Schools Spend Trillions on Education While Test Scores Reach Historic Lows

The facts are in, and they are damning. American students have achieved their lowest scores in decades on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in both reading and math. Meanwhile, donor organizations continue funneling millions of dollars into ethnic studies programs and progressive teacher training initiatives that have absolutely nothing to do with academic achievement.

Let us be clear about what is happening here. Eighth graders just posted the lowest reading scores in NAEP history. This is not a minor setback. This is an educational catastrophe that threatens America’s ability to compete in a global economy. Yet the education establishment remains laser-focused on teaching students about grievances and identity politics rather than ensuring they can read, write, and perform basic mathematics.

Nicole Nealy, president of the watchdog organization Parents Defending Education, articulated the problem succinctly. Students are spending seven to eight hours per day in school, yet they are not mastering fundamental skills. Instead, they are learning about their “big feelings” and being told they are either victims or oppressors based on the color of their skin. This is time students cannot recover, and it represents an unconscionable failure of our education system.

The numbers tell a devastating story. Since the Department of Education was established in 1980, approximately three trillion dollars have been extracted from state and local taxes and poured into the federal education apparatus. Per-pupil spending has skyrocketed. Achievement has plummeted. This is not a funding problem. This is a priorities problem.

The issue becomes even clearer when examining the ethnic studies movement infiltrating public schools. Despite the benign-sounding name, ethnic studies programs are designed to transform children into social justice activists. These curricula view the world through an oppressor-oppressed framework, teaching concepts like white supremacy culture and settler colonialism to elementary school students.

This approach divides children into groups based on collective identity from an impressionable age. We are now witnessing the consequences of this indoctrination on college campuses, where students who grew up in this system demonstrate open hostility toward fellow Americans based on immutable characteristics.

The source of these programs is equally troubling. Districts are obtaining ethnic studies courses directly from liberal universities, with the University of California, Berkeley serving as a primary driver. These institutions are not merely teaching ethnic studies to college students but are actively creating and distributing curricula for K-12 schools.

Parents have every right to expect that when they send their children to school, those children will learn to read proficiently, write clearly, perform mathematical calculations, and understand scientific principles. These are not unreasonable expectations. These are the bare minimum requirements for producing educated citizens capable of contributing to society.

Instead, the education establishment has decided that teaching children to view themselves and their peers through the lens of race and grievance takes precedence over academic excellence. This is not education. This is indoctrination, and it is failing an entire generation of American students.

The solution requires a fundamental reimagining of how education is delivered. Clearly, the current system is broken beyond repair through incremental reform. Parents must demand accountability, transparency, and a return to academic fundamentals. The alternative is continuing to watch American students fall further behind while billions of dollars fund programs designed to produce activists rather than educated citizens.