Masks and Education

So much of the pandemic came down to politics. To mask or not to mask? To mandate or not to mandate? To educate or not to educate? That last one may sound odd, after all, this side of select teacher strikes in various states during the pandemic, theoretically education continued. But increasingly what we’re starting to see is that there was a significant difference between theoretically teaching and actually teaching. Going back to the earlier months in the pandemic, and as recently as August of last year, I brought you the known facts regarding remote learning and the impact of school closures on education outcomes. Among the findings...only 18% of students perform as well or better with remote learning as opposed to classroom education, kids were far more likely to contract COVID-19 if they were remote learning (that one was one of the bigger surprises to many) and masks masked learning more than protecting kids from the virus. As I cited, teachers at every education level were less effective at teaching with masks on and students were less effective at every education level with masks on. But facts be damned, blue state governors, blue city and county politicians and the bright blue teachers’ unions fought against the facts. First seeking to keep schools closed as long as possible and then seeking to mask teachers and students as long as possible. In Florida, of course we did the opposite. Against the objections of South Florida’s school districts, which for a time even violated state law to impose what’s proven to have been failed policy, Florida reopened schools as quickly as any other state in the country, instituted parental rights in education allowing parents, not school districts, to determine if their children should be masked