We have some distressing news about our education system, and it’s not going to sit well with parents.
It seems that the academic recovery of America’s 13-year-olds from the disastrous school lockdowns is nowhere to be found. New data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress paints a grim picture of plummeting math and reading scores, the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades.
Now, according to this report, math scores among these young teenagers, mostly in eighth grade, dropped a whopping nine points between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years. Reading scores also took a nosedive, falling four points over the same period.
Can you believe it? We’re witnessing the lowest-performing students scoring even worse than they did back in 1971 when they started collecting this data. It’s an educational catastrophe of epic proportions.
This academic decline didn’t just magically appear with the pandemic. It was festering long before that. The pandemic simply exposed the deep-rooted problems plaguing our education system.
And what did our esteemed elected officials do in response? They shut down schools, imposed mask mandates, and forced our children into this disastrous experiment called “virtual learning.” And guess what happened?
It turned out to be a complete disaster for our kids’ academic achievement.
But what’s truly infuriating is how those who dared to speak out against these detrimental policies were mocked, shamed, and derided. Parents, who know their children best, were dismissed and ignored.
The data also reveals the disproportionate impact on certain groups of students. American Indian/Alaska Native students suffered a mind-boggling 20-point drop in math scores, followed by black students at 13 points, Hispanic students at 10 points, and white students at 6 points. Meanwhile, Asian students seemed to have escaped this downward spiral, reporting no significant decline.
And let’s not forget the decline in reading. Black students took the hardest hit, experiencing a seven-point drop, while white students declined by four points. But here’s the real tragedy: the percentage of students who reported “never or hardly ever” engaging in leisure reading jumped from 22% in 2012 to a staggering 31% in 2023.
Reading is the gateway to knowledge, to expanding one’s horizons, to developing critical thinking skills. But it seems that our education system is failing to instill that love for reading in our young minds.
What does all of this tell us? It tells us that our education system is in shambles. It tells us that the bureaucrats and so-called experts who claim to know what’s best for our children have failed them miserably. It tells us that parents, those who are truly invested in their children’s well-being, should have the power to choose the best education for their kids. The scores make the case for school choice better than any other argument. We cannot let the future of our children be held hostage by a broken system.
So, let this be a wake-up call, parents. Our children are paying the price for the disastrous policies pushed by the Biden administration and their allies. It’s time to reclaim our children’s education, to demand accountability, and to fight for their future. We owe it to them.
As Duval County begins the process for hiring the next Superintendent of Schools, let’s stand up and demand that this person show leadership skills, a passion for teaching Reading, Writing and Math and someone who will keep politics out of our school district!
That’s our opinion. What say you?
