This subject came up in a guest-article by Maurice Washington, Chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, and published in the Charleston Mercury for its October 2022 issue. Washington titled it "The Conversation We Can no Longer Ignore," meaning Democrats and Republicans have ignored the "Conversation" about failing school-children long enough.

Since the public-education establishment consists mostly of Democrat politicians and activists, this turning a blind eye reflects poorly mostly on them. Washington's article serves as an act of whistle-blowing, inasmuch as the Charleston County School District's terrible statistics stay hidden most of the time.
Washington furnished Mercury readers with the basic figures:

  1. 85% of surveyed teachers said their "disengaged" students do not have parental figures who can oversee their education.
  2. 51% of all public school students are not reading on their grade-level.
  3. 81% of Black students are not reading on their grade-level.
  4. 75% of Hispanic students are not reading on their grade-level, although many of them have only recently arrived in this country and speak Spanish in the home.
  5. Only 26% of White students do not read on their grade-level. Thank God, one group is performing properly!

   
I wonder how Charleston's educational bureaucracy has reacted to Washington's article—or if they have reacted. If they have not, maybe the Mercury needs to name them and hold their feet over the fire until they do respond.

I also have wondered how transparent other cities are about the performance of their public schools; so I looked them up on-line.
Given the District's importance in public affairs, I would have expected that at least the White kids would perform well. Then I realized—silly me! The White kids of the bureaucrats, politicians, and diplomats attend a private school. At any rate, here are the District's public school ratings published by the Washington Post:

  1. 28% of Black students and 30% of Hispanic students perform at grade-level.
  2. 70% of White students achieved grade-level scores.

These figures should also convince someone to hold the bureaucrats of the nation's public school system over the fire.
Meanwhile, the National Assessment of Educational Progress center reported on the comparative scores of public schools versus private schools. The figures must have jolted some bureaucrats out of their workaday lethargy, but one rarely sees criticism of the nation's public schools. Here are the surprising comparisons:

  1. For 4th grade students from both public and private schools, private schools scored 14.7 points higher than public schools in reading.
  2. The average private school scored 7.8 points higher than public schools in math.
  3. For 8th grade students, reading scores in private schools was 18 points higher than in public schools.
  4. For 8th grade students, math scores in private schools was 12.3 points higher