Maria and Julio are joined by Reema Amin, reporter for Chalkbeat New York, and Antonia Hylton, correspondent for NBC News and co-host of the Southlake podcast, for a conversation about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted students. They also get into the conservative-led movement to ban books and bar classroom discussions around what they perceive as critical race theory. 

ITT Staff Picks:

• “The decline in mental health among teenagers was intensified by the Covid pandemic but predated it, spanning racial and ethnic groups, urban and rural areas and the socioeconomic divide,” writes Matt Richtel for health-crisis-teens.html">The New York Times.

• This report for Five Thirty Eight gets into how anti-critical race theory bills are impacting teachers across the country, including reprimands and firings. 

• For NBC News, Matt Lavietes and Elliott Ramos report on the record number of anti-LGBTQ bills that have been proposed at state legislatures just this year. 

Photo credit: AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File