Joy Behar, co-host of “The View,” suggested over the weekend that every American student, most of whom have had their education relegated to remote learning since the beginning of the pandemic, should be forced to “repeat” this school year.

According to Behar, returning to in-person learning should be jettisoned completely this school year.

“Sending kids back to school this year is so fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. Why not just have everyone repeat the year? Is that such a far out idea?” Behar tweeted on Sunday.

In response, Behar was promptly rebuked for suggesting what many considered would be a punishment to students.

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• “Yes, it is far out to punish the schools and students who have safely reopened by arbitrarily making them repeat the year,” one person said.
• “Regression is the progressive way,” another person mocked.
• “Absolutely not. I’m a teacher and have busted my back teaching this year virtually and that is like telling all of us nothing we do right now matters, and it was all for nothing,” another person responded.
• “My kids went back in August and not 1 case. Now we have kids out there committing suicide not to mention what their home life is like. Send them back to school. As the dems say…. Follow the science!!” another person said.
• “Living is so fraught with anxiety and uncertainty. Why not just have everyone stop living? Is that such a far out idea?” another person mocked.

What’s the background?

Whether students have returned to in-person learning very much depends on location. Many school districts nationwide have returned to in-person learning or a hybrid between in-person and remote learning. Most of the biggest school districts, though, remain closed for in-person learning.

The impacts of remote learning have not been insignificant.

The Associated Press reported:

School districts from coast to coast have reported the number of students failing classes has risen by as many as two or three times — with English language learners and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering the most.

Indeed, one of the often unspoken consequences of remote learning, especially for younger and disabled students, is that many parents have been forced to choose between working or sitting with their child during their remote learning sessions. Work, of course, is almost always picked over school, meaning many of the most disadvantaged students in Title I schools are missing school entirely.

Teachers’ unions have further complicated the process.

For example, students kindergarten through eighth grade were scheduled to return to in-person learning in Chicago on Monday, but that was pushed back to Tuesday because the Chicago Teachers Union is refusing to send its staff back to school.

Reluctant teachers claim returning to in-person learning remains unsafe, but studies have shown that student-to-teacher transmission in schools is extremely low.

In fact, in one Duke-led study conducted in North Carolina last fall, researchers discovered ZERO instances of child-to-adult transmission of COVID-19.