Paul Winfree, EPIC President and CEO, writes in RealClear Politics that:
The Biden administration has demonstrated that this absenteeism is fueling lower test scores now, with absences affecting the drop in test scores over the last three years by as much as 45%. However, I studied the impact of school closures on children’s economic prospects, and extended absence from school leads to both lower income prospects and lower economic mobility….
Students who were exposed to closures saw their income drop by about 5% relative to those who continued to attend school. That figure, in today’s terms, comes to about $70,000 in foregone income, or 27 months at a median household wage.
What’s more, students who faced school closures were less economically mobile relative to their peers. Children, and particularly younger children, had a lower economic rank than their peers, regardless of whether their fathers were at the 25th or 50th income percentile. More striking, though, is that children in higher-income families saw no drop in economic performance, even if their schools did close.
Put bluntly, school closures put disadvantaged kids in an even deeper economic hole.
