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THE U.S. is facing a crisis in the education system that has not only generated dissatisfaction among Americans but also jeopardizes the quality of education in the country’s schools. Teacher shortages and curriculum impositions related to the progressive agenda have led to widespread discontent among Americans, with most saying that the situation is alarming and worse than ever.
A poll released by Gallup revealed that satisfaction with K-12 education in the country is at an all-time low, plummeting to 42% compared to a corresponding 51% in 2019. The figure is the lowest in two decades.
Not only does the survey reflect parental dissatisfaction related to K-12 education, but overall one in four Americans is completely dissatisfied with public education in the U.S.
The survey reveals a strange fact: from 2017 to 2020 both Republicans and Democrats were satisfied with public education in the U.S.; now from 2020 Republican satisfaction fell to 35% last year (2021) and to 30% in 2022, while Democrats’ fell from 57% (2021) to 51% in 2022.
Worst educational performance in 20 years
“15% mention poor or outdated curriculum, 12% believe U.S. education is outranked by other countries, and 11% cite failure to teach the basics — reading, writing and arithmetic. A total of 56% of respondents cite these or another more specific concern about the quality of teaching or curricula,” Gallup reports.
Of the 56% previously mentioned 17% focus on perceived political agendas present in schools. These include 10% who believe that “political agendas,” in general, are being taught, with 4% specifically citing sex/transgender education and 3% citing critical race theory.
But parents’ concerns are not only apparent in the Gallup poll; according to the National Center for Education Statistics the U.S. faces the worst educational performance in 20 years.
NCES compared tests taken in 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, with others taken in early 2022, to measure how learning disruptions affected students; the results were “alarming.”
According to the study, the average score in 2022 dropped 5 points in reading and 7 points in math compared to 2020.
The Secretary of Education himself, Miguel Cardona, called the situation “alarming”: That’s very alarming. It is disturbing. But it’s not surprising, considering that a year and a half ago more than half of our schools were not open for full-time learning,” he said in an interview with CNN.
Teacher shortage worsens the situation
Adding to the low performance and parents’ concern is the massive lack of teachers in classrooms, which has been described as “critical.”
A study by the NCES in March found that 44% of public schools reported teacher vacancies and according to LinkedIn estimates, the number of teachers who resigned in June was nearly 41% higher than the previous year.
The DOE, with June figures, notes that six in ten schools said they were concerned about the inability to fill vacancies with qualified staff, nine in ten about professional attrition among their staff, and eight in ten about the mental health of their workers.
School districts in several states across the country will switch to four-day weeks this fall because of staffing shortages, and school districts in states such as Florida are turning to veterans with no teaching experience in order to fill the void due to teacher absence. Arizona, for example, is allowing college students to instruct children.
In early August, Nevada said it had 3,000 teacher vacancies throughout its territory; in Illinois, openings totaled 2,040; and Houston has reported that it is seeking up to 1,000 teachers to fill its classrooms, according to local media.
“Never seen it this bad…”, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, to The Washington Post, who affirmed that at this moment, the problem is at the top of the list of issues that most concern school districts.
A Bloomberg News report revealed that it has seen a massive teacher resignation that was exacerbated by the arrival of the pandemic and overworked teachers.
“For decades, America’s educators have said they would’ve abandoned the job long ago were it not for their devotion to their students. But after a demanding and demoralizing two years that included Zoom schooling, culture wars, and shootings, those threats have finally become real,” notes the Bloomberg report, which states that the reason for most of the resignations is the search for better pay and less stress.
“Chief among the reasons are salaries that haven’t kept up with inflation, student behavioral problems that have gotten worse during the pandemic, and a lack of respect as schools have become the latest political battleground,” Bloomberg notes.
Ideology imposition begins to turn into a crisis in the education system
President Biden, speaking to teachers at the White House for the Teacher of the Year ceremony, went so far to say: “They’re all our children. And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
However, for parents concerned about their children’s emotional and physical stability, sharing guardianship with the state is not an option.
“We the parents are not interested in co-parenting with the state,” said Lauren DeBellis in an op-ed published Fox News.
Bellis noted that “all trust in these schools has been destroyed and a full-blown assault has been declared on parents in a “battle” to take control of our kids.”
As parents begin to become more involved in how their children’s education is being delivered in the nation’s public schools, new lawsuits are also emerging against School Districts for excluding them on such sensitive issues as the possible gender transition of their own children.
In Florida, the story of January Littlejohn, a mother and mental health professional who reported being excluded from her daughter’s “transgender support plan” came to light.
Littlejohn said that upon seeing the transgender support plan, it was a six-page document that they completed behind closed doors with her daughter, who was 13 at the time. She says they asked her questions that would have absolutely impacted her safety, ranging from which bathroom she preferred to use and which gender she preferred to share a room with on overnight trips.
Her case is just one of dozens that have been popping up in places like Wisconsin, Maryland, Oregon and California.
Parents in Massachusetts sued a school in April because it allegedly encouraged their children to use new names without parental consent.
The parents alleged that Ludlow Public Schools’ policies to withhold information about children’s gender identities from them violates their parental and religious rights.
“School officials are making decisions about the lives of children that they are not qualified or authorized to make and doing it without telling, and often deceiving, parents,” said Vernadette Broyles of Child and Parental Rights Campaign to Daily Caller News.
Broyles is also representing a lawsuit against a school district in Florida after parents said they discovered the school was secretly meeting with their 12-year-old daughter to discuss her “gender identity.”
The lawsuit claims the parents did not learn of the alleged weekly meetings between the school counselor and their daughter until after she attempted to take her own life.
School leaders allegedly encouraged others to call the 12-year-old student a boy, in addition to giving her a new name, the lawsuit claims.
Broyles, president of the Child & Parental Rights Campaign, says the lawsuit was filed to protect the rights of parents to be able to raise their children without interference from government officials.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo