By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

The deteriorating nature of U.S. public education, has awakened a parental tsunami, first it was from the forced Covid lockdowns, then it was the dismal educational standards then the “woke” atmosphere pushed on American children schools have forced parents to abandon public schools in droves for various alternative schooling.

All throughout the country attendance at the nation’s public schools is down considerably as parents are making the decision to either home school their children or place them in religious themed schools which are up 35% from 2019.

As the U.S. gears up for the 2024 presidential election, education is the one sleeper issue that politicians on both sides of the political spectrum need to heed this juggernaut otherwise they will be forced from office.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is failing to understand this monumental tsunami as parents want more school choice not less! Republicans seem to have gotten the message as Republican governors across the country are signing into legislation giving parents more education options on where, how and what is taught to their children.

One only has to look no further than the gubernatorial election in Virginia, where in 2021, the Republican candidate used education as the central theme of his candidacy, by giving parent options.  His Democratic opponent was against school choice and uttered the famous phrase “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” This enraged parents and the Republican Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin rode to victory in a state that hadn’t elected a Republican in over ten years.

So far Republicans have heard the siren call from parents as various GOP governors have enacted sweeping school choice reforms in their various states, unfortunately Democrats are still shackled against the principle of any school choice.

The main impetus for the Democrats embracing school choice is that they are intertwined at the hip with the powerful teachers unions who gave millions exclusively to the Democratic Party.

All through the coronavirus pandemic the teachers union worked with Democrats in keeping schools closed no matter what the science stated that children are not impacted by the viruses spread. No other country kept schools closed for as long as the U.S. did and this forced school closure which had a devastating impact on the mental and scholastic ability of the nation’s children.

It’s ironic that Democrats are totally against school choice but at the same time opt their own children out of public education for private schools. Presidents, Carter, Clinton Obama, and Biden all sent their own children to private schools but they have done everything they could to keep parents from having the same choice as they do.

The Governor of California Gavin Newsom who kept six million Californian age school children in k-12 locked out only to learn buy zoom, but his own children were learning with in-person instruction at a private school.

Isn’t that ironic!

In the first post Covid assessment of educational ability of the nation’s k-12 students by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP or “The Nation’s Report Card,” the results were not pretty in fact they were downright despicable.

In math alone, the nation’s students recorded the largest decline in the history of the assessments, and reading was just as dismal. Basically, the assessment showed that 45% of U.S. children are not functioning at grade level in reading and its worse among the ethnic minorities such as blacks and Hispanic children where 80% are unable to read or do math to grade level.

This dismal educational achievement should have been a wakeup call but so far it’s has barely made a ripple in the public consciousness despite the U.S. spending around $800 billion on education per the U.S. Census bureau. Also don’t forget the over $200 billon allocated to the schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

Just last month the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 13% of eight grade students scored proficient in history and only 22% scored proficient in civics, with 40% of students scoring below the basic level of knowledge in U.S. history, a decline from 34% in 2018.

It’s amazing as the U.S. spends far more on education then any industrialized country and we get the least amount for it.

Where is the accountability?

Can you now understand why parents are so angry, but this is just one aspect of the anger felt by parents.

With over $800 billion spent on education every year, look at what America has gotten or not gotten with this massive spending on education.

Just examine the top spending school districts in the country and you will find the worst performing school’s especially for black and Hispanic children.

The largest school system in the country, New York City spends around $24,000 per student, yet in a 2019 study half of all students are not proficient in either math or reading, and this is before school closures because of the coronavirus.

What is New York’s response to these dismal results is to lower standards and to end the gifted and talented programs.

Washington DC if you calculate all revenue for k-12 spends around $30,000 per pupil, yet educational proficiency plugged and the vast amount of students are not proficient in math or reading to grade level.

Chicago spends around the same amount, with Illinois Policy reporting that prior to the pandemic, Chicago public students in third grade through eighth grade struggled to meet grade level proficiency in reading and math, with just 27% and 24% of students at proficiency in 2019, respectively. But today, ISBE reports just 20% of students are reading at grade level and only 15% are proficient in math.

Baltimore is in the top three for per pupil spending, yet at one high school 75% are reading or doing math at only elementary level. For the rest of the city wide schools 70% can’t do math or reading to grade level.

In Wisconsin, the 2019 scores (for students in grades 3 to 8 and grade 11) showed only 39.3% of students tested proficient or better in English/language and only 40.1% demonstrated a proficient or better understanding of math.

This is reflective all over the country!

Across the country school boards teacher unions, the Democratic Party including President Biden and his administration have treated parents as a threat and labeling them domestic terrorists.

Does anyone wonder why parents are pulling their children out of public schools and placing them in private schools, but what about those who can’t move their children they are then faced with a lifetime of lost learning?

Now that parents are having a choice teacher unions lose million is lost union dues, school districts lose billions in revenue that can’t be squandered for ill-conceived projects that have nothing to do with education, and the Democratic Party loses millions in lost campaign contributions.

Education will be the sleeper issue for the 2024 presidential election!