To those pathetic elected officials, cowardly superintendents, and morally reprehensible union bosses:

On the fifth anniversary of school closures, I write to remind you of the significant damage you inflicted on an entire generation of young people. Below, I detail the consequences of your poor decisions, particularly for our most vulnerable children.

But first, an important message: had you only opened schools when we begged you to do so, the current culture wars may never have happened. How many times have you woken up in the middle of the night angry and annoyed at the barrage from parents upset about what is happening in classrooms? Are you tired of talking about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or Social Emotional Learning (SEL)? Are you exhausted from defending your untenable position on allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports or allowing children to change their gender without notifying their parents? Are you sick of watching parents stand up at school board meetings and complain about pornography in the library or, conversely, banning books?

My answer to all of you is simple. You have no one to blame but yourselves.

Had you listened when we first asked, and then pleaded with you to consider re-opening schools, we might not be where we are today. Had you been honest and transparent in your decision-making, we may have continued to trust you. And if you had opened schools and not continued remote learning, we might not have seen what was actually happening in some classrooms.

Your lies and deception broke a sacred trust between parents and schools that may never be restored.

Before the extended school closures, I was a huge fan of public education. I served on the PTO and district advisory committees. Like so many other parents, I was busy working, raising my kids, but always made time for school-related activities. I trusted the district had my children’s best interests at heart.

The school closures revealed, not just to me, but to so many parents, how misguided our trust was. 

My superintendent at the time, Jim Scanlon in the West Chester Area School District, misled or lied — depending on your perspective — to parents about his intentions to open school in the fall of 2020. Throughout the spring and early summer, he told parents that he was diligently working to fully reopen schools. He even convened an advisory committee of 400 parents (that I participated in) to meet through July and discuss how to address challenges with reopening. He continued to state his commitment to reopen schools in the fall. 

Yet, a Right to Know request later showed that he fully anticipated schools would remain closed in the fall of 2020. Scanlon wrote to his management team on July 3, 2020, after receiving notice from the state about the mandatory masking requirement.

“The way this is headed, we need to put all hands on deck to prepare for remote learning this fall.”

Despite his directive to his management team, Scanlon continued to meet with parents throughout the month of July to work on the “plan” for reopening schools.

His deceit continued through the end of July. Scanlon and I were both invited by the Senate Education Committee to testify on July 28, 2020, about reopening schools. He told me privately at the hearing he was leaning towards a hybrid model (half the students in school on certain days) for the start of the school year. 

The very next day, he announced a fully remote plan for the fall.

Scanlon could have been honest and transparent but he chose not to. Perhaps he was afraid of the backlash or maybe he was beholden to the Democratic Party or the governor’s office? Whatever the reason, he purposefully misled parents and waited until the very end of July to announce a fully remote start to the school year, leaving many parents, including myself, scrambling to find in-person options for our kids.

Five days later, Scanlon reacted negatively and inappropriately when the Republican White House issued guidance about how to safely reopen schools. His exact response was, “I think I want to puke.”

Scanlon was not alone — most superintendents locally stuck together and refused to fully reopen schools until over a year later in spring of 2021. Philadelphia School District did not fully reopen until August 31, 2021!

Let’s look at the results of those decisions, which were likely politically motivated.

In 2024, only 40 percent of our third through eighth grade students statewide are proficient in math and only 53 percent are proficient in reading and writing. As many of us predicted back in 2020, the impact has been felt much harder by our most vulnerable students.

The charts below show Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students far below the already abysmal state average in math and reading/writing, while White and Asian students are above.

The disparity between black and white students is significant. While not all of it can be attributed to school closures, a lot of the losses certainly can be. School closures hit disadvantaged and some minority students much harder due to parents not having the luxury to work from home. And all the millions of dollars spent on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs have clearly done nothing to help our most vulnerable students, and it is quite possible those programs have widened the achievement gap.

A focus on high expectations and the correct instructional level for every child would yield far more academic gains for underachieving students than what many districts are currently implementing.

In addition to the sobering academic outcomes, let us not forget the exponential mental health crisis impacting our young people. Our kids are addicted to their phones and technology which greatly increased during remote learning and lockdowns. Many schools still use technology most of the day in place of pen and paper assignments.

Even with all the evidence of the harmful effects of social media and prolonged cell phone use for adolescents, most school districts are not enacting cell phone bans, and neither is the state legislature.

Superintendents, school board directors, and other elected officials failed our children not just in Pennsylvania but throughout the entire country. It’s no wonder so many parents, like me, lost faith in the public school system.

We know now the national teachers’ unions, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) colluded with the Biden White House to keep schools closed. Randi Weingarten, head of the AFT, wants us to forget their despicable actions, but we will not. 

We can only hope the U.S Department of Education closes its doors to minimize the impact of the AFT and NEA and their openly hostile political agenda.

For all of these reasons, I have lost trust in the public school system and many of our elected officials. These comments are not related to the majority of teachers who work hard on behalf of our kids, rather they are directed to the administrators and union leaders who have put their political ambitions ahead of teaching and learning.

Unfortunately, very few have learned anything over the past five years and continue to conceal information from parents and the community. Perhaps the only wisdom they gained is to avoid putting statements in writing that can be discovered through the Right to Know process. As a result, I will continue to submit requests to get answers to questions they refuse to answer and will expose their lack of transparency.

To our school leaders and politicians who cry about the never-ending blitz from parents, you have no one to blame but yourselves. It would have been a lot easier to simply open schools, but these are the consequences for your political decisions.

Beth Ann Rosica resides in West Chester, has a Ph.D. in Education, and has dedicated her career to advocating on behalf of at-risk children and families. She covers education issues for Broad + Liberty. Contact her at barosica@broadandliberty.com.