New Jersey has a lot of ground to make up for learning loss related to COVID-19.

It’s why Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz recently introduced a bill to create an Office of the Learning Loss Czar. Ruiz (D-Essex) said the person in that role would be tasked with finding the tools to reverse those education losses and get kids back on track. “It could, for all intents and purposes, be an entity that is going to partner up with the Department of Education and the commissioner to foster this critical work,” Ruiz said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

“I bring up the bill just to keep highlighting the fact that while the federal government is lifting the emergency pandemic policies and everyone is shifting to a better sense of normality in every single facet of our life, that there’s still one looming crisis facing our children in the state [and] not unique to New Jersey is … the achievement gap facing our student population was there,” Ruiz said, adding that the achievement gap grew substantially during the pandemic.

“I would love to see this be given the same attention that the pandemic had every single day,” Ruiz added. “This is a crisis at hand that if we don’t deal with now, we will be paying out in perpetuity in generations to come. A child who cannot read in third grade and gets moved on will have obstacles facing their academic success for years to come.”