Trump can save America’s schools

OPINION:

President Trump is among the most consequential presidents to have served in the White House. He is singularly focused on what is best for America, no matter how challenging the issue.

The way we educate our nation’s children — how we prepare the next generation of American leaders — is a major part of our constitutional republic. Mr. Trump possesses characteristics that make him uniquely qualified to reform our decades-old failing schools.

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that as America’s K-12 students matriculate through school, their performance declines in key academic areas.

Last year, nearly 4 million students received high school diplomas, but only 22% were proficient in mathematics and 35% in reading.

An estimated 160,000 students stay home from school each day out of fear of being bullied, and up to 80% of K-12 educators regularly worry about their physical safety at work.

A nation that continues to accept the abject failure that has become America’s K-12 schools cannot expect to remain a sovereign nation.

Yet it is not irreversible. We proved as much time and again in a Baltimore-Washington area school located in a state police “hot spot” for the area’s high crime rate.

The school’s positive turnaround began the moment character became the dominant feature of daily operation. Emphasis on character meant that the leftward lurch to accommodate woke ideas had to be jettisoned. Students and staff would thereafter be seen as classmates or colleagues, not oppressors and victims.

The school instituted meaningful academic standards regarding grading, and teaching was to be conducted without any notion of “equity.” We established expected professional and student behavioral standards and academic instructional interventions and encouraged active parental involvement.

This school went on to become a National School of Excellence, where all student groups met or exceeded state academic standards.

Its success can be replicated across America, no matter the ZIP code.

The president has signed an executive order directing the education secretary to shut down the Department of Education, but it is not enough.

States across the country have abdicated their responsibility to provide a meaningful education to their youngsters. Many states, such as Maryland, no longer require high school seniors to pass proficiency tests to receive a diploma because of “equity imbalances.” New Jersey no longer requires aspiring teachers to pass its Praxis Basic Skills test.

Yet despite our country’s abysmal academic and behavioral performance, massive nationwide May Day walkouts and protests took place last month. Thousands of teachers, parents and students shrugged off academic learning to participate in boycotts of work and school.

Decentralizing federal education powers and giving them back to the states is a worthy idea, but given widespread mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, the president should make such a transfer of education power contingent on states doing the following:

• Proving that they have enacted the president’s executive orders, administrative guidelines and congressional legislation regarding establishing commonsense school discipline policies absent woke practices.
• Terminating unfair race- or gender-based diversity programs that conflict with civil rights laws.
• Ending indoctrination and pushing of radical gender ideologies, including concealing a child’s gender transition from parents, and defining gender strictly as biological sex.
• Providing a rigorous and robust education to youngsters based on best practices and academic interventions that propel teaching and learning in every classroom.
• Requiring that students pass statewide academic proficiency tests before being given a high school diploma.
• Ensuring that school districts publish annually accurate academic and behavioral discipline data.
• Assuring that school districts are accountable to their taxpayers for providing a robust education to our children in safe schools.

If states do not take these actions, then they should expect defunding and investigation by the administration.

Our continued failure to educate students imperils America. Mr. Trump has the opportunity to take concrete actions to make America’s K-12 schools great again.

• Stephen Wallis is a nationally recognized school principal and author of “Dead Last: The Triumph of Character, Passion, and Teamwork in Education.”