America’s student population of around 67.8 million have been hit hard by the changes caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent government responses to it. Primary, secondary, and college students have had to shift their learning from the traditional classroom, to an unfamiliar virtual one. If there’s one thing for certain however, it’s that children are very adaptable to changing circumstances, while the educational system very much isn’t.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for September 2019 is the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A PLUS) Act, H.R. 3149, introduced by Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), which seeks to provide states with the option to opt out of onerous Obama- and Bush-era federal education requirements.

This month the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on the Higher Education Act, which was originally passed in 1965. The primary topic for the duration of the two hour hearing was the collection and dissemination of data from colleges and universities.

In the past month or so since my blogpost here at FreedomWorks was published, I have experienced the best and worst people, amazing opportunities and the negatives of trying to get a powerful message across about our biased school system.

Quietly and almost without notice, an initiative which significantly erodes local and state control of school curriculum has passed in 46 states. The Common Core Standards Initiative sets Math and English curriculum in every participating state at the same level. In adopting this “common core” states are relinquishing their right to compose their own education requirements.

Kids are weird — especially mine. Sure, I can identify personality traits as coming from me and my wife, but they’re jumbled up in odd ways. If we’re the original track, our kids are the dance remixes. My eldest daughter is analytical and conscientious when work needs to be done, but fearless and funny in her off time. Her younger sister will procrastinate and goof off, but will create elaborate, amazing projects just for fun. Definitely related, but wildly different.

No one needs to be reminded that we have an education system in crisis. While there are many reasons for the education dilemna at hand, one widely held belief is that our teachers are not prepared for the changing educational climate.

California has lost 600,000 jobs in the last decade and has a $26 billion deficit. Their public schools aren’t performing well, with lower grades and graduation rates than students in other states. It makes sense that a community would want to invest in education, but one would expect reasonable return on investment.