Why Johnny Can’t Read Anything Other Than Pronouns - WSJ
Schools have become laboratories for esoteric ideological projects, not centers of learning.
The Supreme Court reinstated a lower-court ruling this week that said California schools must notify the parents of children who start asking to use new pronouns or otherwise take steps to adopt a “gender identity” at school that is different from their sex.
In an unsigned 6-3 decision—the liberal justices dissented—the court said the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on their claim that schools violated the Constitution when they kept parents in the dark on such matters. Parents, it concluded, have a right to “direct the upbringing and education of their children” as they see fit. Most Americans no doubt are relieved by the majority’s common sense. But what does it say that these are the kinds of issues that often dominate our national discussions around K-12 education today?
Far too many children are still assigned to substandard schools, and too many remain unable to read or do math at grade level. Meanwhile, educators and policymakers seem preoccupied with nonsense like helping students “transition” behind their parents’ backs or indoctrinating impressionable youngsters with social-justice poppycock to promote trendy political causes. American kids are outperformed by their foreign peers on international exams while we have to concern ourselves with whether school libraries make sexually explicit texts available to third-graders.
For a growing number of people in charge of the public education establishment, making sure that boys can play on girls’ sports teams has become more important than making sure students are acquiring basic academic skills that will enable them to learn a trade, complete college, become productive adults.
One of the few bright spots in our education system has been selective-enrollment public high schools, which use standardized tests and other objective measures to determine admissions. Examples include Boston Latin School in Massachusetts, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., all of which boast long and proven records of providing a rigorous education for students from all backgrounds. Yet even this successful model is increasingly under attack, and its future is uncertain.
A new study from the Manhattan Institute details efforts in Chicago to eliminate selective public high schools. Much of the Chicago public school system is in shambles. Wirepoints, a government watchdog group, reported last year that the Chicago Public School system operated 53 schools in 2024 where not a single student tested proficient in math, and 17 schools in which no student tested proficient in reading. Mayor Brandon Johnson and other Democrats blame these outcomes on a lack of resources, but spending per pupil has almost doubled since 2017, and teacher pay in the Windy City is among the highest in the nation for large school districts after adjusting for cost of living.
The sensible path forward in Chicago would be to change or close the schools that are underperforming, but Mr. Johnson and his fellow progressives are far more interested in targeting the selective-enrollment school model. Chicago operates under a “choice” system, which means students aren’t required to attend a school based on their ZIP Code and can apply to schools with open seats in other neighborhoods, including selective-enrollment schools.
In 2023, 76% of Chicago high-school students chose to attend a school other than the one assigned to them, but if teachers unions and other opponents of school choice get their way, this option will end. Resource allocation in the public school system is based in part on enrollment. Mr. Johnson, a former union official, and his allies want to force students to attend their assigned schools, which will help prop up failing schools and protect their union jobs. By design, it might also result in the closure of selective-enrollment schools that admit students from all over the city. School board elections in November could determine the future of Chicago’s choice system.
Critics of selective public schools claim that they serve too few minority students, divert resources from traditional schools, and exacerbate racial and economic achievement gaps. Yet the Manhattan Institute’s assessment found that at least a third of the students at selective high schools in Chicago come from low-income families, and Chicago Public Schools spend thousands more per student on nonselective schools.
Almost “70% of all students at selective enrollment schools are black and Hispanic,” according to the study’s author, Renu Mukherjee. And the “black-white, Hispanic-white, and low-income-non-low-income achievement gaps” in math and English test scores “are, on average, significantly smaller at the city’s eight top selective enrollment high schools than at CPS overall.”
We should be replicating successful school-choice models, not thwarting them. When will concern about the educational advancement of all kids reach the level of concern for their preferred pronouns?
