What if thousands of third graders disappeared? Wouldn’t we go after them? That’s what happened with COVID. Thanks to the pandemic, children have lost more than a year of traditional, in-person learning. Now, North Carolina needs to get it back for them.

As many as 39% of parents say their child fell behind academically as a result of the pandemic, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor. Here in North Carolina, the pandemic’s impact is equally concerning: the majority of elementary school and middle school students failed the latest state end-of-grade reading exams.

As part of her four-year strategic plan to support public schools, Republican State Superintendent Catherine Truitt has launched a new Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration to help combat learning loss and accelerate learning for all students. Michael Maher, the executive director of the office, said he expects to see students having some regression in reading and math, as well as social and behavioral impacts as a result of the pandemic. After two years without accountability testing, it’s hard to find out where students are and where they should be, Maher said. The office plans to collect and analyze data to figure out exactly where that is.

“The pandemic has certainly taken a toll on kids, and we have to be thinking about a four-year recovery,” Maher said.

Navigating the pandemic is a new problem for schools, which have already gotten a sizable amount of federal COVID-19 relief funding. Some of that money was held back by the state, and will be allocated by the General Assembly in the state budget. Maher and his team have recommended that some of those funds be appropriated for competency-based learning, summer programs and community partnerships.

“I think we’ll get enough of the funding that we’ve asked for … It’s not going to be appropriated 100% in the way that we want it to be,” Maher said.

The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon — and neither is its effect on children’s learning. Students attended summer school in record numbers in an attempt to make up for learning lost during the pandemic, but that’s only the beginning. North Carolina needs long-term solutions, and Gov. Cooper, Democrats and Republicans must be ready to develop a plan to confront learning loss — one that begins with fully funding public education.

But the budget Republicans have presented is business as usual — heavy on tax cuts, light on funding. This time, however, Republicans can’t claim North Carolina doesn’t have the money. In addition to the reserve of federal relief funding, the state is sitting on a $6.5 billion surplus, much of which is left unspent in both the House and Senate budgets.

That’s nothing new. North Carolina has underinvested in public education for years, even as the courts have affirmed the need to increase resources. State funding hasn’t kept up with student needs or inflation, and North Carolina’s per-pupil spending remains among the lowest in the nation. Teacher pay in North Carolina is far below the national average, contributing to a statewide teacher shortage. All of that has left too many children ill-prepared for the future.

“Students need to be in the classroom and the Governor wants schools to be able to continue to safely offer in-person instruction. That means following DHHS guidance. The Governor signed legislation to fund additional instruction that was provided to children during the summer and his budget proposes using the unprecedented funds that North Carolina has right now to increase teacher pay and guarantee a sound, basic education for students across North Carolina,” Cooper spokesperson Mary Scott Winstead said.

Our schools need that and more. Lawmakers must come together to confront the challenge COVID presents to our children’s learning — or risk them falling behind for good. At a time where the state is flush with unspent cash, a Republican budget that once again shirks the state’s constitutional obligation to its students is unacceptable. The pandemic has made this more urgent than ever.