East Central Reporter

State Rep. Chris Miller (R-Oakland) believes the decision on whether to close schools during a pandemic should be made on the local level, not mandated by the state.

"I absolutely think that whatever can be left to local level is better," Miller told East Central Reporter. "I think the schools should be able to reflect the values of their local community and not the values of J.B. Pritzker. These decisions need to be in the hands of local schools and local parents. They know what works best for their students."

Miller believes that many of the COVID-19 shutdown efforts were designed to hurt President Donald Trump politically.

"The whole response to this COVIDs thing has been 'I hate Donald Trump'," the legislature said. " Never before have they gone to such an extent to destroy families, small businesses and our economy. They were willing to destroy the economy to destroy Trump."

The closing of schools hurt students, he added.

"There is no question denying kids in-person learning had a negative impact on our kids," he said. "As we learned more about COVID-19, we should have adjusted our response especially since the adverse effects of at-home learning were manifesting themselves early on during the pandemic."

A Unicef report from Oct. 2021 found that government-mandated lockdowns and school closures negatively impacted children, leading to more fear, stress, anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse, loss of learning, and poor physical activity and sleeping habits.               

Total enrollment in Pre-K-12 schools in Illinois declined by 3.6%, or roughly 70,000 students, during the 2020-2021 school year, according to Capitol News Illinois.  Chronic absenteeism increased during that school year, with 22.8% of all Illinois students missing 10% or more of all school days. “We know from national studies from the (U.S.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) that school districts serving primarily Black and Hispanic students provided the least access to in-person learning last year,” said Brenda Dixon, ISBE’s research and evaluation officer. “We suspect that less access to in-person learning contributed to lower engagement among Black and Hispanic students.” The number of students who exhibited grade level competence in math and English language arts decreased, with 17.8% fewer students demonstrating proficiency in math and 16.6% fewer students demonstrating proficiency in English. 

School districts that offered more in-person learning saw smaller declines in enrollment than schools that used mostly remote learning, Illinois Policy reported.             

 In March, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced a $17 million grant to establish a supplemental learning program for students impacted by learning loss due to school closures, according to a release. The program will be geared specifically towards low-income students.