Impacts of COVID still felt 4 years later

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Marcus Baltzell with the Kansas NEA says the effects of COVID-19 on education are extensive. One of the main things it impacted is student achievement.

“There were some challenges, you know, some online learning challenges, some learning gaps that came out of that, and we are certainly seeing that schools are working very hard to overcome those things,” Baltzell said.

He says educators and parents are working to overcome those challenges and fill the gaps COVID-19 created.

“The world has changed,” Baltzell said. “The world has changed for kids. The world has changed for educators, you know, all of those kinds of things, but we’re also seeing very high graduation rates now in Kansas.”

He says in comparison to the pandemic, now, graduation rates have gone back up, but education needs more support to keep that trend.

“What we’re really looking for and what we’re calling on is for our elected officials, our parents, all of those folks to band together and support educators and to support what their efforts are in the classroom because, quite honestly, our kids deserve nothing less,” Baltzell said.

Baltzell says COVID also affected families of students.

“If a student came to school and had a parent who is struggling with a life-threatening disease at home, or joblessness, or you name it, then certainly learning for that student is going to be much more challenging,” Baltzell said.

He says there has been a sharp increase in social-emotional needs, and violence in the classroom has increased.

“These are kids who are coming out of a period of crisis who are trying to overcome the gaps and the challenges that cause and don’t have the development or skills to work through all of that.”

IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON BUSINESSES

Wendall Funk is the president of the Wichita Independent Business Association and says although some businesses did not make it out of COVID-19, it made entrepreneurs better.

“The good businesses, they used it as a great opportunity to continue to get better,” Funk said. “The businesses that weren’t doing as well when COVID happened, they had bigger challenges, and they tended to get a lot of the support, but better businesses got better.”

He says entrepreneurs responded quickly.

“We found in the business world, especially in small business, whether it was back in 2008 when there was the economic downturn, or when the pandemic hit, for those, particularly entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, they could be strategic, they can be nimble, they can be responsive,” Funk said. “And so they were able to actually grow out of that and gain market share.”

He says businesses that weren’t doing as well or in specific categories got hit harder than others with supply chain issues. He says they have had a lot of growth in the small business world.

“They had to figure out how they were going to make some changes in their business so that they could continue to provide great services and products to the customers that they had,” Funk said. “I think it definitely required them to make some changes. I mean, obviously, there’s issues, you know, that are still out there with some labor challenges, interest rates, inflation, all those things are there challenges.”

Funk says businesses learned new skills, reinvented themselves and learned new ways to connect with people.