In general, are you satisfied with how US schools handled the Covid pandemic, given the circumstances?

👍 Yes (31%) – "As a teen in the system and also the daughter of a teacher, they really tried their best with the tools given to them but so many of us were mourning. It was a natural crisis. Things won’t run as smoothly as they could before but I think they handled it the best they could."

• "What often gets missed here is that American corporate culture is a bit vicious. The current generation in leadership position see your commitment to work (read here work over 40 hours, “going above and beyond”) as synonym to the value you bring. When th pandemic hit working parents were faced with multiple issues like taking over full time teaching duties. The perceived “failure” of the school systems due to covid is more a reflection of how broken corporate America is. Kids needed to stay home for that period. While it is true that covid doesn’t impact kids as much, I think it is naive to think that kids needed to go back sooner. Schools are a petri dish and covid is not excluded from that dish."

"We did the best we could with the information we had at the time. People are fond of being critical and even harsh but when you’re faced with a novel virus with unknown effects, you’re going to do the best you can with what you have at the time and sometimes that may end up not being the right answer but none of us had clear, solid answers then."

👎 No (52%) – "We’ve done our students a great disservice not only during the pandemic but in the years since. Expectations and standards have been lowered to the point that I’m not even sure what a diploma represents anymore."

• "We failed our students by putting them behind a screen and assuming they were ok. It will be years before the mental health toll is healed from this. The academic achievement will not improve until an entire generation of children attend schools not affected by digital learning."

"Schools should never have closed, period. Sick students and staff should stay home, which had always been the case. Closing complete campuses is a failure of the education system. Families who put their kids in schools do so because they don't have the interest, skills, time, or ability to educate their kids. The result of closing schools is that families' routines were decimated. Children were neglected. Tax payer money was wasted. Employers' resources were abused. Talk about a failure in all sectors of society, all to protect a class of people who are all the lowest risk of severe illness and death."

• "As a student, I was glad that going back in person they were softer on us, but I almost wish they weren't. My focus and desire to keep up has diminished. Distance learning was terrible at first, it was too easy to cheat and no one really cared much. The next school year I had, I completely failed a class and there seemed like there was nothing holding me accountable. Even now, there still really isn't besides the fact that I'm in AP classes."

"As a teacher, the fact that we closed schools because of a virus is mindblowing. It is even mindblowing that our leaders let it go on as long as it did, even though all the data (that wasn't government funded) was showing that it was nothing the more than a virus. I can't believe we are still even talking about Covid. As an educated professional, with a minor degree in Political Science, I lost every ounce of trust I had in the government during that time."

🤷 Unsure/other (17%) – "The impact was felt differently across each region in the US. Depending on where you lived, your schooling experience could either be wildly successful or the exact opposite."