RIGHT SPEAK: Federal Audit Finds States Paid Pandemic Unemployment Benefits to 200,000 Dead People; Cure COVID-19 Learning Losses by Firing Bad Teachers, and other C-Virus related stories

States paid pandemic unemployment benefits to 200,000 dead people, federal audit finds:

States paid out billions of dollars in pandemic unemployment claims to more than 200,000 applicants whose Social Security numbers indicated they were already dead, according to a new inspector general’s audit.

Nearly 1 million more claims were paid to Social Security numbers that were submitted in multiple states — another indication of fraud, because the law only allowed someone to claim the enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits in a single state at one time.

And 1.7 million more claims were paid to people who filed from “suspicious email addresses,” the Labor Department’s inspector general said.

All told, they accounted for more than $45 billion in potentially bogus unemployment payments during the first two years after the onset of the pandemic, the audit concluded.

Carolyn R. Hantz, an assistant inspector general, said that’s nearly three times the previous estimate issued in June 2021.

Her office made a series of recommendations at that time, and she expressed consternation that the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) hasn’t fixed things by now.

“As of the date of this alert memorandum, ETA has not taken sufficient action to implement these recommendations,” she wrote. “ETA’s lack of sufficient action significantly increases the risk of even more [unemployment] payments to ineligible claimants.” --->READ MORE HERE

Illustration by Linas Garsys / The Washington Times

Cure COVID-19 learning losses by firing bad teachers:

Earlier this month, the Education Department revealed reading and math scores of elementary school students plummeted during the pandemic. The hardest hit: fourth graders, whose scores registered the largest drop in two decades.

COVID-related school shutdowns and delayed re-openings have placed learning losses at the equivalent of a year or more of schooling, resulting in 6% to 9% in lower lifetime earnings for the average student and much more drastic losses for minority and low-income children, according to Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The federal government provided $190 billion in stimulus funds to help schools during the pandemic, but only 20% of those dollars were dedicated directly to addressing student learning losses. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has been promoting robust tutoring strategies to help make up the difference, but how can a few hours of after-school learning make up for 180 days of lost classroom instruction?

Before the pandemic, the U.S. had an 83% graduation rate. It is now estimated that 40% of American fourth through eleventh graders won’t be able to graduate on time. Even with an additional three years of learning, one-third still won’t be able to make it.

“The magnitude of the problem is way out of line with the recommended solutions,” Margaret “Macke” Raymond, director of the Center for Research and Educational Outcomes at Stanford University, said in an interview. “It’s going to be a couple of decades before we’re out of this.” --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:

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Christian Coast Guard members sue over religious objections to military's coronavirus vaccine mandate

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WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates

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