They stripped CAHMS of funding, cut 15k support staff jobs mainly TAs, cut social services and MH provision, ignored 10s of thousands of students being off rolled, pushed working parents into poverty

They want to pretend the past 10 years didn't happen?

Not me, I won't forget https://twitter.com/halfon4harlowMP/status/1359106232456462337

As for 40k in lost lifetime earnings, the greatest impact on earnings is government policy.
How much has a decade of austerity and pay freezes cost keyworkers already, if not rectified with above inflation rises how much will it cost in their lifetime earnings?

I know personally my wage is around £4k lower per year due to austerity than if it had kept in line with inflation, yet government plans on another pay freeze so I'll have lost more earnings by the end of this decade than Halfons nightmare scenario.

What about the earnings impact of Government outsourcing? Secure jobs replaced with lower paid insecure jobs
The proliferation of zero hours contacts promoted by government with tax incentives for employees?

How does 40k in lost earnings compare to total debt a uni student accumulates plus decades of excessive interest?

What about time young adults waste on bogus apprenticeships?
NAO few years ago said 20% of apprentices recieved no training in a year

Start work at 18, retire at 68 = 50 years
40k/50= £800 a year

>£67 a month
40 hours per week job would need a 42p per hour increase to cover this loss of earnings

Gap between minimum wage and a real living wage is far greater, will Halfon speak up about how devastating this is for the low paid working parents of the children he claims to champion.

If they had a fair wage then they could afford for their kids to engage in remote learning

Children who have worked hard in education and decide to go into every day public sector jobs will suffer more if the Government engage in another round of austerity than from covids educational disruption.

The ideological policies mapped out in Britannia Unchained by many cabinet members, cutting workers pay and conditions etc will have a greater impact on earnings and mental health than the disruption caused by covid.

So the choices government make will have a greater impact on earnings than covid , lengthening the school day or shortening holidays will.

So why is covids potential loss of earnings considered devastating while the greater impact of austerity is defended by MPs?

And as the fantastic @thepetitioner points out, government policy on early years will be more devastating.
Early years intervention is proven to have the greatest impact for the lowest cost see EPIs Social Mobility Report (2018?)
Cutting sure starts could be more damaging

The imminent complete collapse of early years due to inadequate funding will leave thousands of children without provision, yet Halfon and Co won't ever acknowledge the damage the Tories have caused.

If they are so worried about young adults struggling to get into the workforce, why is the government attacking the union learning fund which has been found to have a considerable net gain for the economy https://twitter.com/alicewoolley1/status/1357993369201504257?s=19

Allowing agency workers to be exploited, the use of umbrella payment companies etc will all cost workers more than £67 a month.

Yet when unions call for a better distribution of profit between employers and employees those in Halfons corner will accuse them of all sorts

The 40k stat is meaningless as Halfons concerns ring hollow. It certainly shouldn't be the Basildon which pandemic strategy is based

Basildon? *basis!

One more on impact to education and earnings

I've known a lot of students who have been careers for their parents.
Austerities 10 year war on disability has left these families without support, loss of mobility allowances deprives them of work, putting them onto UC

The pernicious welfare system is traumatic for parent and child, it attacks self worth and creates insecurity, this has a massive impact on a child's wellbeing and ability to learn.
A few more months of remote learning is nothing to the years these children have endured

And will continue to endure as long as the government wants them to, because this is their choice, they could get rid of the barriers they've put in the way of these families, they could end it by giving back the support they've taken away.

If we are serious about healing the damage done to children by the pandemic, dont think about catch up, filling gaps, making tired students stay in school an hour later, cutting holidays, in reality its not going to be that effective.
More engagement rather than more hours wins

Address the issues that prevent students starting the school day in the best mood to learn. They need hope, motivation, support, care and compassion, to develop the resilience of self confidence (not the cocky arrogance that shatters into anger at the insecurities hidden beneath)

Poverty can impact education in all sorts of ways.
My dad's self employed business went bust when I was a kid, he got a job straight away mum also worked but we really struggled for my time in secondary school.
Mum got a pay rise when they introduced minimum wage.

The stress drags you down at times, you pretend you don't realise its that bad so your parents don't have that stress also on their plate, you don't ask for anything when you go out, you hide things so they don't have to worry because you want to protect them from extra stress

And its one reason why children in poverty are targeted by all sorts of unpleasant people for various reasons. Its not feckless parents, its the vulnerabiliy of poverty itself on children's thinking.

So tackle the factors that have the greatest impact on education, time in school is treating the symptoms, mprove working conditions, end low wages and job insecurity, protect workers with a trampoline not a thread bare safety net, let's deal with the systematic cause instead