New National Test Scores Make Undeniable Case For School Choice

It is National School Choice Week in America, and the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam scores were released on Wednesday. The horrifically low student academic performance scores make the undeniable case that American government-run K-12 education is an epic failure.

According to the NAEP results provided by The Nation’s Report Card, 69% of fourth-grade students and 70% of eighth-grade students aren’t proficient at reading — that’s only 3 out of 10 schoolchildren learning to read soundly. When students can’t read at grade level, it significantly hinders their other academic learning.

The NAEP math scores similarly confirm that a change of course in K-12 education is desperately needed. An astonishing 61% of fourth-grade students and 72% of eighth-grade students aren’t proficient in math.

As a nation, we can no longer justify restricting children to these failing schools for their education. Nor can the ever-increasing astronomical spending — well over $850 billion annually — on the public education system continue to support the status quo. Change is urgently needed. And that change will require competition.

As Andy Puzder, President Trump’s nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, recently explained, “Competition is the only thing that increases quality and decreases price.” It’s the basics of a free market, which is long overdue in K-12 education in the United States.

With the 2025 legislative sessions now underway in almost all states and Congress, there is an opportunity to enact critically needed school choice laws. Bills should be put forth from all angles to provide parents access to alternative educational avenues from the government-run, teacher union-controlled public education monopoly.

This year, several red states will work to pass new school choice programs or expand eligibility for existing programs. Since 2021, a dozen states — 11 of which had a Republican trifecta at the time — have signed universal or near-universal school choice into law. Thirteen Republican trifecta states have yet to pass widespread school choice programs. This is the year several of those states have a shot at successfully setting all families statewide free to select an education alternative from the public school system.

While the state-level universal education freedom wins are happening in red states for now, parents living in purple and blue states must be empowered with educational options for their children. Congress passing the Educational Choice for Children Act would be a critical step forward in this effort. The Act would allow up to two million students to receive a scholarship from a non-profit granting organization. According to the Invest in Education website, “Scholarships would be funded with private donations, not federal dollars, and donors would receive a federal tax credit.”

Additionally, at the federal level, on Inauguration Day, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the Student Empowerment Act to expand the allowed usage of 529 tax-deferred education savings plan funds. That would include usage for educational expenses beyond tuition, such as “school curriculum, books, tutoring, testing fees,” and educational therapies for students with disabilities. Parents could use their 529 funds for the qualifying K-12 educational expenses regardless of whether their student is enrolled in a public or private school, or homeschool.

U.S. Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK), a co-sponsor of the bill, commented that “Expanding 529 accounts is a game-changer for education, giving students, workers, and families the freedom and opportunity they deserve, whether that’s in a traditional classroom setting or homeschool. It’s time to make education more affordable and meet the evolving needs of our workforce.”

Beyond private school choice and homeschooling, parents must also have choices within the public school system. That should come in the form of states passing open enrollment laws allowing students to enroll in a different public district school within (intra-district) and outside of (inter-district) their residential assignment as space allows. Zip code must not bind a student to a certain public school. That’s not how other taxpayer-funded government services, such as public parks and libraries, work.

Public charter schools, magnet schools, and other choice schools are no different, and laws must be enacted at the state level that allow families to select these schools. Laws must also not restrict growing the supply of these sought-after public school options.

The education of our future generation is too important to allow the public education monopoly to continue to trap children in failing schools, robbing them of their future. It’s past time for the market forces of competition to reign in America’s K-12 education environment — increasing quality and decreasing price. As a nation, we must keep advancing school choice through all means. Our children deserve nothing less than access to a high-quality education.

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Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.