Public High Schools Are Not Doing Their Jobs

This is a surprise to no one. Then again, the phrase “not doing their jobs” is much like Bill Clinton’s definition of the word “is.” Too many people see the public high schools as babysitters for older teens and a place where school administrators and teachers can hide out from the real world of competition and get well paid. It’s time for the country to stop playing pretend—for most kids high schools are not a good learning environment. The only solution is school choice and customized education—the students need to be freed from the plantation.

From NCPA:

With the start of the new academic year, results from last year’s ACT college admissions tests have been made public, and the results are disturbing, say James R. Harrigan, a fellow of the Institute for Political Economy at Utah State University, and Antony Davies, associate professor of economics at Duquesne University and an affiliated senior scholar at the Mercatus Center.

  • The incoming freshman class is woefully unprepared for college.
  • The class of 2016, as a group, failed all four subjects the test assesses: English, math, reading and science.
  • According to ACT, only 25 percent of students are proficient in all four subjects.
  • Sixty percent came up short in two of the four subject areas, while more than 25 percent failed to demonstrate proficiency in any subject at all.

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