THE NATION’S REPORT CARD
A TALE OF DEEP DOO-DOO, BILLIONAIRES, AND THE BIG LIE
The Nation’s Report Card, officially known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), dropped its latest batch of bad news in 2024, and boy, is it a doozy. Eighth-grade science scores plummeted 4 points since 2019, while 12th-grade math and reading scores each took a 3-point nosedive. Reading scores for high school seniors are now at their lowest since 1992, and math scores have been sliding since 2005. If this were a report card for the American education system, it’d be scribbled with red ink and a stern note: “See me after class.” The NPR headline screams, “Science, math, and reading scores are down,” and the data backs it up—31% of 8th graders hit “proficient” in science, while only 22% and 35% of 12th graders managed the same in math and reading, respectively. Yikes. America’s education system is, to put it politely, in deep doo-doo.
But here’s where the plot thickens, and it’s not just about kids forgetting their times tables or struggling to parse Shakespeare. The pundits, education wizards, and talking heads have their scapegoats lined up: smartphones, TikTok, AI, bad teachers, lazy students, indifferent parents, dull pencils, or maybe the sun rising in the east. Sure, kids scrolling through memes instead of studying doesn’t help, but let’s not kid ourselves—the real rot in the system started taking hold around 2010, and it’s not because Johnny can’t stop texting. The data points to a deeper, uglier truth: poverty is growing, and the gap between the haves and have-nots is turning into an educational Grand Canyon. While better-off kids keep climbing, poor kids are sliding backward, and no one wants to talk about the elephant in the room: privatization and the systematic dismantling of public education.
The Big Lie: Blame Teachers, Not the System
For over four decades, a slick narrative has been peddled by a billionaire oligarchy and their corporate media megaphones: public schools are failing, teachers are the problem, and the solution is to privatize everything. Charter schools, vouchers for private schools, and a hearty dose of “school choice” are sold as the cure-all for America’s educational woes. It’s a compelling story, but it’s a big lie—one that’s been repeated so often it’s practically gospel. The reality? This push for privatization has led to a resegregation of schools worse than the days of Jim Crow, concentrating poor and minority kids in underfunded public schools while wealthier families opt out. The Nation’s Report Card doesn’t lie, but it also doesn’t tell the whole story—because the whole story would require pointing fingers at the billionaires bankrolling this mess.
Let’s break it down. The NAEP data shows that student performance has been declining, but the steepest drops align with a period of growing income inequality and education policy shifts that began around 2010. During this time, the push for privatization accelerated, with charter schools proliferating and voucher programs expanding. Meanwhile, public schools—especially those serving low-income communities—faced budget cuts, teacher layoffs, and crumbling infrastructure. The NPR report mentions cuts to the U.S. Education Department during the Trump administration, including layoffs at the Institute of Education Sciences and canceled assessments, which hobbled our ability to even track the damage. But this isn’t just a Trump-era problem; it’s a bipartisan failure decades in the making. Both parties have sipped the privatization Kool-Aid, and the result is a system where the rich get richer (and smarter), and the poor get left behind.
Poverty: The Problem No One Wants to Name
Here’s the inconvenient truth: poverty is the single biggest driver of educational outcomes. Study after study shows that kids from low-income families face barriers—hunger, unstable housing, lack of access to books or technology—that make learning an uphill battle. The NAEP data doesn’t break down scores by income level explicitly, but the trends scream it loud and clear: as poverty grows, scores drop. Since 2010, the child poverty rate in the U.S. has hovered around 20%, with spikes during economic downturns. Meanwhile, wealthier districts keep churning out high achievers, while schools in poor areas are starved of resources. It’s not rocket science—kids who can’t afford breakfast aren’t going to ace their science tests.
But instead of tackling poverty, the billionaire class and their media allies keep pointing at teachers. “Fire the bad ones!” they cry, as if a few underperforming educators are the root of the problem. Never mind that teachers are often working miracles with shoestring budgets, overcrowded classrooms, and kids who come to school traumatized by the effects of poverty. The privatization push conveniently ignores this, funneling public funds into charter schools and private institutions that cherry-pick students and leave public schools as the last resort for the poorest kids. The result? A de facto segregation where race and class determine who gets a quality education. It’s Jim Crow with a smiley face and a voucher.
The Billionaire Playbook: Profit Over People
Now, let’s talk about the billionaires. The same folks pushing privatization—think Betsy DeVos, the Koch brothers, or any number of hedge fund honchos—aren’t just altruistic philanthropists trying to “fix” education. They’re playing a long game for profit and control. Charter schools and private institutions are big business, raking in taxpayer dollars while often delivering worse outcomes than public schools. A 2017 study from Stanford’s CREDO found that charter schools, on average, perform no better than public schools when you control for student demographics. Vouchers? They often fund religious schools that teach creationism over science or exclude kids who don’t fit their mold. And yet, the narrative persists: public schools are failing, so let’s give the billionaires more money to “save” them.
This isn’t just about education; it’s about power. The same billionaire class that pushes privatization also bankrolls think tanks, media outlets, and political campaigns to keep the big lie alive. They don’t want to talk about their own misdeeds—say, the Jeffrey Epstein billionaire pedophile ring, where the ultra-rich shielded each other from accountability for years. Instead, they deflect, blaming teachers, students, or parents for systemic failures engineered by their own greed. It’s a classic move: create a crisis, offer a solution that benefits you, and then blame the victims when it all goes south.
The Real Solution: Invest in Public Schools
So, what does the Nation’s Report Card really tell us? It’s not just that scores are down; it’s that the system is rigged against the kids who need it most. If we want to turn this around, we need to stop scapegoating teachers and start addressing the root causes. That means fully funding public schools, especially in low-income areas. It means tackling poverty head-on with policies like universal school meals, affordable housing, and healthcare for all kids. It means rejecting the privatization scam and reinvesting in public education as a public good, not a profit center for billionaires.
The NAEP dashboard and data tools are great for slicing and dicing the numbers, but they won’t fix the problem. Neither will restructuring test schedules or begging for “focused action” as the experts suggest. What we need is a reckoning—a willingness to call out the big lie and the billionaires behind it. Until we do, the Nation’s Report Card will keep delivering the same grim news: America’s education system is in deep doo-doo, and the kids paying the price are the ones who can least afford it.
Nation’s Report Card: Science, math and reading scores are down : NPR https://www.npr.org/2025/09/09/nx-s1-5526918/nations-report-card-scores-reading-math-science-education-cuts
The Nation's Report Card | NAEP https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
The Nation's Report Card https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/