The students who were sixth graders when schools first closed for COVID-19 are high school seniors today. In the Democrat-run school districts of our cities and large suburban counties, these students did most or all of seventh grade by “remote learning.” Then they spent eighth grade being forced to wear masks.
Now, they’re skipping school.
Chronic absenteeism was one of the downstream effects of school closures, and it’s still a problem. It’s not surprising: School districts and political leaders all stated very clearly that actually going to school wasn’t very important. They reopened casinos and tattoo parlors, organized massive dayslong protests, because all of those things had to happen regardless of the virus.
But school. No, that couldn’t happen. It didn’t matter that children didn’t get COVID-19 very badly. It didn’t matter that children were less likely than adults to spread it. The schools had to stay closed for a year. The only logical conclusion was that school didn’t really matter, and this conclusion has sunk in with children and parents.
Also, the lockdowns, the closures, and the constant scare-mongering by school officials fueled an epidemic of anxiety and depression among students. This is surely keeping many students out of school.
WE’RE GETTING FEWER BIRTHS NOT JUST LATER BIRTHS
About 22% of K-12 students were chronically absent (missing about 10% of the school year) in the 2024-2025 academic year, scholars at RAND estimate.
Nat Malkus, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (where I am also a scholar), has been tracking chronic absenteeism since schools reopened, and he puts the number at 24% — compared to 28% just after reopening and 15% before the COVID-19 closures. In early numbers for this school year, Malkus is finding basically no improvement from last year. It’s possible that a quarter of students missing at least a tenth of the year is the new normal.
