for children who have already recovered from the virus.
"They continue to perpetuate these politically driven, not public health driven policies that are really destroying our city. It's a manufactured crisis."
Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this report.