The evidence pointing to systemic failure in the U.S.’s education system is overwhelming — and I’m not just talking about the massive number of students who sit in U.S. classrooms year-after-year without learning to read or do math.

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, for example, our so-called Nation’s Report Card, found that nearly half (45%) of all 12th graders couldn’t do basic math and a third (32%) hadn’t mastered basic reading. We’re talking about the basic “knowledge and skills that are fundamental” to competency in a subject.