The Nation’s report card, also known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, shows a decline in reading scores among children in America. Between 2022 and 2024, not a single state saw improvement in reading scores.

As literacy rates continue to decline in the United States, young people are struggling to complete their education, get jobs, and meaningfully contribute to society. The literacy crisis in America is only becoming worse, and it’s time that all Americans — Christians and conservatives included — begin to invest time and energy into revitalizing the public school system.

It’s easy to look at the state of education, conclude public education is broken beyond repair, and retreat into the world of homeschooling, private, or charter schools. Over 80% of children in the United States are in the public education system, however, and those children deserve a chance at high-quality education just as much as everyone else.

If Christians and conservatives continue to retreat from public education without attempting to help those still in the system, we risk producing a generation of children raised by public schools with declining literacy rates and lack of guidance. There are still millions of children attending public schools: The question of whether they can read has a major impact on everyone, no matter the school system.

The solution to declining literacy is not to send more students into the public education system. Yet reform is possible. For the good of future generations, we should resist the urge to hide in a private or homeschool bubble.

As much as conservatives complain about kids being ruined by the public education system, what are we actually doing about it? In each community, citizens can attend and speak at school board meetings or tutor at local schools. Helping to solve the literacy crisis in the United States could be as easy as researching candidates for school board and being informed when you show up to vote. 

Everyone has different talents, skill sets, and abilities that they can contribute to help improve public education in their own community. For some, helping solve the literacy crisis might look like going into the public education system as a career rather than teaching at a school that aligns with their values. For others, it may look like volunteering, or simply acknowledging the harsh odds that many students in America are dealing with.

As college students in a place like Hillsdale, many of us were raised with the privilege of attending schools that gave us the headstart we needed to learn how to read and write well and supplied us with the tools we needed to succeed here. We should appreciate the opportunities we’ve been given, but also recognize that we are immensely lucky to have gotten to the place we are. 

We don’t have to volunteer at the local schools every week to care about the declining literacy rates in this country, but deeming public education a useless cause is one way to increase the gaps in literacy rates, and is no solution to the education crisis this country is facing.

 

Skye Graham is a sophomore studying history.