On Monday the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as the nation’s report card, announced results from the 2022 learning test.  Since 1990 Washington state schools always scored above the national average on these tests.  No longer.

Washington public schools just posted the lowest student learning scores in the state’s history of NAEP testing:

            ●  Washington public schools educated 4th graders at the lowest level ever in math and reading.

           ●   Public schools educated 8th graders at the lowest level ever in math and reading.

Other assessments show similar failures.  The state Smarter-Balance Assessment shows public schools failed to educate 62 percent of students in math and failed to educated 49 percent in English.  The American College Test (ACT) shows the lowest performance ever by Washington public schools in educating students.

State education leaders appear to be unaware of how poorly they are doing.  State Superintendent Chris Reykdal recently announced that he wants another $6.56 billion, about 20% more, to spend on the school system, even as student enrollment is falling.  He says he wants to give out most of the money as pay raises for public employees (only about half of school district employees are teachers).  His proposal includes no direct funding to help children and families make up learning losses.

Let’s consider this funding request in context.  A caring legislature would recognize that adults in the school system were amply protected during COVID, receiving full pay and benefits during nearly two-years of school shutdowns.  Meanwhile, no education funding went families to access learning resources.

Today, Washington public schools have on-hand about $1.6 billion in unspent federal COVID money.  That’s enough to provide every family $1,500 to pay for tutoring, extra lessons or other resources, without touching a penny of existing district budgets.

The contrast in approaches was dramatically illustrated in an exchange between U.S. Senate candidates Patty Murray and Tiffany Smiley during a recent debate.  Sen. Murray said she “was so concerned about all the schools being shutdown” (at 51:03, here), and that she put federal dollars into after-school programs and tutoring, but “we have more work to do.”

Smiley said “our children are set back terribly [by the closed schools], their test scores are plummeting, childhood anxiety is on the rise, ask any parent…. Our children are suffering...” She cited school choice policies “that deliver results” in 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico which allow parents to access public dollars to pay the costs of private tutoring and private tuition. 

One approach calls for doing the same thing, pouring more money into school districts, and expecting a different result.  The alternative calls for giving parents wider choices, whether the local public school, an alternative school, private tutoring, online courses, or some combination.  In other words meeting child learning needs in a flexible way, regardless of how parent choices might affect budgets and bureaucracies.

My recent in-depth study, available here, reports findings on the harm done to Washington children from long school shutdowns, and presents practical solutions about how to use education resources effectively.  The evidence shows funding fresh approaches based on choice would be far more effective than slotting another $6 billion to government agencies.  Other states are finding family engagement and choice is the best way to deliver academic achievement and better lifetime prospects for schoolchildren.  If state leaders would open their minds to it – we can too.