This Is How Bad Public Schools Are

School districts in affluent areas are hotbeds of left-wing activism, but in general, student performance is at least acceptable. Parents ensure that their own children do well enough, and often invest heavily in supplementing public education with specialized tutoring that at least guarantees that their kids do well on standardized tests. 

Kids get a much worse education than they should, and often more than parents assume, but there is a reason many parents are unaware of the parlous state of the public education system as a whole. If you can get your kid into a good school in a prosperous area, it really isn’t that bad, except for the ideological indoctrination. 

I don’t want to oversell even the better public schools. Kids are now entering college without ever having read a book, and often with math skills that require remedial education, even at elite colleges. But parents love the fact that their kids are getting good grades and doing well on standardized tests, and will earn a credential that will likely serve them well. 

Most affluent parents seem indifferent to the left-wing ideological training their kids are being subjected to, although I detect that a backlash is building and will become strong enough to force the lefties to become more subtle in affluent areas. Or not. 

New Jersey’s second-grade curriculum has been updated to include topics like gender identity and sexual health

“By the end of 2nd grade according to their own curriculum: Differentiate between gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation

— It gets even worse.… pic.twitter.com/27ianzMapu

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 18, 2026

“By the end of 2nd grade according to their own curriculum: Differentiate between gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation

— It gets even worse. Listen to this. They need to know how to define vaginal, oral, and anal sex, how to perceive consent to sexual activity, how to identify short and long term contraception, and safer sex methods that are effective and how to identify and access and use them and to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. 

All of this is in a curriculum that a second grader needs to know about.”

As disappointing as the best public education can be—good enough to keep the AWFLs happy—the average public student can now graduate with good or even excellent grades knowing little, and in some cases even as illiterates. It’s not that they can’t read a book, which is so common that even at elite schools, many teachers no longer assign anything beyond excerpts. They literally cannot read. 

This girl graduated with honors by a woke school district, got into @UConn as a result despite being TOTALLY ILLITERATE and guess what she’s studying now? Public policy. Creating policy that affects your life. Now she’s suing the public school for millions. This is DEI in action. https://t.co/2EbLAwgcOL

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 18, 2026

No doubt many people would watch this story and be shocked. How can an honor student who gets admitted to college turn out to be completely illiterate? For that matter, how can a college allow a student who cannot read at all to major in public policy?

California just keeps it going…here the goal is to teach them through “social change projects” how to be an activist: pic.twitter.com/gUAUv8LSmc

— tie4114 (@tie4114) February 6, 2026

Welcome to the American public education system, where teachers and professors are only interested in producing cannon fodder for the Revolution. Teachers can now literally lobby to keep their schools closed, demand that students not do schoolwork when the union is out on strike, and the unions spend most of their efforts pushing leftist agendas that have nothing to do with education. 

🎯 Off Target: Randi Weingarten’s Fight With Target Isn’t Remotely About Education

Randi Weingarten is not even pretending her job is for teachers anymore. On a recent movement call with Sunrise, YDSA, and the AAUP, she bragged that she pressured Target to make a public… pic.twitter.com/tevXJWWODo

— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) February 18, 2026

Schools are centers of left-wing activism now, as I wrote last week, but I didn’t emphasize enough the fact that the activist agenda hasn’t been supplemental to a curriculum; it has replaced it entirely in much of the public school system. 

California just keeps it going…here the goal is to teach them through “social change projects” how to be an activist: pic.twitter.com/gUAUv8LSmc

— tie4114 (@tie4114) February 6, 2026

🚨 Yesterday, the Minnesota Federation of Educators ran a battlefield simulation, training for war against ICE.

‘Education Minnesota’ is the umbrella under which all teachers’ unions operate.

By claiming 501(c)(5) status, they evade $8.2 million in federal taxes every year. pic.twitter.com/gYkK3J8u3k

— NizNellie3 (@NizNellie3) February 9, 2026

Most people I know think back to their own experiences in the public schools and assume that the current system is much the same. Not great, but not horrific either. 

BREAKING – A disturbing new trend is emerging across the country, showing leftist teachers guiding very young children, some no older than kindergarteners, in protests against ICE and President Trump. pic.twitter.com/hklMV7Zh6B

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) February 1, 2026

Nope. For many, if not most, students, it is worse than useless. It exists to indoctrinate. Can you imagine what this poor, illiterate student expects to promote in her public policy endeavors if she manages to graduate? 

Dad ckecks both kids out of school because the school is encouraging them to protest, instead of learning math, English, or science.

This is happening in Florida.

Ron DeSantis talks tough, but by him allowing stuff like this I know hes all talk – nothing more.

Pathetic. pic.twitter.com/2oOxfGge1N

— Mila Joy (@Milajoy) February 18, 2026

Likely more of the same. 

I’m unsure if abolishing the public schools would be enough to reverse the trend, as I would expect that many of the current teachers would wind up at some other school anyway, and that the college education curricula would churn out more revolutionaries incapable of teaching anybody how to read. 

But it would be a good start, at least. 

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