












































Volume 1, Issue 1 
2017 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 
Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 

 
W. Charles Weis 
Assistant Professor of Education Leadership 
California State University Channel Islands 
 

For the last five decades many politicians have disparaged public education, and public school teachers, 
for stagnant or slow achievement test score growth. These recently increasing attacks are, in many 
cases, misguided due to lack of knowledge of readily available research, data, and reports. The truth is 
that educators are performing herculean feats daily in classrooms throughout our country. Achievement 
test scores have improved over time, graduation rates are at an all-time high, and more students than 
ever are ready for college. These accomplishments—particularly in light of our nation’s history of 
excluding and underserving many populations (e.g., students of color, low-income students, English 
Language Learners) and the rising numbers of these demographics—deserve to be recognized and 
appreciated, not discredited and dismissed.  

The motivation for disparaging statements about our public schools may be to promote political 
ideologies and/or to divert attention from failed policies affecting families living in poverty. Apparently, 
those who believe in the superiority of market-driven public schools through for-profit charter schools 
are attempting to convince the public that the same public schools that made America the intellectual 
and financial powerhouse that it is in the world today are now failing. This article confronts common 
negative political speech about education and sheds light on the facts from readily available sources. 

The Success of Public Schools 
The truth, as supported by data and research, is that public schools are successful and continue to 
accomplish excellent outcomes even with changing demographics of students. Today’s students have 
changed over-time to be more impoverished and increasingly minority and English Language Learners. 
The U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics website displays the 
longitudinal study of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). This assessment of student 
learning has been administered to representative samples of 9, 13, and 17 year olds in schools in each of 
our 50 States for four decades. The results over the last 30 years show that even though more students 
who took the NAEP test are living in poverty (eligible for Free or Reduced Priced Lunch) and more are 
from minority populations than in 1973, NAEP reading and math scores have improved or remained the 
same from 1973 to 2008 [see Appendix Tables 1-5] (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). 



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

In addition, the 4-year high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, more students are challenging 
themselves with Advanced Placement (AP) courses that accrue college credit, and more students than 
ever are ready for college by completing rigorous college preparatory courses. The College Boards, who 
administer AP exams, report that significantly more students are taking these exams nationwide with 
roughly the same percent passing as in the past (a score of 3 or better). They report that in 1955-56, 
1,229 students took 2,199 exams and in 2015-16, 2,611,172 students took 4,704,980 exams with 
2,729,043 tests passed, giving credit for this number of college courses (College Boards, 2017). The 
California Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, reported that the California class of 2016 
graduation rate of 83.2% was an increase “for the seventh year in a row and is now at a record high, 
with the biggest increases… taking place among English Learners and African American and Latino 
students” (California Department of Education, 2017, para. 1).  

It should also be noted that American public schools, over the past century, have produced adults who 
created the most patents, technology, the strongest economy, and the leading country in the free world.  

Disparaging Comments about Teachers and Public Schools 
Even with the results shown above, many politicians continue to disparage public schools. The uptick in 
attacks on public schools may have been inspired by rhetoric in the recent Presidential campaign. One of 
the loudest voices was that of Presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose opinion of public school 
teachers has been less than favorable for many years (Kranish & Miller, 2016). 

Even before he began campaigning for the Presidency, in a 1997 legal deposition, Mr. Trump declared 
that educators lack intelligence, saying that, “I assumed that the people essentially teaching the kids were 
not stupid. They turned out to be very stupid” (Boser, 2016, para. 4). In Mr. Trump’s 2000 book, The 
America We Deserve, he wrote among other things that graduation diplomas “have been devalued into 
‘certificates of attendance’ by a dumbed-down curriculum that asks little of teachers and less of 
students” (p. 67). In Mr. Trump’s 2015 book, Crippled America, he writes, “I am totally against these 
programs and the Department of Education. It's a disaster. We cannot continue to fail our children—the 
very future of this nation” (pp. 50-51). On the presidential campaign trail, Mr. Trump rolled these 
criticisms into a call for “urgent change” for “our government-run education monopoly” (Sullivan & 
Brown, 2016).   

Economic Policy Failures 
Attacking public schools is a clever diversion to prevent the electorate from discussing poverty in 
America. In general, politicians are reluctant to acknowledge that their governmental policies have not 
adequately met the needs of families living in poverty while simultaneously creating more families living 
in poverty. In fact, the number and percentage of families living in poverty has continued to grow over 
the last two decades from 11% to 13.5% of Americans living in poverty (43.1 million in 2015) according 
to the U.S. Census Bureau, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In fact, the greatest rise in 
people living in poverty in the United States is school aged youth under age 18. In 2015, 19.7% of this 
group, nearly one in every five children, lived in poverty – up from 16% on 2000. It has been known for 
fifty years that family poverty is one of the strongest predictors of low achievement test scores. It is 
clear from these statistics that governmental economic policies have failed families living in poverty and, 
therefore, stunted their children’s educational growth (U.S. Census Bureau, 2016). 

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-06-22/local/me-5945_1_original-spago


Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

Education Policy Failures 
Misinformation about education’s success and failures has resulted in the creation of harmful education 
policy. The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2001, renamed No Child 
Left Behind (NCLB), significantly increased standardized testing in Reading and Math (to annually) in 
order to rank schools while calling for 100% of students to be proficient by the 2014 school year (a 
logically unattainable goal). Lower ranked schools were required to offer afterschool tutoring by non-
teachers and parents were offered a choice to attend a different school (that resulted in white flight and 
greater school segregation). In addition, these schools were subjected to “turn around” efforts such as 
firing the staff, closure, restructuring, or conversion to a charter school. At the time that this law was 
written, little or no high-quality research supported these “turn around” efforts to improve student 
learning; however, recent research has documented the impotence of these policies. Though NCLB had 
the positive effect of spotlighting achievement gaps, it systematically narrowed the curriculum to 
Reading and Math instruction only, to the detriment of all other subjects (Berliner & Glass, 2014; Spring, 
1997; Ravitch, 2010).  

Charter schools have been the subject of federal and state laws for many decades and have been touted 
as the panacea for improving student learning by instituting free-market competition. As a result, 
charter schools have blossomed and investing in them has become the latest investment hot ticket. 
Charters have become a multi-million dollar income generating business venture, even though 
numerous financial failures of for-profit charter schools have been documented in popular media over 
the past several years. Many stories have highlighted schemes concocted by charter operators who 
embezzled millions in public funds meant for the education of children. Charter schools in New York, Los 
Angeles, San Bernardino, Detroit, Pinellas, Florida, Chicago, Memphis, and Mesa Arizona have been 
closed due to financial improprieties and/or poor student performance. For example, 143 charter 
schools in Texas have closed since the program began in 1998 and 122 have closed in Michigan. 
According to a National Center for Education Statistics report, 2,378 charter schools were closed in the 
United States between 2000 and 2014, displacing 253,454 students (Singer, 2016). By contrast, non-
charter public schools are closed at a much lower rate primarily due to declining enrollment. 

The most comprehensive study of charter schools, prepared by The Center for Research on Education 
Outcomes (CREDO) in 2009, concluded that:  

The group portrait shows wide variation in performance.  The study reveals that a decent 
fraction of charter schools, 17 percent, provide superior education opportunities for their 
students.  Nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from 
the local public school options and over a third, 37 percent, deliver learning results that are 
significantly worse than their student would have realized had they remained in traditional 
public schools (p. 1).    

The follow-up study by the same research group in 2013 (Center for Research on Education Outcomes, 
2013) reported that charter schools had improved in reading performance and mathematics, where they 
attained scores comparable to non-charter public schools. The report also documented that charters 
had longer school years by eight days than non-charter public schools. However, they found results 
similar to the 2009 study in that “charter school quality is uneven across the states and across schools” 
(p. 3). Other studies of charter schools show higher dropout rates, consistent under-enrollment of 



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

students with special needs, and highly segregated student populations. These findings strongly suggest 
that charter schools have supported segregation and that they are not the academic achievement 
panacea that they were believed to be. 

The Impact of Public School Disparagement 
Concerted effort over many decades to disparage public schools has resulted in more negative attitudes. 
Annually, Phi Delta Kappa surveys the American public on their attitudes toward public schools, 
consistently finding that those with greater connections to public schools rate them higher—and the 
reverse is also true—those with fewer interactions rate them lower.  The highest ratings of public 
schools come from parents of children attending those schools.   

Langer Research Associates (2016), who analyze survey results, confirm these findings, reporting that 
parents of children in public schools are more likely to give schools higher marks (A or B grades) than the 
general public, with 67 percent giving their own child’s school an A or B compared to just 24 percent for 
all adults. This suggests that public official’s disparagement of public schools have created an image of 
failing schools that does not reflect the experiences of the majority of those who have regular contact 
with local public schools.  

Why Does this Matter? 
As more and more Americans wrongly believe that public schools are failing, the pressure to support 
them financially through taxes is lessened, which could lead to dismantling the successful public school 
system in America. The very foundation of our American way of life is based on the free education of our 
citizens. It has long been believed that in a democracy, an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our 
survival as a free people. Thomas Jefferson wrote the following to James Adams in 1787: “Educate and 
inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and 
order, and they will preserve them” (Family Guardian, 2017, Section 39.3, para. 1). He also wrote to 
Richard Price in 1789, “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own 
government” (Section 39.2, para. 4). Free American public schools must be preserved. 

In addition, the disparagement of public schools can lead to discouragement of students in their own 
potential. It also discourages young college graduates from pursuing education as a career, which has 
resulted in a teacher shortage. This may be the most important topic of our time. Abraham Lincoln said 
“Upon the subject of education…I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a 
people may be engaged in” (Abraham Lincoln, 1832, p. 8). His words are more important today than 
ever before. 

What is the Remedy? 
Just as the purpose of this journal suggests, all people, but especially our leaders, should review 
educational research, reports, and data before making policy or speaking on the subject to the public. 
Discussions on these important educational issues should take place regularly. The education of our 
nation is too important to be left to uninformed politicians. 

 



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

About the Author 
Dr. Charles Weis is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at CSU Channel Islands and Co-
Director of the Collaborative Online Doctorate in Educational Leadership offered jointly by CSU Channel 
Islands and Fresno State. He is a retired County Superintendent of Schools and current school board 
member for the Hueneme Elementary School Board in Port Hueneme, California.

References 
Berliner, D. & Glass, G. (2014). 50 Myths & lies that threaten America’s public schools. New York, NY: 
Teachers College Press. 

Boser, U. (2016) Donald Trump’s Disregard for Teachers. Think Progress Blog October 20, 2016 Retrieved 
from https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trumps-disregard-for-teachers-9ff7901986f9/. 

California Department of Education. (2017). State schools chief Tom Torlakson reports record high 
school graduation rates and seventh consecutive year increase. Retrieved from 
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr17/yr17rel27.asp 

Center for Research on Education Outcomes. (2009). Multiple choice: Charter school performance in 16 
states. Stanford University, Stanford, CA Retrieved from 
https://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf 

Center for Research on Education Outcomes (2013). National charter school study. Stanford University, 
Stanford, CA Retrieved from http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft.pdf 

Coleman, J. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity.  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing 
Office. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED012275.pdf 

College Board. (2017). AP program participation and performance data 2016. Retrieved from 
https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2016 

Family Guardian. (2017). Thomas Jefferson on politics and government: Educating the people. Retrieved 
from http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/ThomasJefferson/jeff1350.htm 

Kranish, M. & Miller, M. (2016). Has Donald Trump ever actually punched anyone? An investigation. The 
Washington Post. February 27, 2016. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/has-
donald-trump-ever-actually-punched-anyone-an-investigation/2016/02/26/430252e8-dca2-11e5-81ae-
7491b9b9e7df_story.html?utm_term=.7389cdf6cba9 

Langer Research Associates. (2016). PDK poll of the public’s attitudes toward public schools. retrieved 
from http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/ or http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/08/PDK2016PollExecutive-Summary.pdf 

https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trumps-disregard-for-teachers-9ff7901986f9/
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr17/yr17rel27.asp
https://credo.stanford.edu/reports/MULTIPLE_CHOICE_CREDO.pdf
http://credo.stanford.edu/documents/NCSS%202013%20Final%20Draft.pdf
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED012275.pdf
https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2016
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/ThomasJefferson/jeff1350.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/has-donald-trump-ever-actually-punched-anyone-an-investigation/2016/02/26/430252e8-dca2-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html?utm_term=.7389cdf6cba9
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/has-donald-trump-ever-actually-punched-anyone-an-investigation/2016/02/26/430252e8-dca2-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html?utm_term=.7389cdf6cba9
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/has-donald-trump-ever-actually-punched-anyone-an-investigation/2016/02/26/430252e8-dca2-11e5-81ae-7491b9b9e7df_story.html?utm_term=.7389cdf6cba9
http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/
http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PDK2016PollExecutive-Summary.pdf
http://pdkpoll2015.pdkintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/PDK2016PollExecutive-Summary.pdf


Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

Lincoln, A. (1832). To the People of Sangamo County, March 9, 1832. Collected Works of Abraham 
Lincoln. Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:8.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext 

National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in academic progress 
2012. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from 
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/  and 
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2015/#mathematics/groups?grade=8 

Ravitch, D. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system. New York, NY: Basic Books. 

Singer, A. (2016) Charter school failure (the schools, not the kids). The Huffington Post. 12/01/2016 
06:29 am ET | Updated Dec 01, 2016. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-
singer/charter-school-failure-th_b_13347518.html 

Spring J. (1997). Political agendas for education. New York, NY: Routledge. 

Sullivan, S. and Brown, E. (2016). Trump pitches $20 billion education plan at Ohio Charter School that 
received poor marks from state. The Washington Post. September 8, 2016. Retrieved from 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-pitches-20-billion-
education-plan-at-ohio-charter-school-that-received-poor-marks-from-
state/?utm_term=.107266d62cc2 

Trump, D. (2000). The America we deserve. Los Angeles, CA: Renaissance. 

Trump, D. (2015). Crippled America: How to Make American Great Again. New York, NY: Simon & 
Shuster.  Retrieved from On The Issues at http://www.ontheissues.org/Crippled_America.htm 

U.S. Census Bureau. (2016). Income and poverty in the United States: 2015. Washington, D.C.: U.S. 
Department of Commerce retrieved from 
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html 

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln1/1:8.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ltt/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/charter-school-failure-th_b_13347518.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/charter-school-failure-th_b_13347518.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-pitches-20-billion-education-plan-at-ohio-charter-school-that-received-poor-marks-from-state/?utm_term=.107266d62cc2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-pitches-20-billion-education-plan-at-ohio-charter-school-that-received-poor-marks-from-state/?utm_term=.107266d62cc2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/09/08/trump-pitches-20-billion-education-plan-at-ohio-charter-school-that-received-poor-marks-from-state/?utm_term=.107266d62cc2
http://www.ontheissues.org/Crippled_America.htm
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2016/demo/p60-256.html


Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

APPENDIX: TABLES 1-5 
 
Table 1 (reproduced from The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012) 

Changes in NAEP reading average scores and score gaps for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students, 
by selected characteristics: various years 

Characteristics Subgroups 

Score changes from 1973 
Score changes from 

2008 

Age 9 Age 13 Age 17 Age 9 Age 13 
Age 
17 

All students 
All students 13  8 

  

 3 
 

Race/ethnicity 
White 15  9  4 

   

Black 36 24 30 
   

Hispanic 25 17 21 
 

 7 
 

Gender 
Male 17  9  4 

   

Female 10  6 
  

 3 
 

Score gaps White – Black Narrowed Narrowed Narrowed 
   

White – 
Hispanic Narrowed Narrowed Narrowed 

 

Narrowed 
 

Male – Female Narrowed 
     

 Indicates score was higher in 2012 

 Indicates no significant change in 2012. 
 
 

 

  



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 
Table 2 (reproduced from The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012) 
 
Changes in NAEP mathematics average scores and score gaps for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old 
students, by selected characteristics: various years 

Characteristics Subgroups 
Score changes from 1973 

Score changes from 
2008 

Age 9 Age 13 Age 17 Age 9 Age 13 Age 17 
All students 

All students 25 19 
  

 4 
 

Race/ethnicity 
White 27 19  4 

   

Black 36 36 18 
   

Hispanic 32 32 17 
   

Gender 
Male 26 21 

    

Female 24 17  3 
 

 5 
 

Score gaps White – Black Narrowed Narrowed Narrowed 
   

White – 
Hispanic 

 

Narrowed Narrowed 
   

Male – Female 
  

Narrowed 
   

 Indicates score was higher in 2012 

 Indicates no significant change in 2012. 
 

  

1 Reading results for Hispanic students were first available in 1975. Therefore, the results shown in the 
1971 section for Hispanic students are from the 1975 assessment. 
2 Score differences between male and female students in mathematics were not found to be statistically 
significant (p < .05) at age 9 in 1973, 2008, or 2012, and at age 13 in 1973 and 2012. 
NOTE: Black includes African American, and Hispanic includes Latino. Race categories exclude Hispanic 
origin. 

  



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 

Table 3 (reproduced from The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012) 

Trend in NAEP reading average scores for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students 
 

 

  



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 

Table 4 (reproduced from The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012) 

Trend in NAEP mathematics average scores for 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students 

   
  



Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased 
W. Charles Weis 

Allies for Education 2017, 1, 1 
https://journals.library.csuci.edu/ojs/index.php/afe 

 

Table 5 (reproduced from The Nation’s Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012) 

 


	Uninformed Attacks on Public Education Have Increased
	The Success of Public Schools
	Disparaging Comments about Teachers and Public Schools
	Economic Policy Failures
	Education Policy Failures
	The Impact of Public School Disparagement
	Why Does this Matter?
	What is the Remedy?
	About the Author
	References
	APPENDIX: TABLES 1-5

