Pandemic-related learning loss will cost our children $17 trillion in lifetime income, according to a U.N.-backed report released in December 2021.

"A mounting body of evidence confirms that learning losses as a result of COVID-19 school closures are real," the report said.

In the U.S., the most significant impact is on young children.

The report found 30% of Texas third-graders tested at or above grade level for math in 2021, compared to 48% in 2019. Similar learning losses were reported in more than a half-dozen other states.

"We're concerned if we don't catch up," said Dr. Pamela Davis-Kean, a research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "If we don't overcome some of this, there are groups of people who probably will not be in the economic situation that they might have been in two years ago."

Davis-Kean said the abrupt shift to remote learning in spring 2020 had a negative impact on students and parents.

Read the the full article at WXYZ-TV.