"It seemed like depraved indifference to children's welfare," Kamenetz writes in 2022.
But it takes her only 35 pages to get around to comparing public school moms forced to abandon the system by dysfunctional COVID policies that left us with zero instruction for months, to Buchananites and segregationists.
Meanwhile, the book assures us that there is no need to "relitigate this mess or point fingers."
Unscientific policies that kept schools closed in blue America were just more victims of "polarized…cacophony that made it difficult for scientific authorities to be heard."
Her book is full of examples of public institutions failing, yet her answer is more public institutions with more resources.
The Stolen Year is right about the science that would have allowed public schools in blue America to open, and it's right about the terrible consequences of ignoring it. This is welcome—and coming from an NPR reporter, it might convince liberals who would otherwise reject the idea that their leaders caused massive increases in historic inequities. If only it had come sooner and much louder.
reason.com
