{"id":1710861,"date":"2022-10-25T18:04:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T22:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1710861"},"modified":"2022-10-25T18:04:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T22:04:16","slug":"pennsylvania-test-scores-fell-sharply-as-dem-leaders-pushed-school-closures-mask-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pennsylvania-test-scores-fell-sharply-as-dem-leaders-pushed-school-closures-mask-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Test Scores Fell Sharply as Dem Leaders Pushed School Closures, Mask Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpennsylvania-test-scores-fell-sharply-as-dem-leaders-pushed-school-closures-mask-mandates%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1710861&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/\">Elections<\/a> <\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and Attorney General Josh Shapiro fought to keep schools closed during pandemic<\/p>\n<p>    Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman. (Photo by Mark Makela\/Getty Images)   <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/chuck-ross\/\" title=\"Posts by Chuck Ross\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Chuck Ross<\/a> \u2022 October 25, 2022 5:55 pm  <\/p>\n<p>Pennsylvania had one of the steepest declines in student test scores during the coronavirus pandemic, and residents may have two Democratic candidates for statewide office to thank for it.<\/p>\n<p>As lieutenant governor and attorney general of Pennsylvania, respectively, John Fetterman and Josh Shapiro pushed school closures that experts say helped cause the historic slide in test scores across the country. Fetterman, who is running for Senate, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnFetterman\/status\/1239950714253783043\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> it was an &#8220;absolute necessity&#8221; early in the pandemic to shut down schools to slow the virus. Shapiro, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, in July 2020 threatened to sue the Trump administration if the state was forced to reopen schools.<\/p>\n<p>The effect of these lockdowns was laid bare Monday, when the the Department of Education released the &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nation\u2019s Report Card<\/a>.&#8221; The report found that eighth-graders in the Keystone State scored 11 points lower on a math assessment compared to 2019, the seventh-biggest decline of any state and the equivalent of nearly a year\u2019s worth of classroom learning. Fourth-graders scored six points lower on the test, the 13th-largest decrease. Reading scores also declined more than the national average but were not as steep as the losses for math, according to the report card.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrats\u2019 support for school closures could hurt them at the polls next month, as Republicans are likely to link them to Pennsylvania\u2019s dismal test scores. Republican Senate candidate Mehmet Oz tied Fetterman to the test scores on Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrOz\/status\/1584606145422905344\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">saying<\/a> Fetterman &#8220;oversaw devastating school closures in Pennsylvania that set our kids\u2019 education back years.&#8221; GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano frequently blames Shapiro for students\u2019 learning loss in his campaign speeches.<\/p>\n<p>While Fetterman and Shapiro were not in charge of school policy, they both used their offices as bully pulpits to call for school closures and mask mandates. Fetterman <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnFetterman\/status\/1239950714253783043\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> it was an &#8220;absolute necessity&#8221; early in the pandemic to shut down schools to slow the virus. He <a href=\"https:\/\/grabien.com\/getmedia.php?id=1688159&#038;key=002fc1ce37104863b0648077721e793d&#038;userid=17087\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in July 2020 that the only way to &#8220;safely reopen&#8221; schools for the fall semester was for parents to push &#8220;masking, masking, masking&#8221; in classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro in July 2020 threatened legal action against the Trump administration and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania had one of the steepest declines in student test scores during the coronavirus pandemic, and residents may have two Democratic candidates for statewide office to thank for it.<br \/>\nThe post Pennsylvania Test Scores Fell Sharply as Dem Leaders Pushed School Closures, Mask Mandates appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":1710864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1710861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1710861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1710861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1710861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1710861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}