Vivek Ramaswamy, speaking of the dismal rates of literacy in America, posted on X, “Failing public schools don’t need more money; they need accountability.”
He was spurred to make the comment after seeing a list of 53 schools in Illinois where not a single student could do math at their grade level.
Large sums of money are allocated to public schools, but the money goes into the pockets of administrators, consultants, and contractors, while the actual education of the students is neglected.
The situation in Illinois is particularly concerning. It is astounding that lawmakers in Illinois and the teachers unions are bent on crippling the state’s meager 9,700-student school choice program when states across the nation are not only expanding school choice but also making it available to every student in their state. To make matters worse, they want to repeal the Invest in Kids Act program, despite the fact that 1.4 million students in Illinois’ public schools lack basic math skills and 1.2 million students cannot read at grade level.
In Peoria, just 7% of black children can read at grade level. For Hispanics in Waukegan, it’s only 13%. Decatur’s whites are at just 12%. And of the black students in the Chicago Public Schools, only 17% are at grade level.
Overall, 1.2 million of Illinois’ 1.85 million schoolchildren can’t read at grade level.
Those are numbers the education establishment refuses to acknowledge and doesn’t want parents to know. And its allies in the traditional media often help suppress the facts we frequently report on.
So when several high profile individuals, including Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, help us expose the truth on X, we’ll take it.
Here’s how it played out yesterday:
Tech influencer i/o began the action by linking to Wirepoints’ report, Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools, and posting: “ZERO students passed the state math proficiency test at 53 Illinois public schools… At one such school — a “prep school” designed to prepare students for medical careers — the per student spending is $47,000.”
