Blue States Are Not Interested in the Results of Education

If they were interested in results, those results might be better than awful. From City Journal: Blue States Used to Lead in Education. Not Anymore: Republican-led states are banning ineffective teaching methods, rapidly improving student outcomes.

Not long ago, blue states typically outperformed red ones when it came to education. That is changing. Blue states like Oregon and Washington experienced significant drops in reading and math scores for both fourth- and eighth-graders between 2015 and 2024, worse than the national declines during the same period. Mississippi, meantime, gained five points in fourth-grade reading and math and held steady in eighth-grade performance. Louisiana also maintained its scores, defying the negative national trends.

The most glaring example is phonics. Whole Language became the fad in American education, despite the fact that phonics was used forever. Why? Because reasons. And teachers didn't want to grade worksheets. (That is a common problem.)

In recent decades, however, red states have returned to phonics. In 2013, Mississippi, under unified Republican leadership in both the legislature and governor’s mansion, was an early adopter of requiring that teachers be trained in evidence-based reading pedagogies. At the time, Mississippi rated second to last in reading scores nationally. But since then, the Magnolia State has steadily climbed the rankings. In fact, adjusted for demographics, it now stands among the top states in reading.

Then there is "equity." Click thru for the whole thing.

Take Chicago as typical Blue City. From Illinois Policy, we get a glimpse of the insanity. Chicago mayor praises school with just 2% adept readers as example of his values

Mayor Brandon Johnson's Chicago just signed a new contract with the teachers' union.

In discussing the contract, Johnson pointed to Dyett High School as “a great example of a sustainable community school.” His reasoning? Its basketball team won the state championship last month.

But when it comes to Job No. 1, educating students? Dyett is failing. That’s not unusual because sustainable community schools produce among the worst outcomes for students in CPS.

Only 2% of students read at grade level at Dyett High School

And no students at that school were able to do math at grade level. But hey, they won the basketball tournament.