Every once in a while, something pops up that slaps you across the face and says, “Wake up!”
That happened this week when the Committee to Unleash Prosperity posted a report about math scores in California. It was not pretty.
At the University of California San Diego, which is supposed to be a top school, 665 freshmen were placed in a remedial math class that covers elementary and middle school skills.
The report says that is about 8.5 percent of the incoming class.
Let me say that again. These are 18-year-olds who got accepted into a competitive college and they cannot handle math that most kids should learn before eighth grade.
For example, 1 out of 4 students couldn’t get this question correct: 7 + 2 = [ x ] + 6.
Another 256 students landed in a second remedial class that covers basic high school math.
Back in 2020, only about half a percent needed that first class. Now it is a tidal wave.
If that is the situation in California, where the politicians brag about the money they pour into schools, how do you think things look in Nevada?
Spoiler alert. Not good. Nevada’s own numbers tell the story.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported in 2022 that only 26 percent of Nevada eighth graders were proficient in math.
Clark County has thrown more money at the problem year after year, but the scores have not moved. If this were a business, the owners would have fired the whole management team.
Parents see it every day.
Kids get promoted even when they cannot read or do basic math. Teachers are worn out. Classrooms feel more like crowd control than learning.
Bureaucrats tell parents things are fine while parents watch their kids struggle with simple work. A fourth grader counting on their fingers is not a sign of a healthy system.
This is not a money problem. It is a monopoly problem.
Public schools get paid no matter what. There is no reason to improve when families have no choice.
The teachers unions block any reform that threatens their control. They demand more money, more staff and more programs. We keep handing them everything they want. The results stay the same.
School choice breaks that cycle.
It gives parents the ability to take their education dollars and use them at any school that works. It might be a charter school. It might be a private school. It might be a small learning pod or even homeschooling.
The point is simple. Parents decide. Not government.
This idea is not new.
Florida, Arizona and West Virginia already do it. And it works. Florida now ranks near the top in several national education measures. Arizona families have flocked to their program.
When schools must earn families, they improve. Competition always makes things better. That is true for restaurants, car shops and yes, even schools.
Nevada actually passed a school choice program years ago. It was called Education Savings Accounts.
The courts struck down the funding mechanism and the politicians never brought it back.
Since then, lawmakers have talked a big game about helping families, but nothing real has happened.
Meanwhile, more Nevada kids fall behind. More parents feel trapped. More employers complain they cannot find workers who can handle basic math.
We have been watching this slow-moving train wreck for years.
Now California has shown us what happens when it gets even worse. Kids show up at college unable to add, subtract or multiply.
Opponents say school choice takes money from public schools. That is not true. The money belongs to the child, not the system.
If a school is doing a good job, parents will stay. If it is not, they will leave. That is how accountability works.
Nevada has a simple choice to make. We can keep doing the same thing and hope for a miracle. Or we can give families the freedom they deserve.
If our kids cannot learn basic math after 13 years in the system, maybe it is time to subtract the bureaucracy, divide the power and multiply the choices.
School choice is not just good policy. It is survival. And Nevada cannot afford to wait.
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