Preparing New York’s students for the workforce and the responsibilities and challenges beyond school is the most important job of any education system. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, these goals became significantly more challenging, and in these last few years we learned a great deal about how to address disruptions in our normal educational processes. 

Unfortunately, recent standardized-test results show massive deficits in student performance that need to be considered should we ever face another health-related disruption like the one COVID-19 presented.

For the first time since 2019, students were measured for their math and reading proficiencies in grades 3-8. In New York state, and across the board, the results were significantly worse than the last time these tests were administered. As such, math scores suffered the worst decline in history and reading scores were at a 30-year low. In New York, only 39 percent of children tested reached proficiency in math, which is down from 47 percent pre-COVID. These setbacks are going to have lasting impacts.

It is clear from the data that remote learning, as it was administered, failed our students. Naturally, a pause on in-school learning was necessary in the earliest stages of the outbreak; however, these pauses went on for far too long. Students, especially younger ones, require the care and guidance of their teachers every day from morning to afternoon. 

As a legislature, we are now charged with developing a new plan that accounts for scenarios like the one we faced in 2020. In that same vein, we must also continue to look at ways to update and modernize our educational programs, so they match all the needs of New York’s students. These test scores point to potential inadequacies in our educational system, and some of them lie outside COVID’s impact. Identifying what works best for students and improving our education system is a never-ending effort.

To these ends, the Assembly Minority Conference launched two initiatives: the Task Force on Learning for Work and the Task Force for School Safety & Security. Together, these two statewide information-gathering forums addressed topics impacting our students, ranging from job training and workforce preparedness to ensuring every student has an opportunity to learn safely and securely in schools across New York state.

Additionally, we must also ensure our teachers, administrators, and parents have the support they need to thrive as well. The success of New York’s school children depends on a concerted effort from education professionals, parents, and legislators. Together, we can build a better, more resilient education system in New York, and we must do so, now, with purpose and urgency.        

William (Will) A. Barclay, 53, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which currently encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. 

It’s good to be the king, as a popular song has it in China these days. It’s good to be Xi Jinping.

Xi was just chosen to lead the nation for a third consecutive five-year term. That’s not entirely unprecedented — Mao Zedong led the People’s Republic of China from 1949-1976. But it is a break from recent tradition, in which China’s leaders have stepped down after two terms.

Xi, 69, made an exception for himself, and the party’s National Congress endorsed it. There’s speculation that Xi can rule for as long as he wants, maybe for life. He is being compared with Mao, and not just for longevity. Like Mao, he has consolidated power, sidelined rivals, and run the country with a heavy hand.

Some call Xi the most powerful person in the world. It’s a persuasive claim. The United States is stronger than China, but no one in the U.S. has unlimited power. President Joe Biden has to work with Congress and is constrained by the courts. The will of the people is a strong check on American leaders.

Not so in China, which is no democracy. By controlling the Communist Party, Xi controls the government and exerts great influence on society.

Xi’s personal story is compelling. The child of Communist Party insiders, he was one of the nation’s “princelings,” young people who were considered spoiled and soft. But when he was a teenager, his father fell out with Mao. At 15, Xi was sent off to “toil among the people” on a farm. The hardship transformed him into a strong and disciplined party loyalist with a deep understanding of China’s rural poor, according to official biographies.

When Xi rose to be China’s leader in 2012, his image was “Uncle Xi,” a genial man with a hard-earned affinity for the common people. International observers hoped he would continue the trend toward free markets, a more open society, and greater engagement with the world.

But Xi has taken his country in the opposite direction. He has established rigid policies conforming to “Xi Jinping Thought,” including state control of the economy, an obsession with domestic stability and fervent competition with the West. Xi defiantly presents China’s model as an alternative to liberal democracy.

China has built up state-owned enterprises and made it harder for international companies to do business there. The government has cracked down on domestic critics, restricted social media, and disregarded human rights. China has been accused of genocide against the Muslim Uyghur population in the Xinjiang region.

In international affairs, China has become increasingly combative. It has provoked disputes with its neighbors over the South China Sea and used its Belt and Road initiative to curry favor and debt in Africa and Asia. Xi has hinted that China could use military force to secure its claim to Taiwan.

Competition and tension with the U.S. — over Taiwan, technology, and other matters — are high.

China faces internal problems, however. Xi’s insistence on shutting down commerce to block the spread of COVID-19 has strained the economy. Unemployment among the young has reached 20 percent. Many Chinese people are educated, cosmopolitan, and tech-savvy. They have traveled and studied abroad. Some of them surely aren’t happy to be denied the freedom that they see elsewhere.

But for now, Xi is firmly in control, and Xi’s China is unquestionably one of the most formidable challenges facing American foreign policy. We need to continue to engage with China and look for areas where we can work together, but we must be firm in resisting China’s aggression and threats to our allies.

The U.S.-China relationship has always been difficult to get right. With Xi in charge for at least the next five years, it won’t get any easier.        

Lee Hamilton, 91, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.