A Fading American Value: Public Education

We continue to blame the pandemic for its lagging impact on the learning curve in our primary and secondary schools. Yet the rest of the developed world faced the same lockdowns, remote learning and masking/distancing requirements. Somehow, they managed to keep their educational institutions flowing, albeit with a few bumps along the road. We’ve already witnessed a prior plunge in math and science performance at this public-school level, but tests of eight graders (13-year-olds) administered last fall, showed a larger reduction in math and reading scores, in America’s slide to mediocrity and second rate preparedness for global competition.

The June 22nd Associated Press noted: “Math and reading scores among America’s 13-year-olds fell to their lowest levels in decades, with math scores plunging by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the results of a test known as the ‘nation’s report card.’… More than two years after most students returned to in-person class, there are still ‘worrisome signs about student achievement,’ said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, a branch of the federal Education Department… ‘The ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized,’ Carr said in a statement.

“In the national sample of 13-year-old students, average math scores fell by 9 points between 2020 and 2023. Reading scores fell by 4 points. The test, formally called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, was administered from October to December last year to 8,700 students in each subject… Similar setbacks were reported last year when the assessment agency released broader results showing the pandemic’s impact on America’s fourth- and eighth-grade students.”

While other nations faced lesser declines, the United States has long since deprioritized education at all levels, particularly within our public institutions. The cry for “austerity,” triggered by the massive deficits the federal government incurred in wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, took its toll on the quality of our students. As the federal government pulled back its commitment to public education in response to fiscal pressures, states mostly did not make up the difference. Instead, the cry for austerity settled deeply within state legislatures across the land, particularly in conservative states. American educational performance, which once set the platinum standard for excellence, fell in comparative studies with other nations… the United States is only 38th in math and 24th in science.

The digitization of the world also shifted the attention spans of the young, particularly in the United States as the Associated Press continues: “The exam is designed to measure basic skills in math and reading. Students were asked to read passages and identify the main idea or locate certain information. In math, they were asked to perform simple multiplication and tackle basic geometry, calculating, for example, the area of a square. Most questions were multiple choice.

“Asked about their reading habits, fewer students than ever say they’re reading for fun every day. Just 14% reported daily reading for pleasure — which has been tied to better social and academic outcomes — down from 27% in 2012. Almost a third of students said they never or hardly ever read for fun, up from 22% in 2012.

“The test also revealed a troubling increase in student absenteeism. The share of students missing five or more days of school in a month doubled since 2020, reaching 10% this year. Students with fewer missed days had higher average scores in both reading and math, according to the results.”

What a change from America’s wake-up call in 1957, when America learned that the Soviet Union became the first nation to launch a satellite into geosynchronous orbit around the Earth. Sputnik, pictured above. That Soviet technology was so far ahead of our own sent shudders across the land. We were second rate. Our very national defense was clearly at risk. At a Harvard University conference 50 years after Sputnik, there was a cry for another jolt to our educational system, a reality that was promptly ignored. But it wasn’t ignored in 1957, as a summary of our collective reaction, from the 10/11/2007 Harvard Gazette, tells us:

“The post-Sputnik reforms were put in the hands of scientists, much to the dismay of some educators and concerned citizens who had previously had enormous input on curriculum design. Several of the changes, such as including hands-on laboratory experience, remain in use today, the speakers said…

“[Harvard doctoral student Brent Maddin] said that Sputnik woke the nation up, serving as a ‘focusing event’ that put a spotlight on a national problem. In this case, he said, the problem was education. Congress responded a year later with the National Defense Education Act, which increased funding for education at all levels, including low-interest student loans to college students, with the focus on scientific and technical education.” Our public schools are, for the most part, at a particularly vulnerable edge.

We’ll cut taxes for the rich, state and federal, spend money fighting the phantom issue of our “culture wars,” spend money transporting border-crossing aliens to other states, but education suffers with demoralized teachers, distracted students, overcrowded classrooms and outdated texts and educational infrastructure. There is a red state mantra against “elitist” education; ignorance is in. Yet the opportunities, even with the advent of AI, in specialized fields have never been greater:

“The need for a vast, talented workforce in STEM-related fields has never been more necessary, said Bridget Long, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Long cited the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows employment in STEM occupations has grown 79 percent in the past three decades. In addition, STEM jobs are projected to grow an additional 11 percent from 2020 to 2030.” Harvard Gazette, November 18, 2021. But fewer than 20% of our high school grads choose that field when they move on to higher education. Yet, millions of US STEM jobs are and will in the foreseeable future remain unfilled. What’s wrong with this picture?

I’m Peter Dekom, and we are living on the technological excellence of past generations but doing very little to preserve and enhance that economic-growth-creating necessity.