The Failure of Public Schools: Worse Than You Thought

The nation’s government-run public schools are failing miserably to educate kids – and have been failing miserably for decades.

But the COVID-induced school shutdowns and subsequent remote learning programs have caused public education to go from bad to worse since 2019.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been testing 4^th graders and 8^th graders in reading and math since 1990.

The largest drop in test scores ever recorded occurred between 2019 and 2022 – reflecting the impact of school closures on learning.

Average reading scores of over400,000 students at more than 10,000 schools across the nation dropped 3 points in both grades during the pandemic.

The average math scores dropped 5 points for 4^th graders and 8 points for 8^th graders.

Even more shocking than the first-ever drop in math scores and the largest-ever drop in reading scores is the fact that before the pandemic-induced school closures, only 33% of 4^th graders and only 31% of 8^th graders were reading at or above grade level!

In math, only 41% of 4^th graders and 34% of 8^th graders were proficient before the pandemic, according to National Review.

This is unconscionable!

Trillions of dollars have been poured into public education since the 1960s, and what we’ve gotten as a result is substandard education, declining standards, and poorer-than-ever student performance.

Nicole Neily, president of the advocacy group Parents Defending Education, believes that the recent drop in student test scores is just the tip of the iceberg of public school systemic failure.

She recently wrote, “American students were the subject of a years-long social experiment that will impact our country’s economy for decades to come… We knew prolonged school closures and masking would have catastrophic effects on children. And now we have more evidence that they did.”

“It’s time to hold the education bureaucrats, activists, and public health officials who mocked, shamed, and derided families accountable for their decisions – and refuse to cede them any further authority (or funds) going forward.”

Is the answer to the systemic failures of public schools to reform the system?

Probably not – not when parents who attend school board meetings to ask for an end to teachers encouraging gender confusion and transgenderism are accused of being domestic terrorists and are harassed by the FBI.

The government-sponsored public education system is controlled by radical teachers’ unions and leftist administrators, teachers and bureaucrats. The solution is for parents to take control of the education of their children by pulling them out of public schools and opting instead for private schools or homeschooling.

Thousands of parents are doing just that – voicing their concerns with their feet. There are now at least two million fewer public school students in the U.S. than there were before the pandemic. [1]

And it’s time for school choice to be available in all states. Is your legislation and governor making it a priority for 2023? It’s time.

What do you think? Email me at craig@craighuey.com

Read another article from here: Private Donations Impacting Public Schools