Teachers unions 'used kids as pawns' during COVID, Terrell says as math, reading scores plummet

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America's public school system has 'failed' its children: Pete Hegseth

Fox News contributors Pete Hegseth and Leo Terrell break down how the pandemic has caused a decline in students' academic progress across America on 'The Story with Martha MacCallum.'

Teachers unions and their crusade to keep students out of the classroom during COVID-19 are to blame for a sudden drop in nationwide math and reading scores, Los Angeles civil rights attorney and former teacher Leo Terrell told Fox News on Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, former Reagan administration Education Secretary William Bennett said the latest figures – depicting a 5-point drop in English reading proficiency and 7 points in mathematics – show a retrograde to 1990 statistics.

"Total crickets from the unions," Terrell said on "The Story." "This is devastating. Let me be very clear: These kids can never make this up."

Terrell added that the drop in proficiency was more pronounced in minority communities, as urban areas saw schools shuttered longer than elsewhere.

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American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten speaks to the press. (Getty)

He called out American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten, saying the educator from Rockland County, N.Y. was one of the leaders of the school-shuttering trend who simultaneously sought increased political and financial support during the closures.

"These kids' schools should have never been closed, and Randi Weingarten and the union representatives used these kids as pawns. These two years of education they lost, they'll never get them back. So what I find disingenuous is they used COVID as a pretext -- the safest kids were the kids that stayed at school, and we lost those years," Terrell said.

Terrell, who is Black, called education a contemporary civil rights issue and lamented the fact Black politicians like D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser were supportive of COVID-induced restrictions on things like in-school learning.

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First lady Jill Biden in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"The unions and the extreme left use these kids as pawns, and they lost their education," he said.

Terrell said the actions supported by teachers unions have led to "mental anguish" in children of all ages, and further deprived them of the social contact necessary for their proper psychological development.

"As a former schoolteacher, I'm telling you, I'm sickened by this," Terrell stressed.

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MARYLAND, UNITED STATES - AUGUST 25: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a rally with Maryland Democrats at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland on August 25, 2022. (Photo by Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) (Bryan Dozier/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Host Martha MacCallum pointed out that first lady Jill Biden is a doctor of education, and that therefore the educational risks to children should have been "front of mind" for President Biden.

MacCallum noted Biden has instead focused on gun control and other political issues.

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"[The Bidens] should say every teacher is going to be measured on how they get their students caught up. And we're going to be looking at every one of you, and we're going to be measuring your performance and making sure that you get those kids to a great reading level because our nine-year-olds are suffering and it's going to be all up and down the line when we see the bigger numbers," she added.

Fox News host Pete Hegseth added the statistics prove a need for school choice, remarking that the "money should follow" the students.