United States | Absent-minded

Post-covid, American children are still missing far too much school

The pandemic seems to have permanently increased truancy

School children's backpacks hang in open fronted wooden lockers, alongside empty lockers.
Image: Imagn
|WASHINGTON DC

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Jefferson wrote one of the first bills calling for universal, publicly funded education. He wanted all the children in his state of Virginia to attend classes. Not everyone was convinced. His bill never passed, and it took over 100 years for school to become compulsory across the whole of America.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Absent-minded”

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