Kerby Anderson

Over the last few weeks, I have read editorials and heard comments that have used the phrase “educational fraud.” The reason is simple. We are spending more and more money on public education and have less and less to show for it. Last month was the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Many people call it the “Nation’s Report Card.” This is not a report card you would want to show to your parents. It isn’t something America’s taxpayers want to see either. About a third (37%) of the nation’s 12^th-graders tested proficient or better in reading. Only one fourth (25%) were proficient or better in math. We spend all this time and money and still have a majority of students who cannot read or compute at their grade level. Dr. Walter Williams is a columnist and economist at George Mason University. Because he is African-American, he also focuses some of his attention on black students. Sadly, they did even worse in these tests: 17 percent proficient in reading, and 7 percent proficient in math. He asks an important question. Why are we giving these kids diplomas? The national high school graduation rate is over 80 percent. That means two-thirds of these graduates cannot read at the 12^thgrade level and three-fourths cannot compute at the 12^thgrade level. Not only is there fraud in high school diplomas, but the fraud continues when we look at the percentage of these students who then go on to college. According to government statistics, about 70 percent of white high school graduates were enrolled in college, and 58 percent of black high school students were enrolled in college. This is also educational fraud since so many of them are hardly college-ready if they cannot read even at the high school level. Perhaps you can now see why so many of us are frustrated by what has become rampant educational fraud.