Well they are functional. Plus they know all the words to Lady Gaga and Fi´ty Cents

Sorry I didn´t read the article. As OP said, it´s depressing.

1/3 are probably functional illiterates in two languages---Spanish and English. We are doomed. Speaking of depressing . . .

Not in inner city parochial schools where kids are literate by kindergarten

Not reported: 0% of home-schooled fourth graders are functionally illiterate.

And 1/4 of public school teachers are as well.

Well the Democrats have to get their future voters from somewhere

I bet they can pick out two mommies and two daddies in a sentence...
Gov dumbing down kids who in turn go to college and become dumbed down liberal leftwing "teachers"

Dump the union, dump tenure..merit based pay. Dump the busy work, concentrate on the basics in the early grades.
Take over local school boards.

The percentage of disabled children has never been higher. Autism rate was 1 in 10,000 30 years ago; now it is 1 in 88. Learning disabilities and ADHD are also up significantly.

When will folks start asking questions as to why so many more children are disabled now than in the past?

In spite of 12 years of Dominican and Jesuit education.....and long and testy relationships with numerous universities....I have come to value most my ability to:

1-Fix a tractor.
2-Plant stuff.
3-Hit a coke can target with a 100´ pine tree.
4-Fix a chainsaw.
5-Drill and maintain a water well.
6-Care for large animals.
7-Produce ammunition.

The "Liberal Arts" education went way off the rails long ago.

Teach your children well.

It´s even OK to let the school district babysit them all day (before they´re old enough to work a chainsaw) as long as you home school them when they get home.

It´s not either-or.

Teach them how to make their own food and water and let the devil take the hindmost.

The system is designed this way. No other explanation works.

I adopted two kids internationally. They arrived with very, very little English. The school´s position is that they must be enrolled for three years before they can be evaluated for any support for reading, speech therapy, any tutoring, etc.
We spent the first year with them at home, teaching basic English, social skills, etc. We sort of expected there would be some support at the schools. Nope, not a bit. And there are kids there - in 7th and 8th grade - that I´ve met that do not read any better than a kid just in the country for a couple of years. (Third grade at best.)

Now, if we´re looking at adding three years of delay onto things, we must be aiming for inability as a goal. Otherwise, we´d get on it faster so we could fix it.
It appears we are not. I must therefore conclude the education system is not interested in teaching, but in an end result different than providing an education.
Dependency seems to fit best.

Doherty states the problem, but does not go far enough on the solution.

Eliminate government schools. There is no need for them in this internet age. Give parents vouchers and let the private sector handle education. This gives parents full choice among competing private and religious schools. Competition improves quality and lowers cost. Government control does not.

Libs will point to states with lagging education programs. Now more than ever, however, states must compete for jobs. To attract industry, a qualified workforce is needed. For that to happen, quality education must be available. Therein is the incentive for all states to make that happen.

With that done, there is no further need for a Department of Education. Abolish it.

Oh I thought they were talking about the teachers. Statistic still correct though.

More Lofos on the way. Chelsea, Sasha and Malia could use some.

I read my 1st book without pictures in the 4th grade. I remember the motivation to pay attention in class and do good on quizes and tests. We were afraid of flunking.

Regarding reply 10. There is no doubt that compared to 30 years ago more children are diagnosed with disabilities. At least part of the increase is secondary to fake diagnoses, as there is a lot of money in a fake diagnosis for ADHD, for example. Gimme gimme more free stuff. Plus ADHD students get enabled. They can behave like houligans at school and it gets blamed on their disability. Of course, the parents of ADHD "students" get a lot of attention, which they like.

Teacher´s Uniions; greed, laziness, ignorance and arrogance. Can´t fire a bad teacher. I feel sorry for the kids.

First, remember your Twain: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Next, remember that the population of America is not monolithic. There are three major population cohorts. Call them "white, "black," and "Hispanic," though any ethnicity can be found in any group. But the names are both useful shorthand identifiers and roughly correct, ethnically, in most cases.

Next -- each of these cohorts has [generally, again] certain cultural factors in play. We all know the term "acting ´white.´" And we all know that "acting ´white´" generally encompasses beneficial, lawful, achieving behaviors. And therefore, "acting ´black´" must encompass... "other things."

Conclusions -- take these cohorts as if separate countries, and you´ll find very different statistics on things like: infant mortality; crime; literacy; personal income; "wealth" [read: accrued property]; education; IQ [there -- I said it; it´s true; bite me] and a hundred other factors. I therefore reject out of hand condemnation of the whole country because certain population cohorts pull the average down.

#10 asks "why so many more children are disabled now than in the past?" Easy! Because there are "advocates" [read: we get paid for pot-stirring] and there´s money for the school district in having students labeled "disabled."

#11: Bet you´d "look like Robert Heinlein´s son."

In 20 years, the homeschooled kids will run the country. I hope.

More lofo voters in the pipeline.

Bring in more of those "illegals"

The additional cash cow result of the lack of 3R´s emphasis in the primary years is the community college, online college and Joe Blow´s College charging tuition for classes of high school proficiency, particularly in math and English. Aided by high school counselors and teachers pushing everyone into some sort of college track regardless of their relative ability/proficiency levels.

What nonsense! One-Third of entering college freshmen are functionally illiterate.! I know. I deal with them every semester.

Parents and soon to be parents, they’re your kids, not government kids. The government is not educating them, so you must do it. That’s just the way it is.

Fourth graders ? How many adults are illiterate ?

It starts at home, schools are not meant to be babysitters. They don´t have to pass a test to leave high school, they just show up and get a certificate of completion. Follow up that with college and AA.

What percent of college graduates have prominate jobs without knowing anything, but have a piece of paper ? Oh, I forgot about him.

The teachers want more money for their great work!

Our students should be compared to those of OTHER Countries. Then the results would be more striking. Many of our schools are run for the benefit of the teachers and the Administrations, not the students. As an example, starting classes at 7 AM is guaranteed to have a sleepy child in most of the seats. It is extremely difficult for many single parent households to cope with work and the children. A lot would be improved if we had 2 parent families and rational school hours.

RE #5. I´m surprised the number is 1 in 4. I thought it would be a little higher.

Oh for crying out loud. You folks know that the progressive/socialist movement took over this nation´s public education system and institutes of higher learning decades ago. It was never their intent to "educate" students, only to "indoctrinate" then as to the socio/political ideology of progressive socialism. They have been very focused and patient in their goals and some of the payoff for their efforts came on election day 2008. Wake up people. You been undermined from within and are totally oblivious to it.

Teachers Union in an ungarded moment into a hot mike they didn´t know about...

"I´s the 2/3 of the kids we weren´t able to dumb down that is our concern. We have our marching orders from the Democrat Party to produce ´sheeple´ and we are trying our hardest..."

Only a third? Who counted, the other two-thirds?

My 18 year old tested into the 2nd highest level English class at the local JC last summer after public school elementary, home schooled by me in middle school and 4 years in Catholic high. He is highly literate and educated because we made sure he was! You have to take responsibility for your kids and monitor everything. Obviously, you cannot rely on public education today. Those first few years are crucial. We read to him every night starting in his toddler days and got him out of public school as soon as we could.

LOTS of blame to go around.
Full disclosure: my mom was a teacher in some of the poorest districts of western PA and SE Ohio. My sister was a teacher for a few years. And daughter is now a teacher in one of the poorest districts in Arkansas (think about that for a moment).
Let´s talk about home life for a minute. Single parent homes usually have the TV or video games for baby sitting. Look up Fred Reed´s site sometime, check out how often the police are at a home where there are ZERO books. Mom was a ditz, pregnant at 15. So was grandmother. You expect interest in history or science or reading?
My mom was a caring teacher. Lost her job at a district in Ohio because she gave a kid the grade he earned, not the one his parents felt their position in the community entitled him to. As an aside, abuses like that were the impetus behind teacher unions, like it or not.
Daughter teaches high school, the first 3 periods are for students from the nearby state prison for juveniles. Half her 10th grade girls are pregnant. Kids can´t take books home anyway, she has only 32 books to spread among 7 classes. Some of the students don´t have electricity at home, making reading there unlikely.
Flexibility is hindered by the diktats coming down from Washington and Little Rock apparatchiks.
In her college classes, she was told that she must NEVER flunk a student. Might hurt their self-esteem, or similar rot. So the failures get passed on.
And, not least, the lowest average IQ on any college campus, student and faculty both, is usually in the school of Education. It shows.

Teachers are now called "educators", and English is now called "Language Arts". And one-third of fourth graders cannot read worth a damn. some educators. Another corrupt and ineffective union shop.