Congress Should Answer the American Education Crisis Revealed by NAEP
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program coalition could be a model for 2025
National test scores released last week once again confirmed that American children are struggling in the classroom. The National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that 33 percent of 8th grade students and 40 percent of 4th graders scored “below basic” in reading.
National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy G. Carr explained that “[t]here’s a widening achievement gap in this country, and it has worsened since the pandemic, especially for grade eight.”
If these results are surprising, you haven’t been paying attention. National reading scores have been declining since 2017 and accelerated during the pandemic. Many of the 4th graders who were tested last year missed much of kindergarten and first grade when public schools were closed in 2020 and 2021. It was clear at the time that prolonged and unnecessary school closures would harm all children and particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
With a new administration and federal and state legislative sessions under way, the nation’s elected officials have an urgent responsibility to create better learning opportunities for American children.
States are expanding parental choice options and requiring effective reading instruction
The historic reforms to expand parental choice in education are already continuing in 2025. In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act proposal was approved by the state legislature and will soon become law. Families across the Volunteer State will now have access to scholarship funds that can be used for private school tuition, tuition, tutoring, and other education expenses.
As I wrote last month, several other states are expected to enact parental choice measures in 2025, including Texas where the governor continues to champion a universal ESA program. Our friends at EdChoice have the latest details on what’s happening around the country.
Beyond education choice reforms, we should take heart that many states are taking steps to promote effective reading instruction in public school classrooms. According to Education Week, at least 40 states and Washington, D.C., have passed laws to require reading instruction using evidence-based practices. While not a perfect solution, these laws will help reverse the troubling trend of many school districts using ineffective reading instruction exposed by Emily Hanford in her investigative podcast Sold a Story.
President Trump’s executive order to expand educational choice
On January 29, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order, Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunities for Families, which directs federal departments to take action to use their existing legal authority to expand parental options. Notably, the EO requires the Department of Education to provide guidance for how states can use their grant funds to enable parental choice. It also directs the Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to issue guidance or develop plans for using existing federal funding to help families access better schooling options.
This is a welcome development. But in all likelihood Congress will need to pass legislation to enact the kinds of federal reforms that are needed to broadly expand equal opportunity in K-12 education.
Will Congress act?
It’s very possible that Congress will create a new scholarship program in the upcoming tax reform debate, which would be a great development. But Congress—and specifically the chairs of the Senate HELP Committee and House Education and Workforce Committee—should also introduce reforms to the major Department of Education K-12 laws: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Both laws play a critical role in public education policy. ESEA is broadly focused on assisting disadvantaged children, while IDEA is the federal law intended to ensure that special education students have access to a free and appropriate public education.
Reforming ESEA: Specifically, lawmakers should reform ESEA to grant states the option to consolidate programs and funding streams to trim bureaucracy and also allow states and/or districts to use Title I funds to provide assistance directly to disadvantaged children to attend a school of their parents' choice or to access new schools or tutoring. Eliminating unnecessary or ineffective programs within ESEA would ensure that more funds are directly used to actually help students learn.
Reforming IDEA: Since the 1970s, IDEA has ensured that children with special needs have a right to a public education; however, the process for accessing benefits is complicated and too often requires parents to use due process complaints. Today, many states like Arizona and Florida have proven that offering children with disabilities a right of exit through choice programs improves families’ satisfaction. Congress should update IDEA to require states to provide parents with a right of exit from their child’s public school and could potentially secure support for such a reform by increasing federal IDEA funding.
In light of the devastating NAEP test scores and broad evidence that the nation’s public schools are failing a generation of children, Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) ought to ask: “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program should serve as inspiration and a model
For Congress to act, lawmakers will need to take political risks and engage in the hard work of convincing their colleagues on the other side of the aisle to support needed reforms. And, yes, this process will also involve negotiations and compromises. But such compromises in education reform were possible in the not too distant past, and the results were often worth it.
Last week, I had the privilege of attending a gathering in the Capitol to mark the 20th anniversary of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. One of my personal heroes, Virginia Walden Ford, described how underprivileged parents led the effort to convince Congress and the D.C. City Council to give low-income students a chance to attend better schools. Former Speaker John Boehner described his deep commitment to helping children access scholarships and how he forced former President Obama to continue the program or risk shutting down the federal government. Critically, former D.C. Mayor Tony Williams and former D.C. Council Member Kevin Chavous explained that they decided to support the program because it was the right thing to do to help kids. And their decisions took real political courage at the time. Their support was essential in securing and maintaining bipartisan support in Congress from former Senators Joe Liberman and Dianne Feinstein.
After twenty years, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program has helped more than ten thousand children, thanks to the bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill and in the D.C. government. America's disadvantaged children need lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to once again have the courage to do the right thing to help kids.
You can teach a child to read
While most of my writing at FREOPP focuses on public policy and the role of government to expand equal opportunity, it’s worth remembering that each of us can make a difference in the national literacy crisis. For example, I have seen firsthand how Dr. Siegfried Engelmann’s book, “How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons,” can teach a child to read. There are many other parent and homeschooling resources available online for anyone interested. Reversing the national childhood literacy will require parents and people from all walks of life to help do their part.
FREOPP’s work is made possible by people like you, who share our belief that equal opportunity is central to the American Dream. Please join them by making a donation today.
 | A guest post by
|