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American Students Show Mediocre Test Results
By Carole Hornsby Haynes April 13, 2018 Education Views
The United States spends more on K-12 education than almost any other nation in the world and yet our students are performing poorly on tests.
This week the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress test results in mathematics and reading were published. These are tests that have been funded by Congress since the late 1960s and early 1970s and required for all 50 states as part of No Child Left Behind. Called the nation’s “Report Card,” NAEP tests must be given at least every two years to a stratified random sample of students at specific grade levels (4, 8, and upper high school).
The federal government, bent on collecting massive amounts of personal information on its citizens – a flagrant violation of the Fourth Amendment – and the tech industry, under fire for its digital products designed to addict, have joined forces in American classrooms. 
What many parents have suspected is now being exposed by former Silicon Valley employees: that tech companies have designed their digital products to be addictive.
U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos claimed in a recent speech to American Enterprise Institute that “at the U.S. Department, Common Core is dead.” 
Sparks flew recently when Senator Ted Cruz filed an amendment to the tax reform bill allowing 529 college savings accounts to be expanded to include private, religious, and homeschools. The homeschool associations squared off in separate corners on the homeschool provision.
Giving parents the right to choose how they educate their children must be a high priority. 
Recently President trump appointed Frank Brogan to the key position of assistant secretary of education for elementary and secondary education. This is puzzling since Trump campaigned on the promise that he would stop federal support of Common Core and return control over education to the states and the people. With the appointment of Brogan, a longtime Bush ally from Florida, the probability of that promise being kept seems to be fading.
When Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced an amendment to expand 529 college savings plans to include K-12 education, allowing parents to use these tax-advantage plans for private schools, religious schools, or even homeschools, the Democrats had a meltdown.