Neither Party Cares About Your Kids’ Education

Both parties have abandoned American students. Democrats obsess over closing achievement gaps while ignoring whether anyone actually learns anything. Republicans score easy points opposing progressive overreach without offering a real alternative. Meanwhile, our kids fall further behind.

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The Center for Educational Progress is what we need. Their goals? Meet students where they are. This means ability grouping, acceleration for advanced learners, and remediation for those who need it. It means abandoning the “one-size-fits-all” model that holds back fast learners and fails to support struggling ones. Embrace the science of learning. This means explicit instruction in foundational skills, systematic phonics for reading, practiced fluency for math. It means deferring discovery-based approaches until students have mastered the basics. Measure what matters. This means regular assessment to inform instruction, honest reporting of results, and accountability for outcomes. It means resisting the temptation to lower standards in the name of closing gaps. https://t.co/20YDeDSWWT

Garry Tan @garrytan January 30, 2026

The Center for Educational Progress is finally saying what everyone knows but no one will admit: we need to meet students where they are, embrace the science of learning, and measure what matters. This shouldn’t be controversial. It’s what parents have always wanted. But both parties have made it impossible to deliver.

The Bipartisan Failure on Education

The Center for Educational Progress lays it out plainly: Democrats were once the party Americans trusted on education. That trust has eroded because the progressive reform movement became laser-focused on equity—specifically, on closing achievement gaps between demographic groups—at the expense of effective pedagogy and educational excellence.

The result? Gifted programs get cut. Selective admissions eliminated. Excellence abandoned. Meanwhile, Republicans don’t have to outrun the bear—they just have to outrun Democrats. When Democrats introduce a bad idea, we go from zero to minus-x. When Republicans defeat it, we’re back to zero. Victory claimed, nothing actually accomplished.

The teachers’ unions—major players in Democratic fundraising—advocate for unpopular positions from keeping schools closed during COVID to defending curricula that parents find alienating. Democratic politicians, afraid to punch left, defer to unions rather than median voters. It’s a doom loop where progressive policies alienate parents, parents flee to charter schools, public enrollment declines, and the remaining institutions double down on the very approaches that caused the flight.

The Science Democrats Ignored

Here’s the bitter irony: the most educated progressives driving these reforms are themselves insulated from the harms of the bad pedagogy they support. They can afford tutors when public schools fail. They can move to better districts. The costs of their experiments are borne by families who have no such options.

Consider Jo Boaler’s approach to math instruction, which deemphasizes memorization of basic facts and promotes open-ended “discovery” learning. Or Lucy Calkins’ whole language approach to reading, which rejects systematic phonics instruction. Both are marketed as more engaging, more equitable than traditional methods.

The problem? They’re not backed by the science of learning. Decades of rigorous research show that explicit instruction—clear, systematic teaching of foundational skills—produces better outcomes than constructivist approaches, especially for struggling students.

We have mounting evidence that the move away from phonics education—especially in Blue states—has been an abject policy failure. The methods marketed as equitable actually widen achievement gaps. Wealthier students can afford better instruction outside of school; poorer students cannot.

Mississippi Showed the Way

If you want to see what works, look south. Mississippi implemented three key reforms: require phonics teaching, train teachers in phonics, and hold back third-graders who can’t read at grade level. The results? When adjusted for demographics, Mississippi is now one of the best states for low-income students and students of color to learn to read.

This is what a positive vision actually looks like: identify what works, implement it systematically, measure results, and adjust. The Southern states did this not by fighting culture wars but by taking the science of reading seriously.

Meanwhile, California just passed AB 1454 with $480 million for evidence-based literacy textbooks for grades 1-8. Good start. But the state plan provides training and textbook lists without making them mandatory. Half measures when we need all-in commitment.

The Southern literacy surge serves as a political embarrassment to blue states that should be outperforming Mississippi and Alabama.

The Center for Educational Progress Vision

Here’s what CEP is proposing—and it’s a vision either party could champion:

Meet students where they are. This means ability grouping, acceleration for advanced learners, and remediation for those who need it. Abandon the “one-size-fits-all” model that holds back fast learners and fails to support struggling ones.

Embrace the science of learning. This means explicit instruction in foundational skills, systematic phonics for reading, practiced fluency for math. Defer discovery-based approaches until students have mastered the basics.

Measure what matters. Regular assessment to inform instruction. Honest reporting of results. Accountability for outcomes. Resist the temptation to lower standards in the name of closing gaps.

Let every student advance as far and fast as their curiosity and determination will take them. Protect gifted and talented. Protect AP classes. Protect algebra and advanced math at the dawn of AI—the perfect technology to improve education for every child at every level.

Either party could adopt this vision. Republicans can say they’re the party that actually follows the science on education. Democrats can say they’re returning to evidence-based learning that parents used to trust them for. American students are waiting. The question is: who will strike first?

Follow @garrytan for more.