The test scores via the “Nations Report Card” are out, and the results should send every alarm bell ringing. Our kids can’t read. As for their math skills, what math skills?

High school seniors had the worst reading scores since 1992 on a national test, a loss probably related to increases in screen time and the pandemic. Their math scores fell as well.

Probably? What do you mean, probably??!! Remember in 2020 when we are told the kids would be alright? That they are resilient so it’s totally ok to lock down the schools for up to TWO years in some cases?

We’ve said here a thousand times that locking kids out of schools during the Covid pandemic was a bad idea. But the “experts” refused to listen. The teachers unions did lockdown dances on piers and mailed their so-called obituaries to school board members and superintendents. As for teaching via screen during the lockdown, while quite a number of teachers did everything they could to TEACH, too many others literally phoned it in, if they bothered to show up at all. 

And now we have the latest test scores, the first since the Covid lockdowns. The results of which are hugely alarming. Jack and Jill cannot read. 

And a record high 45 percent of high school seniors scored “below basic” in math. Those at the basic level, for instance, would be able to “apply statistical reasoning in the organization and display of data and in reading tables and graphs.” This means that nearly half of seniors were set to graduate without these and other skills.

Nearly 1 in 3 seniors were below basic in reading, also a record. The lowest-performing students recorded an average score of 224, which was 25 points lower than their counterparts scored in 1992.

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows, continuing declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend and her predecessor warned of this trend as well, and now I am warning you about this trend,” said Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences, the research and data branch of the Education Department. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted, focused action to accelerate student learning.”

Read that again. And again. The seniors tested were in 8th grade in 2020. Now, as they enter college or trade schools, far too many are attempting to function without having a strong background in reading and math. To have scores that are lower than those from 1992??!! Keep in mind, 1992 was the first year that test scores were tracked.

We literally have 0 American 12th grade public school students who are testing as advanced readers. pic.twitter.com/yG0jPwnJ1M

— Rosalind Hanson (@M4LMoCo) September 9, 2025

This is a problem. One I know that many outstanding teachers and administrators have been working on. Yet they too face the uphill battle of teachers unions, politics and political grandstanding, and even parental indifference. 

Another by-product of the lockdowns has led to chronic absenteeism. Something that started becoming a major issue in the fall of 2020. Over a quarter MILLION students never made it to classrooms across the country. If they aren’t in class, they aren’t learning anything. Which impacts ALL of their test scores, but more importantly impacts their ability to navigate real life. 

If you can’t read and comprehend what you are reading, then how can our students going into college and the workforce understand loans, contracts, laws, job applications, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution? The list goes on.

As for math, yes one does need to be proficient in at least basic math to get along. For example; several months ago I was at a restaurant when the system went down. But they could still take cash for payment. I literally had to walk the servers, one was high school and the other in college, through how to make change! 

Yet the teachers unions stridently advocated for the lockdowns while informing us that our kids are resilient and they’ll learn anyway. 

Randi, of course, worked with the CDC to KEEP schools closed. She’s by far among the worst at ensuring our kids were kept from being taught the highly necessary basics. 

These test scores say otherwise when it comes to their “resilience” that Randi bragged about. That’s both an educational crisis and a national security crisis. Why? Because now more than ever, a sound foundation in reading, math, and science is needed to be competitive around the world and employable here at home. 

There are school districts out there that have gotten rid of grades or are “reimagining the grading system.” Gavin Newsom’s wife is pushing gender justice films to California middle schools. Chicago schools are truly failing, yet at one point they were defending LOOTING because George Floyd. Who knows? Maybe they still are. And don’t get us started on all the gender crap and DEI push.

NONE of that has to do with our students proficiency in reading, math, and science! NONE of it. 

The teachers unions will immediately start yelling for more money. My question to them is, what have you been using that money for prior to these test results?? What were your priorities these last five, ten, and twenty years? TEACHING our kids the basics? These test results say otherwise. 

I don’t have solutions, I have ideas. But one thing is abundantly clear.  The current status of our education system and the teachers unions are harming our students and hamstringing the good teachers out there. 

As the cover photo says, Education is power. But too many of our students don’t have KNOWLEGE – which should be a result of education, thus rendering them powerless. 

Feature Photo Credit: Books, blackboard, classroom via iStock, cropped and modified.