I retired from teaching several years ago, but I still tutor students online every week. These students live in school districts across America and provide me with a handy snapshot of the current, dismal state of our nation’s public schools. My concern, having spent many hours helping these young people with their class work, is that the development of writing and reading skills are too often being neglected in our nation’s high schools, and this will leave students grievously unprepared for college success, career advancement, and thoughtful participation in America’s democracy—by design.

Many public school teachers are understandably worried that rapid advances in AI-generated writing programs make it increasingly difficult to guarantee students are doing their own writing outside of the classroom. The result has been a dramatic shift to predominately in-class writing assignments. Unfortunately, this traps students within the narrow confines of what they can spew out during the course of the class period and leaves little room for research, revision, or engagement with the writing process. Given that most of the time the grading for these make-work word dumps provides little meaningful feedback because to do so would mean many evenings and weekends of work for the teacher, these 45-minute wonders typically receive a check mark and a bland global comment, which leaves students with no information about how to improve.

As for reading, I am stunned by how little is being done—and how very little is comprehended. The new norm for reading seems to be to watch the movie version of a novel or play (or scan a plot synopsis) before “reading” the work, which short circuits any possibility of building a student’s ability to sort out facts and ideas for themselves. Although I understand why this off-ramp to learning is so often used today—who wants to deal with frustrated and confused students or their hovering parents?—this method of teaching reading skills stunts the willingness of students to push themselves out of their comfort zone of ignorance and degrades the vocabulary development that is essential for higher order reading and writing later in life.

It should, therefore, be little wonder that so many students crash and burn during their first years of college. Our nation’s six-year graduation rate at four-year institutions is hovering around 60% at the present time, which highlights the college-readiness crisis that is now crushing the dreams of so many students. Professors at even our elite schools are reporting a startling rise in the unwillingness—or simple inability—of incoming students to engage with long and challenging texts, and this leaves institutions of higher learning in the unenviable position of either flunking many or dumbing down the curriculum for all, neither of which should even be options in a nation that spends many hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars on our public school systems every year.

It is, of course, possible to earn a perfectly decent living with deficient reading and writing abilities, but weak communication skills put a clear ceiling on an individual’s opportunities to be promoted or transition into a managerial job. Given that email has become the standard method for communicating with colleagues, clients, and vendors in a globalized business world, it is today possible to communicate one’s writing expertise—or lack thereof—to a worldwide audience that will make harsh and unforgiving judgements based on what is transmitted. Having been a Vice President at two Manhattan advertising agencies before I returned to graduate school and eventually transitioned into teaching, I can attest that a lot of business careers never get off the launching pad because a new employee’s reading and writing skills are sadly lacking.

Worst of all, those whose educations leave them unable to read and write well cannot fully participate in the many debates that define our democracy and determine the direction of our nation, and these individuals are often captive to the wiles of demagogues who peddle platitudes and propaganda.

We often lament the extremism and irrationality that characterizes so much of our national dialogue, but we fail to recognize that its roots are to be found in public schools where students are pencil-whipped through the grades with little or no concern for their educational outcomes. Those who are unable to research, evaluate, and synthesize before expressing their thoughts can readily be manipulated with plausible lies and foolish fallacies, which can swing elections in a direction that puts us all at risk by putting the worst among us in positions of power—where the harm they can do is virtually limitless.

If we want a better country, we must have a better education system for our children. Our tolerance for decades of public school reforms that have produced no improvements in student learning must end today, and all options must be on the table if we are to save America from ignorance that is eroding our prosperity, democracy, and most precious freedoms.

Twenty years ago I taught at a public high school where the Principal actually ordered us to tell upset parents that their uneducated children were simply “bad test takers”, so they shouldn’t worry about the lousy standardized test scores and trust the passing grades their children were receiving in their classes; I refused to go along with this dictate and other assorted nonsense, which cost me dearly in terms of my career—but not my conscience. However, the sad fact of the matter was that most parents were carefully kept in the dark by administrators and school board members about the pressures being put on teachers to pump up the grades to keep the school’s graduation rate as high as possible—academic standards be damned. 

This same grade inflation scam (combined with low expectations for learning) has been going on at most public schools for decades, but it is denied by teacher unions and their enablers in the Democratic Party because public education in America today is all about paychecks, pensions, and campaign contributions—not the students. Most parents would be astounded if they knew what was—and was not—actually going on in their child’s classroom. The excuses for the ongoing miseducation of our nation’s children are typically justified by either the latest Woke fad, simple self-interest, or a toxic combination of both.

Despite what the “experts” claim, standardized test scores remain the most accurate predictors of present academic progress and future academic success. Parents, please do not presume that good grades mean your child is learning. If you see a disconnect between grades and scores on standardized tests of academic progress, start asking questions and push for answers—immediately. If you wait, it will be too late.