The Biden Administration just got caught red-handed manipulating when America sees the truth about our education crisis. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona deliberately delayed releasing devastating national test scores until the holiday season, hoping Americans would be too distracted by Christmas shopping to notice our kids can barely read or do math.
The numbers are staggering. Only 26 percent of eighth-graders can read at grade level. Just 20 percent are proficient in math. These aren’t pandemic hangover numbers. These are the toxic fruits of woke education policies that prioritize pronouns over phonics.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, usually drops in fall when parents and lawmakers pay attention. This year? Cardona pushed it to mid-December, buried under holiday news cycles.
This isn’t incompetence. It’s calculated political cover.
House Republicans smell blood in the water. Education Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx uncovered emails showing Cardona’s team debating optimal release windows to avoid clashing with union negotiations. One aide worried fall releases could fuel school choice movements in red states.
That’s the game. Hide the failure, protect the unions, keep parents trapped.
Meanwhile, conservative states are cleaning up. Florida under DeSantis maintains rigorous testing schedules and leads the nation in educational recovery. Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin restored phonics instruction and saw immediate gains. These governors understand that accountability demands transparency.
The contrast couldn’t be sharper. Blue states suspended tests for years, citing pandemic trauma and racial inequities. Red states kept testing and kept improving. Florida’s reading proficiency hit 53 percent while California limps along at 43 percent.
Biden funneled $190 billion through the American Rescue Plan into union-controlled districts with DEI mandates attached. Not one penny was tied to actual learning outcomes. The results speak for themselves.
International comparisons make it worse. Estonia outscores us by 30 points in math. Singapore crushes us across the board. These nations test frequently and transparently. They prioritize excellence over equity theater.
The human cost hits working families hardest. In Chicago, where teachers’ unions run the show, elementary math proficiency sits at 20 percent. Parents seeking the American Dream for their kids get trapped in failing schools while bureaucrats play timing games with test results.
Conservative solutions work. Iowa’s Kim Reynolds paired universal school choice with annual testing. Test scores jumped 10 percent in pilot districts. Arizona’s scholarship accounts serve 80,000 students with regular progress monitoring. These states reject excuses and embrace accountability.
Homeschooling families, predominantly conservative, see the writing on the wall. Homeschool enrollment shot up 30 percent since 2020. These kids ace independent assessments with 87 percent reading proficiency versus 34 percent for public school students.
The political implications are massive. Parents increasingly favor school choice across party lines. DeSantis campaigns on education success. Trump promises to break the teachers’ union monopoly. The populist wave is building.
Cardona’s timing tricks won’t save this failed agenda. Truth has a way of surfacing. Test scores don’t lie, even when bureaucrats try to bury them under Christmas trees.
American families deserve better than political games with their children’s futures. They deserve schools that teach reading and math instead of critical race theory. They deserve transparency instead of manipulation.
The Republic’s future depends on educated citizens. Every delayed test result is another day of educational malpractice. Parents must demand accountability now, not when it’s politically convenient for Washington bureaucrats.
Time to choose: Excellence or equity theater. Transparency or political cover-ups. The children are watching, and they deserve better than Biden’s failing schools.
