By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

The first educational assessments have been released across the country after the coronavirus school lockdowns and the results are extremely disturbing showing a severe decline in math and reading.

During the period from 2020 to 2022 the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), which serves as the nation’s educational report card, reported the largest decline in reading and math since the 1990’s for nine-year olds. This was the first real analysis of educational progress in the U.S. since the forced schools lockdowns as a result of the coronavirus.

This report mirrors what is being released across the country, with the Los Angeles Times released details from the Los Angeles Unified School District that was marked “not for public release.”

The question why the secrecy of this report, why not release it to the public to see for themselves how their tax dollars are being spent in educating their children? Could it be that the data is extremely bad as it relates to about Black and Latino children?

“About 81% of 11th-graders did not meet grade-level standards in math. About 83% of Black students, 78% of Latino students and 77% of economically disadvantaged students did not meet the math standards,” the Times reported.

Incidentally, the State of California is refusing to release state wide educational results until after the mid-term elections, are they doing this because the results are just as bad for people of color, a group the progressive state states it cares about?

Oregon is another state where student achievement gap in reading, writing and math skills plummeted from the government induced pandemic lockdown that caused extreme disruptions to k-12 education; this was on top of the dismal achievement before the lockdowns, as reported by the Oregon Department of Education.

The Oregonian reported that across grades three through eight, just 39% of students scored as proficient at reading and writing last spring, down from the previous low of 51%, and just 28% scored proficient in math, far below the previous low point of 40%.Even before the forced shut-down of the nation’s schools, the educational achievement gap for American children was disastrous with over 70% of black and Hispanic student suffering the most with the inability to do math or English to grade level.

The dismal drop in math and English also is compounded by a report that shows that High school students’ ACT college admission test scores fell to a three-decade low in 2022, which continues for a fifth straight year as educators struggle with ongoing learning loss made worse by remote classes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For decades Democrats have been clamoring for additional revenue for education, despite the fact the U.S. spends far more than any other industrial county to the tune of $800 billion dollars and the results should question how this revenue is allocated. Especially since the results are a disaster!

Where is the accountability for the U.S. Department of Education which has an annual budget of $260 billion and is slated to receive additional revenue in President Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget, but how will this be spent and what will be the measure of success?

During the pandemic schools across America received close to $200 billion allocated, to k-12 educational funding, but little accountability on how that revenue would be spent.

Despite the dismal achievement numbers of the nation’s children, especially low income and minority students, Democrats and their allies in the nation’s teachers union complain more is needed, and blame the coronavirus for the dismal numbers.

Former North Carolina Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue, who chairs the board responsible for the NAEP, warned, “We can’t keep blaming COVID.” Unfortunately many still do, and these same individuals are never held to account for the dismal educational achievement gaps.

The other area which needs to be explored is what is transpiring in classrooms across America, and that is the increasing ideological indoctrination in the nation’s classroom which is leading to weaker standards and lower expectations.

The state of California Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to eliminate using standardized tests like the SAT and ACT for admission to its 23 state university campuses because it discriminates against people of color.

Examine the state of Oregon which recently passed law that suspends a requirement for a basic-skills test in math, reading and writing to graduate high school as being detrimental to blacks and Hispanics.

How about reform the k-12 system with tougher and more rigorous standards?

The pandemic opened an educational wound from which parents finally saw what many had speculated for years was woke progressive ideology aimed at children supported by Democrats and the nation’s teachers unions.

Once parent’s complained, school districts, the educational teachers union reported them to the U.S. Justice Department with the Biden administration labeling them as domestic terrorists.

Lance Izumi & Wenyuan Wu writing in Real Clear Politics education section that one California student reported that a teacher at his school told the class that perfectionism and striving for perfection was part of white supremacy culture. Another one of his teachers “made it seem like it was bad to have a good work ethic or to be supportive of meritocracy.” In his school, grades were inflated, low grades were eliminated, late assignments were allowed, and multiple retakes of exams were permitted. Rigor simply disappeared.

“To not teach hard work and to not teach a work ethic is going to be disastrous for the kids who kind of cruise along in public schools,” the student reflected.

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country, pushes the critical race theory-inspired position that systemic racism permeates all American institutions and must be taught in our schools so that kids challenge “the systems of oppression that have harmed people of color.” In 2021, the NEA adopted a resolution that would mandate race-based ideological instruction in public schools across the country.

The resolution put forth by the teachers union wants to pushout its own study which  “critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society.” The NEA specifically wants and is pushing that critical race theory is one of the methods that should be used to teach these topics in school districts around the country.

The teachers union is also pushing for and undermining teacher quality all in the guise of racial equity, as the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers has an reached an agreement with Minneapolis Public Schools to lay off white teachers regardless of seniority or merit before laying off minority teachers in the name of “anti-bias, anti-racism.”

As one analyst noted, the Minneapolis agreement seeks “to achieve ‘equity’ by reducing standards and replacing white teachers,” while the “sensible (and legal) goal is to expand the pool and retention rate of all qualified teachers.”

Despite the continued reporting of low educational academic achievement by the nation’s children, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, attempted to deflect the blame and states this is Trump’s and Republicans fault for failing test scores.

Incidentally, Weingarten has a compensation package worth around $500,000 for more than any teacher makes.

It’s interesting to note, but not wildly reported as this is revisionist history as Trump wanted to open the schools in 2020 but was wildly rebuked by the very same teachers union and Democrats across the country.

It’s time America gets back to the basics in education, as we are experiencing a revolt among parents which will continue unabated through this election and into the 2024 presidential election;; politicians beware of the revolt of the parents!