Anyone who follows education news—or simply has children in public schools—knows that we are facing an education crisis in this country right now. Grade school students in multiple states cannot read or do math at grade level. The problem existed years ago, but school shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic made things even worse.
Now, some states in the South have discovered a solution: going back to basics and teaching foundational skills like phonics. It’s amazing—if you focus on teaching kids to read rather than prioritizing subjects like social justice and gender theory, they actually learn to read. Who knew?
Kelsey Piper writes at *The Argument* on Substack: *Illiteracy is a policy choice*.
This month, the Department of Education released its latest edition of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the standardized tests better known as the Nation’s Report Card. The results have left me blazing with rage.
In my home state of California, for instance, only 30% of public school fourth graders can read proficiently. Fully 41% cannot even read at a basic level—which means they cannot truly understand and interpret written text at all. Eighth graders look almost as bad.
But scores are not slipping everywhere. In Mississippi, they have been rising year over year. The state recovered from a brief decline during COVID and has now surpassed its pre-COVID highs. Its fourth-grade students outperform California’s on average, even though California is richer, has a more educated population, and spends about 50% more per pupil.
The difference is most pronounced when you look at the most disadvantaged students. In California, only 28% of Black fourth graders read at or above a basic level, compared to 52% in Mississippi.
But it’s not just that Mississippi has raised the floor. It has also raised the ceiling. The state is one of the nation’s best performers when you look at students who are *not* economically disadvantaged.
And it’s not just Mississippi. Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee have adopted the same strategies to stem the bleeding experienced in other states—and they have seen significant improvements.
This is the part of the story that has gotten the most attention: teach phonics! And you should, indeed, teach phonics. But making schools adopt this approach took more than a mere nudge.
The Southern Surge states have used a combination of earmarked funding, guidance to districts, and outright mandates to accomplish universal adoption of phonics-based instruction.
When schools embrace topics like gender and social justice at the expense of basic and necessary skills like reading and math, they rob students of the learning they need to succeed in life.
Every school in America needs to return to the basics. It is an absolute crime for a young person to go through years of schooling only to emerge unable to read.
Southern states are showing the way—and it works.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/southern-states-mississippi-louisiana-go-back-teaching-basics/