The latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores confirm what parents have been living for years: the United States is falling even further behind academically.
asserted
States → confirm → years
American 15-year-olds just posted among the lowest reading and math results this country has recorded in a generation.
asserted
country → post → generation
Reading dropped another 14 points and math sits near historic lows.
asserted
math → drop → lows
The teachers union cartel and the one-size-fits-all government school monopoly have produced an international embarrassment.
asserted
size → fit → embarrassment
Worse – and tellingly – that collapse followed a historic spending binge.
asserted
collapse → follow → binge
According to the Census Bureau’s latest data, we now outspend every country on Earth: over $21,000 per student.
uncertain
we → accord → student
Yet new Gallup polling shows satisfaction with K-12 education at an all-time low, with a whopping 67% of adults reporting dissatisfaction with the system.
asserted
% → show → system
School-choice momentum helps explain why so many people are finally willing to call the system a disaster.
asserted
people → help → system
We knew it all along.
asserted
We → know → it
Families have more options than ever, so they no longer have to live with the cognitive dissonance of pretending they were sending their kids to good schools.
asserted
they → have → schools
They are breaking free from their captors, and the Stockholm syndrome is going away.
asserted
syndrome → break → captors
Staffing trends show who the monopoly actually serves.
asserted
monopoly → show → who
Since 2014, government schools have added about 620,000 employees while student enrollment has dropped by about 775,000.
asserted
enrollment → add → 775,000
The government school system has become more of a jobs program for adults than an education initiative for kids.
asserted
system → become → kids
Take Frederick Douglass Academy High School in Chicago, which is about 97% empty.
asserted
which → take → Chicago
, it now enrolls 27 children and employs 28 adults.
asserted
it → enroll → adults
The school spends more than $90,000 per pupil and enjoys a better than one-to-one staff-to-student ratio, yet not a single child was tested as proficient in math or reading.
asserted
child → spend → math
New York City runs the same model at industrial scale.
asserted
City → run → scale
Some 43% of kids in NYC public schools are stuck in failing campuses where more than half the student body is not proficient in math, reading or both.
asserted
body → stick → math
The city is spending north of $40,000 a kid, more than half a million dollars for each child’s 13-year K-12 "education," and still cannot get the basics right.
asserted
basics → spend → education
Parents started waking up to the teachers union insanity during COVID-19, and 18 states have passed universal school choice policies in the past six years as a result.
asserted
states → wake → result
Reopening the buildings did not restore trust.
asserted
Reopening → reopen → trust
The political indoctrination has only worsened, and the unions learned nothing from the backlash.
asserted
unions → worsen → backlash
They doubled down and leaned into ideological warfare, using kids as pawns to advance their socialist agenda.
asserted
They → double → agenda
Families are already voting with their feet.
asserted
Families → vote → feet
New data show homeschooling in New York has exploded by more than 200% over the past 15 years, with 53,905 children now learning at home and a sharp rise inside New York City.
asserted
children → show → City
The Home School Legal Defense Association ranks New York among the most restrictive homeschool regimes in the country.
asserted
Association → rank → country
Government schools there must be a total disaster for parents to flee them even without meaningful school choice options on the books.
asserted
parents → flee → books
Texas proved demand is just as intense where choice finally exists.
asserted
choice → prove → ?
The state notched a major win in 2025, then immediately created a new bottleneck: more than 100,000 kids are stuck on a waitlist because the legislature allocated only $1 billion for the program.
asserted
legislature → notch → program
Comptroller Don Huffines has suggested doubling that funding next year, which is a step in the right direction.
uncertain
which → suggest → direction
But Texas should drop the arbitrary cap altogether.
asserted
Texas → drop → cap
Each scholarship is only around $10,000 per student per year, while government schools in the state already spend about twice that amount according to the latest Texas Education Agency data.
uncertain
schools → spend → data
Hardworking families should not be left on a waitlist while the monopoly keeps the larger check.
asserted
monopoly → leave → check
Now is the time to put the pedal to the metal on the school-choice revolution.
asserted
time → put → revolution
No kid should be trapped in failing government schools any longer.
asserted
kid → trap → schools
The Aporia
