This whole thing grinds my gears so much. Like, my blue state still prioritizes education much more than a lot of red states, and our kids do much better, even with "learning loss." And also, who fucking cares about "learning loss" when lives have been at stake.
But more than that, I taught at the college level for almost a decade before the pandemic hit, and a lot of what we're seeing now, with kids struggling and being several grade levels behind in reading comprehension, etc., started well before the pandemic.
My mom just retired from teaching 1st grade and couldn't believe how many of her students in her last few years couldn't read compared to years before. But these 7-year-olds weren't in school during the school closures! They didn't have "learning loss!" Something else is going on!