Common Core combatants likely agree on few things, but there is one point on which they do — America’s public schools are failing and have been for many years. As a result, generation after generation of America’s children have graduated from high school ill-prepared for careers and thereby denied opportunities their parents and grandparents took for granted. This is especially true for minority students in America’s inner cities, but it applies as well to shockingly high numbers of suburban students attending “good” schools. Doubters need look no further than the results of the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress for 12th graders.

On reading, only 38 percent of the students tested in the 13 participating states achieved the “proficient” level of competence. That’s only a little higher than one-third of the graduating seniors. The situation is little better in those suburban schools that too many parents think are different. Only 47 percent of the Asian/Pacific islander and white students achieved proficiency, meaning more than half of them got high school diplomas for failed educations.