Coronavirus school closures: 'We are going to lose a generation of doctors, civic leaders, scientists:' NYU prof
The education world has been wholly upended since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., with more and more schools closing — including those in New York City, the nation’s largest school district —amid rising national cases. Scott Galloway, NYU Professor of Marketing, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the impact the coronavirus is having on educators, parents, and kids.
“I mean, you want to talk about a household that comes crumbling down? Whether they can get food at Shake Shack, I mean that’s an inconvenience. But a 9-year-old at home whose mom is not home to help him or her with the iPad (and let’s be honest, it’s usually the mom), who is no longer socializing — you can see families literally imploding under the weight of school closure. And the fact that we haven’t been able to allocate resources to keep schools open, we are going to lose a generation of doctors, civic leaders, scientists,” he said.
A loss of a generation of young people is profound Scott Galloway, NYU professor
Galloway also notes that over half of lower-income kids have substantially fallen behind their higher-income counterparts during the pandemic, which he believes could lead to the loss of an entire generation.
“That’s not only morally wrong, stupid for our economy — We’re going to lose 50% of our leaders and our scientists. So yeah, restaurants closing down and going out of business is meaningful; a loss of a generation of young people is profound. We need to rethink our priorities. And the only reason we’re not sending stimulus to schools is that nine-year-olds don’t vote. So I think our priorities are messed up here. I think we’ve lost the script.”
Reggie Wade is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @ReggieWade.
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