Education In America Is Abysmal (Especially In Democrat-Run States)

Somehow, it seems like it’s important to teach American children about drag queens.

Forget the Three R’s — in case you’ve forgotten, they’re reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic — we now need fifth-graders to know 47 different genders (there are even different sexualities and genders in Indigenous Native American communities).

Illinois illustrates the dire state of American education. Take Spry Community Links High in Chicago. It is hokey “vision” Is to “provide a challenging and supportive environment … to enable our students to succeed in the 21st century.” Its ultimate goal: “Increasing reading and math scores to or above grade level.”

The school — with just 87 students — spends an eye-popping $35,608 per student each year. The number of students who are “reading proficient” at their grade level — zero, according to a Report Wirepoints.

Douglas Academy High School is the same. With just 44 students — spending per student is $56,611 — not one can read at grade level.

Spry and Douglas are two of the 30 schools in Illinois where no student is able to read at grade level. There are 53 Illinois schools where math skills are not available at grade level. Douglas has 44 students who can’t do math at grade level.

As they often do, Democrats in the state blame … well, everything but themselves. Willie Preston, a Democrat whose state includes part of Chicago’s South Side, blamed this pandemic.

“I believe this is something that is a byproduct of some of our policies that we were taking during COVID,” Fox News interview with Preston, Monday. “This is a very serious issue and one that as a father and as a lawmaker, I’m going to be addressing feverishly.”

And he said it’s not the teachers’ fault — it’s the kids.

“I don’t know that it’s fair to lay this all at the feet of teachers. I think there are other factors,” Preston said. “There are a lot of children that are facing homelessness that are not attending classes regularly … a lot of these children are coming from poverty-stricken communities.”

“As a community, we just can’t focus on the dollars being put in the classroom,” He added. “We have to reengage a working-class, rebuilding working-class communities.”

However, Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, Wirepoints’ writers, claim that the pandemic wasn’t the cause of the problems.

“Defenders of the current system are sure to invoke Covid as the big reason for the low scores. But a look at the 2019 numbers show that the reading and math numbers were only slightly better than they are now,” They wrote.

Reporters also noted that the per-student spending at schools with poor performance has increased significantly since 2019.

“The absolute failure to teach even a single child to read and do math in so many schools is yet another indictment of the state’s educational system,” They noted that 622 schools are in existence. “where only 1 out of 10 kids or less can read at grade level. That’s a whopping 18 percent of the state’s 3,547 schools that tested students in 2022.”

“And only 1 out of 10 kids or less can do math at grade level in 930 schools … that’s more than a quarter of all schools in the state,” Reporters wrote.

When compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. performs poorly. Pew Research Center Reports American students rank 24th in science and reading, and 38th in maths.

Perhaps it’s time for us to go back to the three Rs and let drag queen stories take a break.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl is a 35-year veteran of politics, having served 12 years as White House correspondent in a national newspaper. For four years, he was the Drudge Report’s a.m. editor. Send tips [email protected] Follow him @josephcurl on Twitter