Remote schooling has been a colossal failure for America’s most vulnerable students. In Chicago, fewer than one in five third graders met state standards in math and reading last spring. In other words: More than 80% of students are failing to achieve basic proficiency in the two most important skills determining their life trajectories and career success.

Pre-pandemic, the scores were still disturbingly low but almost twice as high: About 40% met standards in reading, and about 33% met them in math.

As scores have gone from intolerably bad to exceedingly worse, most of the city’s 330,000 students, 83% of whom are Black or Latino, are at risk of falling into the abyss. At this rate, it is a cold, hard and shameful truth that these students are on track for failure — never acquiring the skills they need to gain entry into either professional jobs, including teaching, or trade-based careers. The result, of course, is a perpetuation of intergenerational poverty.

These are not things we like to say out loud. But decades of experience tell us they are true. To begin changing them, we need to say loudly and clearly — as Democrats, Republicans and independents — that teachers are essential workers, we need them physically present in classrooms, and we will not stand for walkouts.