Bobby Kennedy once said, “The youth of our nation are the clearest mirror of our performance.” 

If that’s true, our nation deserves an F on its annual report card. America’s youth are in disarray. According to a CDC study, “The proportion of mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31%” compared to 2019. Early reports on testing scores since the start of COVID-19 are not great either. Results from standardized tests administered in a handful of states show a decline of about 10%-20% depending on the subject.