A complete reset begins with ending the failed experiment resident in the Department of Education
'The Department of Education has failed in its mission,' former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says
Betsy DeVos, a potential Trump pick for Secretary of Education, backs block grants, school choice, and FAFSA reform to boost student outcomes.
For families across America, "report card day" serves as an important moment to assess how a child is learning and progressing.
Last week, the Nation’s Report Card – the only nationwide measure of how America’s government-run schools are performing – came home, and the results are devastating. In report card language, what was a D- is now an F.
It’s time for a national "family meeting" on the state of education in this country.
Parents and community members attend a Loudoun County School Board meeting about critical race theory in Ashburn, Virginia, on June 22, 2021. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein)
Let’s start with the facts. The Report Card shows seven out of 10 fourth graders are not proficient readers, a number that has worsened since the last report in 2022. Worse, the numbers haven’t meaningfully improved in three decades.
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The same is true for eighth graders: Less than a third of American students enter high school with the reading and comprehension skills they need to excel.
If you cannot read, you cannot learn. It’s that simple. And the Nation’s Report Card shows that for a historic number of students, reading is a skill they just have not mastered. Without literacy, these children will struggle in every subject, fall further behind, and face a lifetime of limited opportunities.
Worst of all, the most vulnerable kids – those who were already struggling—are the ones whose scores are declining the most precipitously. The lowest performing 10% of students have seen their reading scores decline by a staggering 19 points in the past decade.
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The trendline concretely disproves the narrative of the education establishment that these declines can be explained away by the pandemic. Of course, that same education establishment also fails to acknowledge they kept schools closed during COVID for months and in some cases years after we knew students and teachers could safely return. That did exponentially more damage than the coronavirus did.
The truth is what has happened to student achievement is a failure decades in the making. And it’s an indictment of the U.S. Department of Education.
The department was created in 1979 with a charge to close the achievement gaps between students in this country. But after spending more than a trillion taxpayer dollars, the department has overseen a widening of these gaps.
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The newest data show the gap between the highest and lowest performing students is the widest it has ever been. That is particularly jaw-dropping considering that schools received nearly $200 billion in additional federal funding following the pandemic, specifically intended to help students who had fallen behind.
The results? Those children are now further behind than anyone else.
Of course, this is inevitable when the department keeps running the same play: pouring more money into the same broken, bureaucrat-laden, union-controlled system. Paging DOGE.
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It is time for a complete reset. If we want our nation to long endure, we must make a meaningful change to put students first. Our economic security, national security, innovation edge and way of life hang in the balance. American cannot continue to lead the world if its rising generation can’t even read, let alone excel in math and science.
A complete reset begins with ending the failed experiment resident in the Department of Education. The bureaucrats have focused on mandating DEI, when students needed the focus to be on ABC and 123. President Trump and Congress should take their corrosive power away and instead block grant all necessary education funding directly to the states.
This reset must also ensure that no child in America is trapped in a failing school. Congress must include a sweeping education freedom provision in its reconciliation package this year. By giving all families the power and freedom to choose the best school for their child, we can help all students get back on track.
Education freedom is on the march across the nation because it works. Student achievement improves, and so does parental satisfaction.
It’s little wonder that voters sent a clear message at the ballot box in November: They want to restore power to parents and states – not federal bureaucrats. Now is the time to deliver. Our students – and our country – cannot wait any longer.
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Betsy DeVos served as the 11th U.S. secretary of education and is author of Hostages No More: The Fight for Education Freedom and the Future of the American Child.
