by Timothy Goeglein
Another year has come and gone, and America’s educational death spiral continues.
The most recent numbers from The Nation’s Report Card, put out by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, are depressing when it comes to the present state of American education and the future of our nation.
The report, based on test results from 2024 shows a 4% drop since 2019—the last time the assessment was taken—in science scores for eighth grade students, and a 3% decline for high school seniors in both math and reading.
Even more alarmingly, less than one-third of eighth graders scored at or above the NAEP proficiency in science, and more than a third scored below even the most basic knowledge mark. The declines were even more pronounced for lower-performing students.
I could go on and on with the depressing statistics. But the bottom line is this: Our educational system, despite the billions of dollars spent each year, is broken, and the future of our children and our nation is dire unless we take drastic steps to fix it.
In the words of Lesley Muldoon, the executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, “This means these students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago. And this is happening at a time when rapid achievements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens—not less.”
Thankfully, many parents who used to accept the status quo that their children would receive at least an adequate education via the public school system are awakening to the fact that their children are not receiving even that.
EdChoice’s 2025 Schooling in America Survey found that 68% of Americans and 60% of parents believe K-12 education is on the wrong track. And these parents want options beyond their local public schools that will provide their children with a better education and hopeful future.
Yet, in states such as Arizona for instance, where parents have access to student tuition organizations (funded through private donations) and empowerment scholarship accounts to help them find and pay for the best education environment for their children, the public education establishment is fighting tooth and nail to shut the program down and force children back in failing public schools.
Thomas Sowell, the famed black American economist, educator, and social commentator, has written, “If you want to see the poor remain poor, generation after generation, just keep the standards low in their schools and make excuses for their academic shortcomings and personal misbehavior.”
So, how do you repair what seems to be irreparably broken?
First, by returning to the original intent of education: to teach young minds to think, read, write, reason, imagine, and argue with excellence. We need to empower young people to reach their fullest potential rather than just trying to get them through a school day to get a piece of paper.
But we have drifted far beyond this original intent, instead seeing students as guinea pigs to test unproven learning theories and implement progressive social engineering. This mindset has also led to a massive educational bureaucracy which goes through taxpayer money like an alcoholic on a massive bender.
But there is a greater issue than just a broken education system. That is the issue of broken homes. Many of the lower performing students come from fragmented homes—sometimes with little or no relationship with either a father or a mother—and suffer as a result.
Parental involvement and encouragement, as numerous studies have shown, are key to academic success. The most important teacher is often a parent—and when a parent is missing, so is a key part of a child’s educational and social development.
If we are to reverse these depressing statistics and once again provide present and future hope for our nation’s children, we must start with rebuilding American families, get back to teaching basics rather than abstract theories, and focus funding on achieving student outcomes rather than padding educational bureaucracies. And for those parents who earnestly seek to better their children’s education, regardless of their family or economic status, we must provide, rather than deny, them the resources to do so.
Government money won’t solve the problem—in fact it has made it worse—but intact families and parental empowerment will.
That is how we can turn America’s failing education grades back in a positive direction for us all.
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Timothy Goeglein is vice president of government and external relations at Focus on the Family. He is the author (with Craig Osten) of “American Restoration: How Faith, Family, and Personal Sacrifice Can Heal Our Nation” (Regnery Books).
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
Having spent a career in education I can attest the downward spiral in education is real and worsening. The gap between state performance is alarming. The problems are many as are the solutions. First, the teachers’ union has to go, they have done nothing but protect the teacher at the expense of the student. Start in elementary school making rolling out STEM courses. Today teachers are forced to dumb down to the slower student which disadvantages the higher performing student. The students should be taught in English, no exceptions even if that means a remedial program of English immersion prior to the student slotted in mainstream courses. Teacher performance and retention should be contingent on student performance with the students tested each year in determining progression to the next grade. Eliminate “social progressions”. Further the test used in this determination should not be availed to the teacher to eliminate their teaching to the test. We have some very good teachers that would both excel and welcome this move. Woke classes are out, transgenderism is out, revisionist teaching of history is out. Return vo-tech courses to the high school curriculum is needed to help students decide and prepare for their future. As more is expected of teachers, more is to be expected of the parents. The school is not a daycare center, the teachers are not counselors, pseudo parents, daycare providers, health care professionals or disciplinarians. Parents must be held accountable for the conduct of their child. Parents, not the taxpayer, should be paying for their child’s school supplies, before, during and after school meals.
This will continue until the huge teachers’ unions are removed from control. School choice – not really the case in Tennessee – is a baby step in the right direction. Educators should be paid according to their success in educating our children. There are many good teachers but they are outnumbered. Getting rid of half of the bloated administrators would also be a big step in the right direction.
It’s hard to not believe that in certain parts of America, there is a conscious effort to make sure the young people of America are not smart enough to think and reason for themselves.The evil forces (which we are currently winning the battle against) used the covid plandemic to start the ball rolling.