Falling Grades and Flabby Kids

Americans spend between $9,387 (Idaho) and $33,437 (New York) per public school student, with an average of $17,277 to $20,387. That is the third highest expenditure per student among the 40 most industrialized countries in the world. Meanwhile, nationwide spending for K-12 public school education totals a whopping $857.2 billion per year.

For that kind of money, one would expect American students to be leading the pack when it comes to worldwide test scores, right?

Wrong!

In 2024, reading and math scores for 12th grade students in the U.S. fell to their lowest levels on record according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as “the nation’s report card”. Eighth graders, who were tested for science proficiency, also showed a steep decline, as did reading scores for fourth graders, another traditional benchmark.

Historically high per pupil spending and yet, historically low test scores. What gives?

“This means students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board. “And this is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens, not less.”

Maybe, just maybe, if we pried kids away from their phones, they would learn real communication skills. Limiting the amount of time they spend online or playing video games – especially the violent types that hooked Charlie Kirk’s assassin, Tyler Robinson – would also be a step in the right direction, freeing them up to say, read an actual book.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that burying their nose in a book by Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, or Robert Louis Stevenson would broaden a young person’s mind a good bit more than playing Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, or Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

While we’re at it, how about forcing kids off the couch and into the great outdoors? Doing so would almost certainly reduce the number of cases of juvenile diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases that are causing children to miss valuable school days, while seriously compromising their quality of life and reducing their overall life expectancy.

Best of all, playing jailbreak or freeze tag in the backyard is free.