Students are doing better academically in GOP-led states: new report

Once known for outperforming their red counterparts, blue states are now falling behind in education as Republican-led states surge ahead due to their focus on proven academic models over “equity,” according to a recent City Journal report.

“Whether you call it the ‘Mississippi Miracle‘ or the ‘Southern Surge,’ Republican-led states are rapidly improving student outcomes relative to blue states, thanks to a series of substantive reforms over the past decade,” the report states.

Policy analyst Neetu Arnold, the report’s author, credits their success to implementing evidence-based reading instruction, removing ineffective teaching methods, and enhancing school safety policies. Meanwhile, Democrat-led states have weakened discipline policies, lowered academic expectations, and prioritized ideological initiatives focused on “equity” over academic excellence, she writes.

Jonathan Butcher, an education policy expert with The Heritage Foundation, spoke with The College Fix about the problems that education programs supported by the left have caused in schools.

Restorative justice was historically meant for prisons, where offenders made amends to those they harmed, Butcher told The Fix via email.

In schools, however, it’s been adapted into a confrontational process where disruptive students simply “talk it out” with others. While the idea sounds nice, it’s often applied without real accountability—leaving no true restoration, he said.

“The research on restorative justice finds that when educators keep disruptive students in the classroom (instead of using suspension or expulsion for violence), this has a negative effect on classroom climates and leads to lower scores for their peers (I review the research here),” he said.

Further, Butcher said it is “essential” that younger students focus on reading, and recommended replacing diversity, equity, and inclusion training with civics classes.

Schools should “return civics instruction to the classical ideas of character and virtue,” he told The Fix, adding that “this was common a century ago. Civics and virtue were almost indistinguishable.”

“Use examples from US history, as well as Greek and Roman history, to teach honesty, courage, and self-control. This gives students something to aspire to instead of something to be resentful of, which is common in DEI programs,” he said.

Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Michael Petrilli also shed some light on the achievement gap between red and blue states. He pointed to differences in union influence and willingness to embrace proven academic reforms in an interview with The Fix.

“[W]eak teachers’ unions are one of the reasons that these Southern states have been able to make so much progress. Still, we see deep-blue communities that are also capable of making strong progress–if they adopt the science of reading and other common sense reforms,” Petrilli told The Fix.

For instance, New York City recently saw major improvements on its state English language arts exams, likely due to new reading reforms, Petrilli said.

Similarly, Massachusetts’ strong focus on a rigorous curriculum and tough academic standards helped drive its remarkable progress during the late 1990s and early 2000s — often referred to as the “Massachusetts Miracle.”

He added that the disparity between red and blue states is likely to increase due to “the political power of the teachers unions in blue states, which blocks any promising reform, including those related to charter schools, accountability, or teacher pay innovations.”

“Red states have a freer hand to implement reform, and it shows,” he said.

Two red states showing major gains in test scores—Louisiana and Mississippi—have embraced proven strategies such as the science of reading, statewide benchmark testing, and firm classroom discipline. Both have recently made headlines for their significant improvements on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In Louisiana, fourth graders climbed from last place in national reading rankings in 2019 to 16th place today. It also holds the title of the only state to have recovered from the COVID-19 setback. Mississippi also made significant gains, rising from second-to-last in fourth-grade reading scores in 2013 to 21st in 2022.

They are not the only states taking the lead. In a “Southern Surge,” many red states such as Tennessee, Texas, and Florida are making huge educational gains compared to their blue counterparts.

“It’s no surprise that states that have opened up school choice, like Florida and Arizona, and states that have prioritized literacy, like Louisiana and Mississippi, have seen major improvements that benefit students,” Defense of Freedom Institute spokesperson Angela Morabito told The Fix. 

“Other states would do well to put politics aside and put students and families first, the way these states have done,” she said. 

The College Fix reached out to the Chicago teachers’ union, the California Department of Education, and the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research via multiple emails for their take on these statistics. None responded.

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