To parents and others looking for an overview of what’s wrong with public schools in an easy-to-read, short-chapter format, this is the book for you. Authors Boyack and DeAngelis summarize each of 40 ways that government is failing our schools in a separate chapter, using news bites, anecdotes, and telling data points to validate their overall charge of mediocrity. The 40 chapters coincide with the 40-year anniversary of the Reagan Administration’s Report, A Nation at Risk, which was published on April 26, 1983 and warned that America was threatened by “a rising tide of mediocrity” in education.

Some critics may contend that the word “mediocrity” hardly describes the true state of public schools today, with politically charged racial and sexual indoctrination commonly taught either in place of true academics, or infused into the academics that are taught. The most recent NAEP test scores bear this out, with the authors noting that just 33 percent of fourth graders are able to read at a proficient level, and only 31 percent of eighth graders are able to do so.

They write that “the release of NAEP scores is always accompanied by government officials claiming we need more and better testing with more and better instructions — more and better of what has been done before.” They quote Natalie Wexler, author of The Knowledge Gap, who writes: “It’s as though we’ve been prescribing medicine that is actually toxic — and when the patient fails to improve, or even gets worse, we just call for larger doses.”

These calls for more inevitably also mean more money, as if the increasing amounts poured into schools — from an average of nearly $12,000 per student in 2013 to more than $13,000 six years later — has done anything to raise NAEP scores, or any other performance metrics for that matter. In the chapter titled “Schools: A Jobs Program for Adults,” Boyack and DeAngelis show how the increase in school funding has not resulted in better curricula or any significant increase in teacher pay, but in an increasingly bloated administrative bureaucracy. “Half of the states now have more non-instructional personnel than teachers,” they write, and this includes “growth in high-pay administrative positions.”

No recent book on our nation’s failed education system is complete without implicating the teachers’ unions, and Mediocrity does not disappoint. In a particularly telling anecdote, the authors describe how, at the 2019 NEA Representative Assembly, teacher delegates voted down a resolution to rededicate the union “to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America by putting a renewed emphasis on quality education. NEA will make student learning the priority of the Association,” it stated.

This resolution further promised to view every program and initiative through the lens of promoting “the development of students as lifelong reflective learners.” What could matter more to an education association than the above? But this resolution failed while, as the authors point out, other resolutions were approved that endorsed “the fundamental right to abortion,” supported reparations for descendants of slaves, lauded the Black Lives Matter movement and the teaching of “White Fragility” in NEA development efforts.

“If this sounds like teachers are more focused on radical left-wing politics than quality education,” the authors write, “it might sound that way because it’s true.”

As may be expected, the authors cover the gamut of issues contributing to what they call mediocrity in the schools; for example, rote memorization of information, teaching to tests in place of “actual knowledge comprehension and application.” They review the ways students were used as “political pawns” during the pandemic and the parent rebellion that began when schools could no longer hide what they were teaching in virtual classrooms, which culminated in the infamous FBI labeling of upset parents as “terrorists.”

One of the most troubling chapters is titled “Sexual Abuse, Again and Again,” in which the authors describe the staggering level of sexual abuse of students in schools. A team of journalists from the Associated Press collected data from 2013-2015 showing that “For every adult-on-child sexual attack reported on school property, there were seven assaults by students.” Given that such attacks overall are “greatly underreported,” this problem is “far worse than mere mediocrity.” And, despite having “long been put on notice by the Supreme Court, schools ‘frequently were unwilling or ill-equipped to address the problem.’”

Boyack and DeAngelis lament that the natural curiosity of young children is quickly squelched when they start school and learn conformity. “Students learn to be quiet and do what they’re told—to conform instead of explore their curiosity.”

In their chapter on “Unsafe Schools,” the authors paint a disturbing picture of the wasteful spending to ostensibly make schools safer, while in the 20 states that allow teachers or school staff to be armed, “there has yet to be a single case of someone being wounded or killed from a [school] shooting.” They conclude: “Not only are schools unsafe, but their transformation into security systems—and the prohibition on most teachers from arming themselves to eradicate these ‘gun-free zones’ that attract shooters—is counterproductive at best.”

Mediocrity shows how, through the dumbed-down curricula, toxic school environments that include unchecked bullying, a lack of teaching basic skills and the inability to think critically, students are often unprepared for college and must struggle through remedial courses. Boyack and DeAngelis write that “hundreds of colleges place more than half of incoming students in at least one remedial course.” Yet nearly 80 percent of students believed they were ready for college when they graduated from high school, “and the same percentage of students had a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher. Clearly, there is a disconnect.”

What can be done to reform the mediocrity? The authors provide their conclusion by describing renowned New York City Teacher John Taylor Gatto, among whose admirers was Phyllis Schlafly. Gatto taught at some of the worst-performing schools in the city, including a junior high school in Harlem. Bucking the trends of the day by using methods that were uniquely his own, Gatto became the recipient of a number of teacher awards, including New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989 and 1990, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1990.

The authors note that ultimately “Gatto quit because he couldn’t succeed—his creativity and compassion for the students wasn’t enough. He was operating within a failing institution that undermined his efforts.” Gatto went on to become an author and public speaker, “warning parents across the country about just how problematic government schools had become.”

Finally, Boyack and DeAngelis advise parents that, having read their book, they have two options. They can turn a blind eye to the 40 examples of mediocrity and failure provided, believing their neighborhood schools aren’t so bad, and after all, were good enough for themselves and their parents before them. Or, they can “heed the warnings and take action” by pursuing better alternatives for their children.

The authors point out that it “has never been easier to step off the government school conveyor belt and explore other paths. Whether you choose private schools, microschools, homeschool coops, online learning, tutoring, cloud-based classrooms, or another option in a quickly evolving landscape of education entrepreneurship, there are solutions out there for every child.”

To read the entire book, go here to order!

The Education Reporter Book Review is a project of America’s Future, Inc. To find out more about America’s Future, visit AmericasFuture.net.

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