A dangerous enemy threatens America. This threat is hard to confront, because it does not represent any one government and is not in any one location; it operates in smaller cells all over. If not stopped, it is sure to inflict violence on the country, decimate cities and alter our way of life.
I'm not talking about al-Qaida, but about another menace just as dangerous as a terrorist in the long run: The utter failure to educate today's kids, tomorrow's adults. Did you see the test scores from around the nation that were released last week? Abysmal.
The 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation's report card, reaffirmed that large chunks of American students are not getting the basic education they'll need to succeed. There's a general sense that U.S. schools aren't as good as they need to be. But these scores point to a persistent crisis.
Eighty-five percent of black eighth-graders are not proficient at reading. And 87 percent of black eighth-graders are not proficient in math. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, 84 percent of black eighth-graders are not proficient in math, yet that is close to the best among urban districts.
It's not just minorities. More than half of white eighth-graders weren't proficient in math or reading. Overall, almost two-thirds of the nation's eighth-graders are not proficient in either math or reading. This has been a problem for years and the numbers improve at a glacial rate.
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