Parents now know true cost of school shutdowns. It's not pretty.

You can't say we didn't warn you.

In 2020 and 2021, parents across the United States said repeatedly and passionately that keeping schools closed because of the pandemic would hurt student achievement.  Now, the results are in – and they're not good.

The National Center for Education Statistics recently released its assessment of reading and math scores for America's 9-year-old students. This year, average scores fell 5 points in reading and 7 points in math compared with 2020. It's the largest decline in reading scores in three decades and the first drop in math ever recorded.

It didn’t have to be this way.

- By Mary Vought

Our journalists are living the hurricane they're also covering 

By Nicole Carroll 

Local reporters, photographers and editors from Fort Myers and Naples, Florida, met in a hotel parking lot Thursday to plan their coverage of Hurricane Ian.

They knew they'd lose power and phone service at their southwest Florida homes, so planned to meet at noon at an inland hotel to regroup. But when they got there, the hotel had lost power too, so the meeting moved to the parking lot. 

There are about 30 journalists between the two newsrooms, both part of the Paste BN Network. Many of them were already deployed, some embedded with emergency responders, some walking the roads and beaches that were safe, others trying to book boats and helicopters to get closer to the barrier islands hardest hit. Read more...

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