One of the latest attacks against President Trump is his Executive Order to close the Department of Education. He wants to return educational standards to parents and each state.
Daily, we hear how poorly students are doing, even though the United States spends more per student than any other nation. Two recent stories concern students who graduated from high school with honors (3.4 GPA) without having the ability to read or write and were suing their schools. How can that be, you ask? Instead of making sure those students could read and write, the students were directed to use special computer programs that did the work for them.
Test results in reading and math nationally for our 4th and 8th graders have declined year after year. According to a USNews report, the 2023 test results for Laconia students show:
- 32% of elementary students tested at or above the proficient level for reading and 30% tested at or above proficient level for math
- 34% of middle school students tested at or above proficient level for reading and 21% tested at or above level for math
- 41% of high school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading and 16% tested at or above for math
That means in Laconia, nearly 70% of students are below proficiency on average.
Federally mandated education requirements have been failing our children. According to Martin West, Vice Chair of the National Assessment Governing Board, student skills have eroded due to a lack of school accountability and the era of “screen-based childhood”.
Learning math, reading, English, and history should be a top priority, not the latest social justice or gender topic.
President Trump wants to ensure that our children leave our schools equipped with the skills to succeed in the world.
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