Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, is calling for a major overhaul of Tennessee’s education system, arguing that decades of rising spending and bureaucratic growth have failed students and that the state should adopt Direct Instruction as the standard method for teaching reading, writing, and math in elementary schools.
During Friday’s edition of his talk radio show, The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Leahy said Tennessee’s education system is producing declining academic outcomes despite record levels of spending nationwide.
“It’s a huge problem because the more money we’ve spent on it, the worse the performance of kids has become,” Leahy said.
Leahy’s comments come as Tennessee Leads, the advocacy organization he founded, pushes for expanded school choice, charter schools, vocational education, and evidence-based literacy instruction across Tennessee.
During Friday’s show, Leahy referenced comments from education activist Liz Wright, the wife of U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, criticizing teachers’ unions and the current education system.
After playing a clip featuring Wright arguing that teachers’ unions benefit from keeping students academically dependent and politically aligned with Democrats, Leahy responded, “It’s actually not a conspiracy theory. It’s really their plan, right?”
Leahy said the problem is rooted not in individual teachers, but in the structure of the education system itself.
“Teachers are not the problem. The system is the problem,” he said. “Many teachers want to do the right things, but because the way the system is set up, it’s not structured to allow them to do that.”
Leahy also highlighted comments from billionaire Jeff Bezos comparing public education inefficiencies to business operations. Bezos noted that New York City schools reportedly spend $44,000 per student annually while producing weak academic outcomes.
In response to Bezos’ comments, Leahy said, “He’s exactly right.”
Leahy argued that increased funding has largely benefited administrators and unions rather than students.
“The reality is we’ve been spending more, but the money has gone to administrators, to the teachers’ unions, to ancillary stuff, and the system is not working,” he said.
Pivoting to Tennessee’s academic performance. Leahy cited state reading and math proficiency data, noting that only 32 percent of Tennessee fourth graders were proficient readers in 2024, while 42 percent were proficient in math.
He also referenced concerns from university faculty about declining literacy among college students, quoting a January article by Fortune citing a professor at Pepperdine University who said many freshmen struggle to process basic written sentences.
The solution to Tennessee’s declining reading and math proficiency rates, Leahy argued, is implementing Direct Instruction statewide in kindergarten through fifth grade.
“It is the exact opposite of all of the elite, ineffective teaching methodologies taught at these graduate schools of education around the country,” he said.
He emphasized how the method has consistently produced strong literacy outcomes.
“Every kid can learn how to read. Every kid can learn how to do math, every kid,” Leahy said. “The experience of 60 years says, you get a kindergarten kid who joins you in August, using this direct instruction methodology, they can read by Christmas.”
Leahy said Tennessee Leads plans to advocate for legislation that would gradually introduce Direct Instruction throughout Tennessee public schools.
“The only way to do it is for the state legislature to pass a law to introduce this in a measured way to every K-12 public school in the state of Tennessee,” he said.
He concluded the segment by framing literacy and numeracy as essential to restoring problem-solving and independent thinking among future generations.
“When they come out, they’ll be able to read, they’ll be able to write, they’ll be able to reason, they’ll be able to solve problems, they’ll be able to build things and fix things,” Leahy said. “That, my friends, is the answer.”
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Watch LIVE on YouTube / Rumble / Roku / AppleTV
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStar
https://t.co/g7NsT4WjQF— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) May 22, 2026
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Good ideas.