Schools across the United States are depleted and disconcerted heading into this academic year, following a chaotic summer riddled with financial uncertainty.
On June 30, the Trump administration announced it would withhold over $6 billion in K–12 education grants—just one day before states were expecting to receive the funds—to ensure that the grants aligned with the White House’s priorities. The previously approved grants supported English language learners, after-school programs, migrant worker families, teachers’ professional development, and more. However, all of the funding was gradually released by late July following mass bipartisan outcry, including public condemnation from 10 Republican senators and lawsuits from 24 Democratic-led states.
But substantial damage had already been done during the weeks-long funding freeze. Public school districts were forced to hurriedly revise their budget plans for the 2025–26 school year, shut down after-school and summer programs, and cut jobs.
The summer is a critical time for educators to prepare for the upcoming academic year, as they revise curriculums and engage in professional development. This year, teachers had to put many of these efforts on the back burner to immediately address the catastrophic budget cuts.
At a time where education policy is dominated by polarized ideological debates, the most fundamental indicators of quality—students’ ability to read and do math—are steadily descending.
This all comes as some key indicators of K–12 schools’ performance—namely, students’ reading and math scores—are slipping nationwide.
“The attacks on public education have tremendous potential to weaken our ability to address these declines in reading and math,” said Jennie Williamson, the Massachusetts state director for the nonprofit Education Trust, in an interview with NPQ. “Here in Massachusetts, we’ve got a governor, we’ve got a legislature, we’ve got leaders that really prioritize investments in education, but there’s still a significant amount of funding that comes from the federal government. If cuts continue to be proposed, it will have pretty profound consequences for our students.”
When the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) revealed that reading and math scores for fourth and eighth graders have, overall, continued to decline from 2019 to 2024, education leaders were disheartened. At a time where education policy is dominated by polarized ideological debates, the most fundamental indicators of quality—students’ ability to read and do math—are steadily descending.
Behind the Scores
Many people could logically attribute the decline in reading and math scores to the COVID-19 pandemic, which subjected students to decreased instructional time amid frantic attempts at remote schooling and sparked prominent chronic absenteeism. However, reading scores have been declining since as early as 2015, and larger systemic shortcomings in the education system have also fueled the ongoing trends.
Williamson said that inadequate teacher preparation, insufficient state investments in education, and weak access to grade-appropriate reading and math curricula are all fueling the literary and numeracy crises. She emphasized that Massachusetts—despite regularly topping the nationwide rankings for education—still struggles with declines in reading and math scores and seessome of the largest achievement gaps in the country.
“Below the statewide averages lies a real insidious reality, which is that Massachusetts is only number one for some,” Williamson said. “We have some of the widest achievement gaps than anywhere else in the country—gaps that leave low-income students, students of color, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities behind in our education system.”
In the 2024 NAEP evaluation, the growing achievement gaps remain clear: Although fourth grade students performed slightly better in math as compared to 2022, that increase largely stemmed from already high-achieving students performing even better. Where scores declined was mainly driven by a drop in low-achieving students’ scores.
Scott Hindman, who founded the grantmaking nonprofit Excellent Schools New Mexico, said that the plunging literacy and numeracy rates are also exacerbated by grade inflation in schools. While the NAEP found that only around a third of students nationwide were proficient in reading and math, high school graduation rates are almost 90 percent on average.
“If you’re telling kids they’re doing well and you’re graduating them, there might not be as high of an incentive to improve those scores,” Hindman told NPQ. “They’re still hitting that end goal of exiting the K–12 system.”
As students without proficiency in basic reading and math move through the system, progressively studying more advanced material, they fall further behind each year, placing the problem in more educators’ hands. The grade inflation in K–12 schools has even struck higher education—university professors are seeing more students lacking these elementary-level skills, forcing them to offer more remedial classes.
“We know that literacy rates are linked and predictive and help support civic engagement, so obviously the implications for a democracy when we don’t have a literate society are massive.”
Hindman also said that it would be unrealistic for schools in, for example, New Mexico—which consistently falls near the bottom of national education ranking—to simply mimic a more successful state’s unique practices in hopes of improving their own reading and math performance. He explained that state governments enacting positive education policies is not a sign of success in itself: There are numerous factors, including budget and teacher training, that determine the feasibility for statewide rules to be put into practice at each school.
For example, Williamson said that her team is advocating for a bill, S 338, to implement a statewide requirement that all Massachusetts schools employ evidence-based approaches to teach literacy. She explained that Massachusetts deeply values district autonomy, and while this can pose challenges when trying to improve statewide education outcomes, the bill will not mandate districts to teach a specific curriculum.
The Dangerous Implications of Falling Scores for the Future
Plunging literacy and numeracy skills have repercussions far beyond outcomes for individuals and even demographic groups—they serve as indicators for the future of American society as a whole. Williamson explained that these steady declines point toward an illiterate upcoming generation, which could devalue the nation’s democratic practices while compounding existing disparities.
“We know that literacy rates are linked and predictive and help support civic engagement, so obviously the implications for a democracy when we don’t have a literate society are massive,” Williamson said. “There are far-reaching consequences when people can’t read, or recognize numbers, or problem solve.”
Williamson also said that while education leaders and policymakers are currently focused on addressing the literary crisis, they are largely overlooking the dangerous numeracy crisis. She said that the growing societal presence of artificial intelligence will make the key skills that math education is rooted in, such as critical thinking and analytical reasoning, even more valuable for future careers.
Beyond withholding K–12 grants for potentially supporting a “radical left-wing agenda,” the Trump administration has taken numerous other strides to amend public education—many of which are motivated by ideology rather than improving student performance. For instance, the federal government has targeted schools for teaching about race and gender identity; revived the 1776 Commission “to promote patriotic education” and suppress narratives about the country’s founding on slavery and persecution of Native Americans, and more.
Hindman said that teachers feel “under attack” amid the current political uncertainty in both education and beyond—especially because schools are responsible for performing so many more services than just teaching students the curriculum. He said that he often hears educators expressing that they cannot focus on teaching students academic skills like reading and math because they are burdened with so many other tasks—often serving as social workers, behavioral interventionists, mental health specialists, and administrators on top of teaching.
Hindman also emphasized that the United States needs more leaders at the state and federal levels actively fighting against children’s declining ability to read and do math, drawing attention to their dystopian implications for the nation’s future.
“We need more people saying that this is unacceptable, and I don’t think either party is really doing that right now,” Hindman said. “You can’t blame Republicans, you can’t blame Democrats. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of leadership in that. We need more voices saying that this can’t happen.”
“[These] are the people who are working on the ground, who know the landscape, know the context, know the struggles of the districts and the students. They are the best voices to really be pushing for systemic policy change.”
The Role of Nonprofits
The Trump administration freezing billions of dollars for education with little explanation was met with rare powerful public condemnation from both Democrat and Republican leaders. As bipartisan distrust grows in the federal government to adequately support K–12 schools, third parties like nonprofits are positioned to play an important role.
Williamson said that her nonprofit emphasizes partnerships with direct service providers across Massachusetts, allowing the organization to have a wider impact and directly support school districts by filling gaps in literary support, tutoring, and professional development for educators.
She also said that she encourages education nonprofits to engage in policymaking so that they can help drive systemic changes in the school system.
“A lot of times, nonprofits and direct service providers feel like that’s outside of their wheelhouse,” Williamson said. “But in my experience, those are the people who are working on the ground, who know the landscape, know the context, know the struggles of the districts and the students. They are the best voices to really be pushing for systemic policy change.”
On the other hand, Hindman said that only large nonprofits can realistically have a meaningful influence on policy. He explained that although nonprofits are often incentivized to influence widespread policies and hope they trickle down to every school, these efforts often do not amount to long-term change.
He said that his team wants New Mexico education advocates to examine the schools that have managed to improve reading and math scores and then uplift those specific leaders so that they can help more students. He emphasized the importance of school leadership, especially principals, in improving educational results, and advocated for greater focus on their contributions to education advocacy.
“We try to get down to that micro level—to that leadership level—and really work with good leaders,” Hindman said. “One of the things I’ve learned in my career is, if you fund and back and support great people and let them have a broader impact and run with it, that’s where change happens.”
