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** Weekly Update
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A newsletter from The Hechinger Report.

In this edition: How COVID reshaped lives, five years later ([link removed]) . Tell us your pandemic story ([link removed]) . When coal plants close, some schools feel the fallout. ([link removed])
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[A child care owner closes her business and starts a new career. A mom copes with her daughter’s stunted education. A teacher learns to love the profession after a miserable first year]


** 10 lives, 5 years later: How the pandemic altered the futures of these parents, kids and educators

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Today, more than five years after Covid arrived on U.S. shores, the pandemic’s toll on student learning lingers. The billions in aid that the federal government spent to help students recover had some modest impact, but students are still behind where they would have been academically. During the pandemic, behavioral problems and mental health issues surged, leading schools to invest in counseling and social and emotional programs, which they’ve had to scale back as federal money has dried up. Some kids never went back to school at all.

The pandemic left other marks too. School closures triggered anger that led to the rise of parent groups including Moms for Liberty. Much of the Moms for Liberty agenda, including book bans and anti-trans advocacy, has been embraced by the Trump administration, in the form of executive orders and Office for Civil Rights investigations into diversity, equity and inclusion programs and related work. School choice programs, which gained steam during Covid, are also a key part of Trump’s education agenda.

This winter, we checked in with educators, parents and students to whom we’d spoken early in the pandemic to learn how their lives have changed. One mom told us that Covid permanently stunted her child’s education, darkening her family’s entire outlook. A student said that the pandemic temporarily derailed her studies but ultimately set her on a path to become a mental health professional. Educators talked about how federal pandemic relief money helped, but not nearly enough, and how they try to repress memories of that year and a half on Zoom, behind masks — and on edge.

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** Five years later, lots of kids are still behind at school — and life. How about yours?
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** Reading list
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Coal plants are closing. For some schools, that means lost revenue and fewer jobs for graduates ([link removed])

Even as Trump tries to ‘unleash’ fossil fuels, coal is declining fast. Schools are doing little to prepare

Reading comprehension loses out in the classroom ([link removed])

New study says few teachers use methods tested by years of research

Tracking Trump: His actions on education ([link removed])

The president has said he wants to eliminate the Education Department while fighting ‘woke’ ideology in schools. A week-by-week look at what he’s done

Math can be a path to success after prison ([link removed])

Math skills can empower people who are in prison — and help them land jobs after they’re released

Investigating the Bureau of Indian Education — and Trump’s efforts to turn it into a school choice program ([link removed])

Trekking to the base of the Grand Canyon to learn about one tribe’s legal fight to improve the beleaguered agency

Let’s talk: Teachers pushed to converse more with youngest kids ([link removed])

States are using talk pedometers, conversation coaches to develop young brains

How early ed is affected by federal cuts ([link removed])

Early childhood study, literacy research has been eliminated

STUDENT VOICE: What losing the Department of Education would mean for special education ([link removed])

Without federal support, students would face disparities across states

Una de cada cinco personas que proveen cuidado infantil es inmigrante. Muchos están aterrorizados por las deportaciones y redadas de Trump ([link removed])

Empleados y niños se ausentan de los sitios de cuidado infantil a causa de la intensa ofensiva federal contra la inmigración
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