News Snapshot:
Ed desk: Failing Schools Predate COVID The latest “appalling” scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and math “highlight long-term trends that extend back to the 1970s,” observes Larry Sand at City Journal. Factors “other than Covid are causing our students to stumble.” It’s not lack of money: “Inflation-adjusted per-pupil spending rose from $7,089 in the 1971-72 school year to $17,013 in 2019-20, a whopping 140 percent.” Or class size: Nationally, “since 1921, the student-to-teacher ratio has been cut in half.” The real cause? “Too many underperforming teachers.” Data suggest that after axing “the bottom-performing 5 percent...
