The Mood of the Nation survey, published in February 2025, found that 73% of adult respondents are dissatisfied with the quality of public education in the U.S. It is the highest dissatisfaction rate since the survey began in 2001.
Government schools have failed most students by every key measure. Across five metrics, including suicide, major depression, suicidal thoughts, mental distress and days in poor mental health, young people suffering has increased substantially since 2011. Moreover, one-quarter of individuals who identify as transgender are between the ages of 13 and 17.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows no significant improvement in outcomes over the last 40 years. The 2024 NAEP scores provide shocking evidence of utter academic failure in America’s government schools, showing that 45% of high school seniors scored “below basic” in math, and 33% of seniors tested “below basic” in reading.
In their groundbreaking report, “Are Government Schools Redeemable?” U.S. Parents Involved in Education concludes that government schools are not redeemable. At least not any time soon, even with a concerted effort. Importantly, the USPIE report offers recommendations for those determined to find a way to rescue government schools.
The five focus areas outlined in the report represent key issues keeping schools from succeeding: government involvement; teachers and colleges of education; teacher certification; standards and assessments; and teacher unions.
The Founding Fathers identified no constitutional role for government in education; however, in the 1840s, Horace Mann advocated universal government schools, embracing the notion that it could reduce, and perhaps even erase, human failings and compensate for biological flaws.
Gradually, Mann’s vision of taxpayer-funded, government-run schools caught on. In 1867, Andrew Johnson established a national education department, and every president since has signed into law education-related policies and programs. Yet despite ballooning federal intervention and funding, achievement in government schools is a national embarrassment.
For more than 50 years, government schools have been dumbing down teacher preparation. Teachers in training are being stripped of successful teaching methods and indoctrinated with techniques that impede learning and condition children into political activism.
Moreover, for decades, colleges have been pushing the oppressed/oppressor model, inculcating Marxist, feminist, racist and LGBTQ critical theories. Academic success is now less about merit and more about “equity.” It is evident that the colleges of education and the current installed base of teachers do not know how to effectively teach reading, writing or math.
To teach in government-run schools, teachers must meet state certification requirements. Certification is integral to teaching colleges and is impacted by the faulty models adopted by these institutions. Indoctrination in critical theory, leftist activism and LGBTQ ideology, rather than proven teaching methods, is now what is certified. Teacher certification demands that qualified professionals be indoctrinated in the ineffective teaching practices taught by colleges of education.
Formal standards by grade did not come to America until the 1980s. But after the release of the report “A Nation at Risk,” many asserted that grade-level standards with aligned assessments could keep students on track. Yet for centuries, if not a millennium, parents and educators intuited the phases of child development and tailored their teaching around reasoned expectations.
Standards and their correlated assessments are inappropriate, ineffective and stand in the way of actual student achievement.
The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) count for 70% of government schoolteachers, or 3.2 million. Teacher unions rally in support of LGBTQ policies, hiding student gender issues from parents, protecting trans-identifying teachers and other policies offensive to many parents.
The policies and practices of the unions are the very policies and practices that prevent government schools from improving student achievement in reading, writing and math.
That’s why we strongly recommend the following actions: Parents should remove their children from government schools and seek alternatives that are free from government funding. The government should be removed from education to the degree possible and increase the child tax credit for parents whose children do not attend government schools. Local leaders can help by supporting home education and making donations to private schools for scholarships. Churches can start schools, provide scholarships and support home educator co-ops.
As more families exit government schools, legislators should make government school funding reflect their enrollment. This model subjects government schools to free-market competition and reduces taxes for all citizens. Parents are well-positioned to hold schools accountable. As they make choices, the better systems will accumulate enrollments and garner income, while the failing ones will see reductions.
Most importantly, parents are the first and best educators of their children. This is not just a slogan, not just a throw-away campaign line. It is a fundamental law. Elected officials must embrace this truth, resist the temptation to govern education, and return control to parents who are the only people properly positioned to hold educators and the education system accountable.
Sheri Few is the founder and president of United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE), whose mission is to end the U.S. Department of Education and all federal education mandates. This column was first published by Daily Caller News Foundation.
