The verdict is in, and it’s bad news for America’s schools and children. The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, has just revealed a nationwide plunge in reading that wiped out three decades of gains.

Ben Chapman, writing in The Wall Street Journal, says the nation’s schools recorded the largest drop in math scores ever this year, with fourth-and eighth-grade students in nearly every state showing significant declines, according to Education Department data just released. This is the most sweeping analysis of test scores since the start of the pandemic. But don’t blame the pandemic for all this bad news.

Prepandemic declines in academic achievement intensified nationwide and many longstanding gaps in student achievement grew. Low-performing fourth-grade students saw larger declines in both math and reading scores compared with high-performing ones. Black and Hispanic students in the fourth grade saw larger score drops in math than white students.

The data comes after federal test results released in September revealed the largest drop in fourth-grade reading scores since 1990 and the first-ever decline in math. Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli said the results should serve as a wake-up call for policy makers and school-district officials around the country.

Overall, scores in math and reading for both fourth-and eighth-grade students have fallen sharply since 2019, the last time the assessments were given, according to the collection of results from 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity schools. A separate analysis of 26 large-city school districts also showed declines.

Average math scores for eighth-graders in 2022 dropped to 274 out of a possible 500, falling 8 points from 2019. Reading scores declined 3 points, to 260. No state or jurisdiction posted gains in math in either grade, nor did any of the 26 large districts included in the analysis. Utah was the only state where the drop in the eighth-grade math score wasn’t statistically significant. Nationwide, 38% of eighth-graders tested below basic achievement levels in math. The basic level denotes partial mastery.

Fourth-grade reading had the lowest average score. Overall, percentages scoring below the basic level rose, in both reading and math. The test, administered to U.S. students ages 9 and 13, are regarded as key indicators for student achievement and future trajectory. Achieving reading proficiency by fourth grade is critical because students at that point must use reading to learn other subjects. Math proficiency in eighth grade is one of the most significant predictors of success in high school, educators said.

It will be easy for educators to blame the pandemic for these disastrous test results, but the issue runs far deeper. In my next blog, I’ll address the reasons for this decline based on an Op-ed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

We’ve all heard the liberal cliché, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” The recent devastation of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida certainly qualifies as a crisis and some journalists can’t help themselves when it comes to pushing their climate change agenda.

James Freeman, writing in The Wall Street Journal, calls out Washington Post writer Matthew Cappucci for his recent article headlined, “Study finds climate change is bringing more intense rains to U.S.” Cappucci reports:

When it rains, it pours.

A paper published Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds that it’s raining harder in most of the United States. The study, written by researchers at Northwestern University, tied the results to climate change and to warmer air’s ability to hold more water.

Record rain is hitting drought-stricken areas. That’s not good news.

The findings echo the fundamental laws of physics and thermodynamics, as well as the evidence from decades of research, and highlight the real-time effect that humans are having on the weather and climate.

There’s only one problem with this story – it’s not true! Roger Pielke, Jr., an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado, helpfully points out “what the new paper actually says.”

Although we examine precipitation trends during a time of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, and find similarities with greenhouse gas-forced model projections, our analysis is insufficient to directly attribute observed changes to ongoing anthropogenic climate change.

Professor Pielke then describes the Capucci article:

You won’t find a clearer case of misinformation in the major media. Well, hold on. Maybe you can.

Pielke then goes on to note a comical CNN attempt to dismiss narrative-busting data on hurricanes. I’m sure there are many other examples that could also be named.

Steven E. Koonin is a physicist and former undersecretary for science, U.S. Department of Energy in the Obama Administration. Currently he is a professor at New York University, formerly professor of theoretical physics at California Technical University.  With these credentials, we should listen to what he has to say. In his recent book, Unsettled – What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, Koonin says, “Since climate is a statistical concept over decades, no individual weather event can ever be firmly attributed to human influences. . . “

In other words, just because this may be a bad year for hurricanes, floods, drought, heat, cold, or any other weather extreme, it doesn’t mean the climate is changing. Only if these extreme conditions have been observed for over ten years or more, can we consider this climate change. But some journalists don’t want to wait that long.

My brother lives in California and this year has been one of extreme drought. The same has been true in the Northeast where we often vacation in New Hampshire. Yet Mr. Capucci wants us to believe that it’s been a year of too much rain. It’s terrible when the facts just don’t fit your narrative.

Mr. Freeman says the media wants to blame something or someone. I guess if they can’t blame climate change, they’ll just have to blame Donald Trump.

Is there still a Covid pandemic emergency or not? Apparently, it depends on your political agenda.

President Biden told CBS’s “60 Minutes” three weeks ago, “We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”  But the Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services this week again extended the official public-health emergency, this time through January.

The HHS statement says “a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board asks a pertinent question, “Not to get all philosophical, but how can something be an emergency if it has already ended?”

This is not the only example of Biden’s waffling on the issue of a Covid pandemic emergency. When he decided to forgive student loans of up to $20,000 per person, the White House said this would “address the financial harms of the pandemic.” But the government had already halted student loan payments since 2020, holding borrowers harmless. A month before he declared the pandemic “over,” Biden extended that student loan pause through December 31.

Then there’s the crisis at the southern border. The pandemic apparently ended there in April, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminated President Trump’s policy of expelling migrants using Title 42 health powers. The CDC said this is “no longer necessary.” The agency cited “the development and widespread deployment of Covid-19 tests, vaccines, and therapeutics.”

WSJ says, “A judge actually held that the Biden Administration couldn’t stop Title 42 enforcement, at least for now. But it’s another example of Biden’s choose-your-own-pandemic policy. Whether the crisis is over varies by agency and depends on what the White House is trying to accomplish. The HHS extension this week will freeze state Medicaid rolls and prevent ineligible recipients from being removed.”

I wrote about the effects of the HHS extension of the emergency in previous posts (Is the Pandemic Over?, Prolonging the Pandemic, ObamaCare Expanded Subsidies Live On). This extension by HHS will again broaden eligibility for Medicaid enrollment by extending waived financial ceilings that should have removed millions from the Medicaid rolls. It will also extend ObamaCare expanded subsidies that allow millions more to receive government discounts on their health insurance.

This extension of the emergency will also put certain work requirements for food stamps on hold. But as everyone knows, nearly every business in America currently has a sign in the window that says “We’re Hiring!” Businesses need help, but the government keeps giving people free money, so what’s the incentive to work? Unemployment is 1.9% in Minnesota, 2% in New Hampshire, and 2.5% in Missouri – but only because the labor participation rate keeps falling. Nobody wants to work and who can blame them. The only reason to work now is self-esteem – a commodity in rare supply in our country today.

WSJ concludes by saying, “Maybe Mr. Biden hopes to keep the emergency going until the end of the next recession.”  The reason has a lot to do with the coming mid-term elections. If you can’t earn votes, maybe you can buy them.