16 Facts About The Shocking Decline Of Public Education In The U.S. That Every American Should Know

Virtually everyone agrees that our public schools are in a state of decline. Needless to say, it isn’t because we aren’t spending enough money. The federal government, our state governments and our local governments are collectively spending nearly a trillion dollars a year on public education. That is a colossal pile of money. Since 1960, spending per student has increased by 350 percent. That is even after adjusting for inflation. At this stage, we spend more money per student than any other nation on the entire planet other than Luxembourg. Anyone that believes that we can solve our education crisis by spending even more money is simply being delusional.

For nearly a trillion dollars a year, we should be getting a world class education system.

But we aren’t.

In fact, students in the U.S. just keep dropping down the global rankings.

Urgent action is required if we are going to turn this around.

Gallup conducted a survey that discovered that an all-time low 35 percent of U.S. adults are satisfied with the quality of public education in the United States.

There appears to be a growing consensus that we have a major national crisis on our hands, and those that are responsible for this crisis need to be held accountable. The following are 16 facts about the shocking decline of public education in the U.S. that every American should know…

#1 Nearly one-fifth of all high school graduates in the United States cannot even read at a functional level…

National statistics indicate that close to one-fifth of high school graduates are unable to read at a functional level. This means they cannot effectively comprehend and use written information in daily life or work settings.

#2 Only 35 percent of high school seniors are proficient at reading, and only 22 percent of high school seniors are proficient at math…

The scale of the crisis is staggering. Only 35% of high school seniors read at a proficient level. One-third lack basic reading comprehension skills. In mathematics, the picture is even bleaker. Only 22% achieved proficiency. Alarmingly, 45% can’t even manage basic math. Around 2/3 are academically unprepared for college in math and reading. Even prestigious universities like Harvard must offer remedial courses for incoming freshmen lacking foundational skills.

#3 For high school seniors in the United States, math scores have fallen to the lowest level since 2005 and reading scores have fallen to the lowest level since 1992…

The latest report card on American education is in, and it’s devastating. The 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released last month, revealed that the nation’s 12th-graders hit a historic performance low. Math scores cratered to levels not seen since 2005. Reading scores plummeted to their lowest level since testing began in 1992.

#4 According to the most recent NAEP assessment, only 28 percent of 8th grade students in the United States are proficient at math…

Only 28% of 8th graders scored proficient in math on the latest NAEP assessment. The effects are most severe in low-income districts, where school closures, chronic absenteeism, and staffing instability have compounded over time.

#5 In just one decade, the percentage of 13-year-olds enrolled in algebra dropped from 34 percent to 24 percent…

According to the OECD, our average student is almost a full year behind the average student from other countries. Singapore’s students are three years ahead of ours. According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), our students are also developing slower than in previous years. In 2023, only 24% of America’s 13-year-olds were enrolled in algebra. A decade earlier, that number was 34%.

#6 It appears that the pandemic had a substantial negative impact on both the reading skills and the math skills of our fourth-grade students…

In spring 2023, just 56 percent of American fourth-graders were performing on grade level in math, down from 69 percent in 2019, according to just one example of test score data cited in the report.

Declines in reading were less stark but still concerning, and concentrated in earlier grades, with 65 percent of third-graders performing on grade level, compared with 72 percent in 2019. Recovery in reading has also been slower, with some researchers finding essentially no rebound since students returned to the classroom.

#7 At this point, only 26 percent of U.S. adults can name all three branches of government…

Only 26% of American adults can name the three branches of government. Less than one-quarter of college graduates knew that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion. Most adults have no idea how many Justices serve on the Supreme Court. Tragically, Princeton University found that barely one-third (36%) of adults could pass a multiple-choice test consisting of questions taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.

#8 Almost two-thirds of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 are not able to identify the United Kingdom on a map of the world…

Sixty percent of students could not identify the countries the United States fought in World War II. Only 24% knew why the colonists fought against the British. Only 24% could identify Benjamin Franklin as a Founder with more students (37%) believing that he invented the light bulb. Our students fared no better in basic geography. A National Geographic study found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (ages 18-24) were unable to identify the United Kingdom (one of our most dependable foreign allies) on a world map. Closer to home, most young Americans were unable to identify the state of Ohio on a map.

#9 After climbing for 50 years, student achievement scores peaked in 1967. Sadly, they have been on a downward trend ever since…

The story of American public education’s decline does not begin in 2020 or 2016. According to research cited in Econlib’s comprehensive analysis, the trajectory changed dramatically in 1967. After rising consistently for fifty years, student achievement scores on various standardized tests dropped sharply that year and continued declining through 1980. This represented a devastating loss of educational ground. Students graduating in 1980 had learned approximately 1.25 grade-level equivalents less than their 1967 counterparts, a decline so severe that by the turn of the century, conservative estimates placed the economic growth lost due to diminished academic achievement at 3.6 percent of the 2000 gross national product.

#10 The mental health of U.S. students is deteriorating rapidly. 17 percent of them admit to having symptoms of depression and 20 percent of them have seriously committed suicide…

About 10% of children ages 3 to 17 have anxiety, while 7% have one or more diagnosed behavior disorders. Forty percent of high school students report experiencing persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 17% report symptoms of depression and 20% say they have seriously considered suicide.

#11 The public school system in the U.S. has lost almost two million students since 2012, and it is being projected that another 2.9 million will be lost by 2031…

In 2012, almost 91% of all K-12 students were enrolled in public schools. One decade later, that number had fallen to 87% — a loss of nearly two million students. In its forecast for 2031, the National Center for Education Statistics expects the loss of another 2.9 million students in public schools.

#12 Students cannot learn if they are not in school. Unfortunately, chronic absenteeism jumped from 13 percent before the pandemic to 26 percent after the pandemic…

Chronic absenteeism also remains a big obstacle to learning. Twenty-six percent of students were considered chronically absent in 2022-23, up from 13 percent in 2019-2020.

#13 Our universities are only graduating about 100,000 teachers a year, and less than half of them will actually enter the profession…

The teacher shortage in the United States has reached an unprecedented level, threatening to leave millions of students without qualified educators. The Learning Policy Institute (2024) reports that over 405,000 teaching positions remain vacant nationwide, with projections indicating that this number will double within five years. The crisis is compounded by the fact that American universities will only graduate approximately 100,000 teachers this year, and less than half of them will enter the profession (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2024).

#14 86 percent of U.S. school districts struggle to fill open teaching positions…

School districts throughout the United States are feeling the pain as 86% report struggles with filling open positions and 60% note they have a hard time finding substitute teachers. The shortage is especially acute for schools searching for qualified ESL, STEM, and special education teachers. About 40% of schools report that they have hired underqualified educators, 30% say they have increased class sizes, while 25% of schools have cut course offerings, especially in specialized subjects.

#15 A whopping 60 percent of U.S. teachers have experienced workplace violence, and more than 70 percent of them are dealing with “severe job-related stress”…

A shocking 60% of educators report experiencing workplace violence at least once in their careers, while over 70% struggle with severe job-related stress (American Federation of Teachers, 2024).

#16 Our teachers are not optimistic about our system of education at all. More than 80 percent of them believe that the system has gotten worse, and only 5 percent of them expect conditions to improve in the next five years…

Over 80% of public school teachers say the K-12 education system in the United States has gotten worse in the last five years. Furthermore, over half of educators don’t expect to see improvements in the next five years, with only 5% saying that things will get better.

Our children are supposed to be the future of this nation, and we are failing them.

The system spends way too much time shoving woke ideology down their throats and not nearly enough time teaching them reading, writing and arithmetic.

The truth is that our system of education needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

That would be very painful, but if we don’t take dramatic action we will continue to fall behind the rest of the world, and that is something that we simply cannot afford to do.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.