Five months behind who, though? I could imagine[0] that, on an individual level, when a student misses a lot of school, they fall behind their peers, and knock

Five months behind who, though? I could imagine[0] that, on an individual level, when a student misses a lot of school, they fall behind their peers, and knock-on effects translate this into lower lifetime earning. In the case of the pandemic, though, isn’t everyone in a similar boat? The “most qualified” student from the class of 2021 is going to have their pick of opportunities; there isn’t some “reserve” from an alternate universe that will outcompete them. What could happen is that the pandemic disproportionally affects kids from certain backgrounds (minority, low SES, certain regions, etc). Unfortunately, the article doesn’t really delve into that. [0] Estimating this accurately is likely very hard, especially if the “cause” continues into adulthood. Still, it doesn’t seem unlikely that there’s some sort of effect.