10-14-2025
The latest report card on American education is in, and it’s devastating. The 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released last month, revealed that the nation’s 12th-graders hit a historic performance low. Math scores cratered to levels not seen since 2005. Reading scores plummeted to their lowest level since testing began in 1992.
The scale of the crisis is staggering. Only 35% of high school seniors read at a proficient level. One-third lack basic reading comprehension skills. In mathematics, the picture is even bleaker. Only 22% achieved proficiency. Alarmingly, 45% can’t even manage basic math. Around 2/3 are academically unprepared for college in math and reading. Even prestigious universities like Harvard must offer remedial courses for incoming freshmen lacking foundational skills.
These results aren’t just statistics; they represent a decades-long, systematic destruction of opportunity for hundreds of thousands of young Americans. The decline predates the COVID-19 disruptions, which both accelerated and exposed an educational collapse already underway.
The failures in the system aren’t distributed equally. The achievement gap between high and low performers is wider than ever. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds bear the brunt of the meltdown, trapped in a system supposed to afford opportunity, which instead acts as a barrier to advancement.
A decent K–12 education is the path out of poverty for the disadvantaged. When we force students to attend poorly run public schools while better alternatives exist, we don’t just fail them educationally; we commit a moral wrong. This is why K–12 education is the civil rights issue of our time.
But there is hope. And the solution has been staring us in the face for decades: broad-based school choice. A growing body of research reveals that government-funded school-choice programs, including charter schools, educational savings accounts and vouchers, have succeeded well beyond expectations.
For example, Stanford’s most recent comprehensive research found that charter school students overall gained the equivalent of 16 days of learning in reading and six in math compared to their traditional public school peers. Importantly, the benefits were greatest for underserved populations. Low-income students gained 23 days of learning in reading and 17 in math compared to low-income students in district schools. Hispanic students gained 30 days in reading and 19 in math, while Black students gained 35 days in reading and 29 in math.
Similarly, a recent University of Arkansas meta-analysis concluded that students using school vouchers “saw large positive gains on test scores that equate roughly to 30 more days of learning in reading and math.”
The gains aren’t just in learning outcomes. According to a 2025 EdChoice report, 83% of 203 empirical studies concluded school choice programs produced positive effects across a broad range of metrics, including test scores, graduation rates, parental satisfaction, academics, civic values, racial and ethnic integration, fiscal effects and school safety. While outcomes vary based on program design and implementation quality, the overwhelming weight of evidence demonstrates the effectiveness of well-structured school choice initiatives.
Most recently, a 2025 Urban Institute longitudinal study of Ohio’s voucher program, which tracked over 6,000 students, determined voucher participants were 50% more likely to enroll in four-year colleges and 60% more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees compared to students who remained in public schools. The authors note the effects were “strongest for male students, Black students, students with below-median test scores before leaving public school, and students who spent the most time in poverty during their childhood.”
The fiscal argument for school choice is equally persuasive. Both charter schools and other choice programs typically save public money while improving academic outcomes not just for participating students but also for those who remain in public schools. These results show what happens when market forces, accountability and educational innovation are allowed to work. Competition drives improvement, forcing underperforming schools to raise their standards or lose students, benefiting everyone in the system.
Traditional public education is failing at unprecedented levels, despite consuming over $945 billion in the aggregate and an average of over $16,500 per student each and every year. We’ve thrown money at the problem for decades, yet performance continues to decline.
It’s time to stop pretending that the system producing these abysmal results deserves protection from competition. Every day we delay expanding access to educational alternatives is another day we deny opportunity to students who need it most. The research is conclusive, the moral case compelling, and the need urgent.
I discuss the causes of this crisis and the historical development of school choice as a solution in more detail in my recent article in Commentary.
Michael Woronoff joined Purdue in February 2025 as a Business Fellow at the Daniels School. He practices law in Los Angeles and writes frequently about capitalism and freedom.
