The Department of Education is soon to be history, eliminated by the stable genius who is our president. Donald Trump does not believe that our educational system needs improvement as he thinks it is already doing well. Perhaps he is unfamiliar with the international tests that present a true picture of how our students at all levels are doing in comparison to the rest of the world. The average American spends 5-7 hours daily staring at a screen, having less time to read or interact with other people. This behavior is prevalent in every stratum of our society. In the most recent international assessment of educational achievement (Program for International Student Assessment) the US ranked 26th in math, 10th in science and 6th in reading among OECD nations. The US ranking was even worse when more countries were included in the comparison. Reading and math scores were the worst ever for US high school seniors in 2025. Other international rankings also have US students performing poorly.
We don’t need international rankings to tell us how badly our students are doing in school. Many students are advanced by their teachers and given good grades even if they have not learned the necessary material. It is easier for the teachers and makes parents happier. But the children miss out on being educated. An extreme example was reported in The Free Press in February of this year. A high school student in Tennessee graduated with a 3.4 grade average yet was unable to read his diploma. He sued his school district for failing to teach him adequately and leaving him illiterate. There is no question that many current students graduate with deficiencies in basic subjects such as math and reading. How can they function in today’s world?
At the University of California at San Diego, a prestigious school, one out of every eight entering students had math skills below middle school levels. This finding forced the university to provide remedial math classes to teach math that students should have learned in elementary school. Students were also given classes in high school math for those deficient in geometry and algebra. How can students lacking basic math skills be able to be able to perform the analytical and quantitative work expected of them in college. And these deficiencies are not only at UCSD but present across the board at American colleges, including Ivy League Schools. How can students whose reading skills are minimal be expected to take college philosophy, history or English courses. Or to even to think rationally.
Though addiction to social media, online games and streaming shows certainly play a large role in students’ lack of achievement in school, there are other reasons as well. We don’t have enough well-trained teachers. Many men and women don’t want to go into teaching as a profession because the pay is poor and the job can be tough. And schools don’t put enough pressure on students to perform, advancing them even when they perform poorly. Students need more incentives, such as failing and being left back.
Many schools have started to realize the pernicious effect that cell phones have on student achievement and have banned them from schools. This has made somewhat of a difference in student attention. However, comprehensive exams need to be given at every level of middle school and high school to be certain that students have learned the required material to move on to the next grade. And students should have to pass tests to graduate from high school that show they have gained the necessary knowledge. Colleges that have abandoned the SAT and ACT tests that they had used as proof of deserved admission should reinstate these as at least one element of proof. Merit and achievement matter.
And Trump should not disband the Education Department. In fact, he should add more personnel to oversee education throughout the nation to be sure that basic skills are being taught. How can we compete economically with the rest of the world when our population is so poorly educated. And what lies ahead for those people with no skills?
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020