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How our schools’ foolishness is courting ‘civilizational failure’

Nypost · · 669 words · By Rich Lowry
Educational Policy Literacy Crisis Digital vs. Print Learning
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What to know about Educational Policy

We’ve been having a debate about “book bans” in recent years, but given the steep decline in student literacy, the deeper question is how any child would even notice whether a book is available in a school library or not.

Claims checked 12
Techniques found 3
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

We’ve been having a debate about “book bans” in recent years, but given the steep decline in student literacy, the deeper question is how any child would even notice whether a book is available in a school library or not.

Why it matters

The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford recently published an eye-opening study documenting steep declines in student test scores, especially in reading.

Common ground

Over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83% of America’s school districts.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Causal Oversimplification, Exaggeration / Hyperbole: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://nypost.com/2026/05/15/opinion/how-schools-foolishness-is-courting-civili…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 3 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 95% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.
warning
Causal Oversimplification 80% confidence
Assuming a single cause for a complex issue.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing causal oversimplification helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.
warning
Exaggeration / Hyperbole 85% confidence
Overstating facts or claims to create a stronger emotional response.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing exaggeration / hyperbole helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 12 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
info Single Source 3
schedule Pending 2
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
schedule
Claim 1: “On top of evidence that reading had also fallen from the 1940s to 2003, this makes for an 80-year decline.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 2: “According to a New York Times survey, 80% of teachers say that students at their schools have a device assigned to them; it was only a third in 2019.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided web search results for the New York Times do not contain the specific survey data regarding device assignment percentages (80% vs 33% in 2019).
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Live news, investigations, opinion, photos and video by the journalists of The New York Times from more than 150 countries around the world. Subscribe for coverage of U.S. and international news, poli…
https://www.nytimes.com/
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 80% of students surveyed now use GenAI, with daily use climbing above 50% and 90% saying their reliance has grown over the past year. On average, students juggle two AI tools, with ChatGPT leading for…
https://essayhub.com/blog/survey-80-percent-students-use-gen…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — New York is struggling to keep up. The audit, which focused on the State Education Department’s lack of oversight of bilingual education programs, found that seven out of nine districts visited didn’t…
https://nysfocus.com/2024/10/18/why-cant-new-york-keep-up-wi…
check_circle
Claim 3: “Reading scores were falling at a similar clip prior to the pandemic, in 2017-2019, and continued to fall into 2024.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that reading scores were falling between 2017-2019 at a rate similar to the pandemic period and continued to fall through 2024.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — STUDENT is an early artificial intelligence program that solves algebra word problems. It is written in Lisp by Daniel G. Bobrow as his PhD thesis in 1964 (Bobrow 1964). It was designed to read and so…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STUDENT
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countrie…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Student may refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Student
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 4: “One analysis found that “digital reading does improve comprehension skills, but the beneficial effect is between six and seven times smaller than that of print reading.””
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found after searching for the analysis comparing the comprehension effects of digital reading versus print reading.
verified
Claim 5: “This follows what had been a steady increase in test scores from 1990 to the 2010s.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
While search results discuss the 'learning recession' and recent declines, none of the provided evidence explicitly confirms a 'steady increase' specifically from 1990 to the 2010s to contrast the current decline.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — African Exchange Student is the fourth studio album by American jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett, released by Atlantic Records in 1990. It features a core quartet of Garrett on saxophone, Mulgrew Miller…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Exchange_Student
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Kosovo student poisoning refers to the poisoning of nearly 8,000 Kosovar school students by toxic gases that occurred on 22 March 1990. As a result of a lack of information this incident was named…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_student_poisoning
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countrie…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “Over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83% of America’s school districts.”
CORROBORATED
Two separate web search results explicitly state that reading scores have fallen across 83% of school districts over the past decade.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Reading Football Club played the 2009–10 season in the Football League Championship, having lost 3–0 on aggregate to Burnley in the Championship playoff semi-final. Reading had a new manager, Brian Mc…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–10_Reading_F.C._season
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — U.S. Route 222 Business (US 222 Bus.) is a 12.17-mile (19.59 km) business route of US 222 in Reading, Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at US 222 in Cumru Township. Its northern terminus is at US…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_222_Business_(Readi…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 7: “More than 80% of those in schools where devices are used said that kids get them . . . by kindergarten.”
SINGLE SOURCE
No evidence was provided that confirms the statistic that 80% of students in schools using devices receive them by kindergarten.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — 4 days ago · The meaning of OVER is across a barrier or intervening space; specifically : across the goal line in football. How to use over in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/over
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Over 25 million users at research institutions and businesses worldwide love Overleaf Explore Overleaf for business and universities
https://www.overleaf.com/
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Over is related to the German word über, meaning "above," like putting one piece of paper over another, or a ruling over your school, you popular person. Over can describe a distant position: your pho…
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/over
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Claim 8: “In a third of school districts, kids are reading a full grade level below where they were in 2015.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly state that in one in three (approximately 33%) school districts, students are reading a full grade level lower than they were in 2015.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Georgia ( JOR-jə) is a state in the Southeastern, South Atlantic, and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the northwest, North Carolina and South Carolina to the northeas…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The United States Steel Corporation is a Japanese-owned American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and C…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geog…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 9: “A report last year in the journal iScience found that reading for pleasure steadily declined from 2003 to 2023.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 10: “states that showed improvement between 2022-2025 embraced phonics, which now goes under the rubric “the science of reading.””
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions a shift toward phonics and extra reading support in districts that improved, but the specific timeframe (2022-2025) and the direct link to the 'science of reading' rubric for those specific improvements are not corroborated by a second independent source in the provided evidence.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — U (minuscule: u) is the twenty-first letter and the fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of other western European languages and others world…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Ú (minuscule: ú), known as U-acute, is a Latin-script character composed of the letter U and an acute accent. It is found in the Czech, Dobrujan Tatar, Faroese, Hungarian, Icelandic, Karakalpak and Sl…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ú
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — In chemistry, U is the symbol for uranium. Sometimes used as a short form of "you". It is the seventh letter on the QWERTY keyboard.
https://simple.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U
help
Claim 11: “A new study by the Rand Corporation found that most English teachers assigned at least one full book during the school year, although 9% didn’t assign any; roughly two-thirds assigned only a bare minimum, between one and four.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found after searching for the Rand Corporation study regarding the number of books assigned by English teachers.
check_circle
Claim 12: “The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford recently published an eye-opening study documenting steep declines in student test scores, especially in reading.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources (NPR and other web search results) confirm that the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University released data/analysis showing a decline in student test scores in reading and math.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Elliot Wayne Eisner (March 10, 1933 – January 10, 2014) was a professor of Art and Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and was one of the United States' leading academic minds. He …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Eisner
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Philip George Zimbardo (; March 23, 1933 – October 14, 2024) was an American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He was an internationally known educator, researcher, author and media…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Lela…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University
+ 3 more evidence sources
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.