When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. 

But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated in math. 

According to federal law, the H-1B program gives visas to foreigners coming to perform services "in a specialty occupation." A specialty occupation is defined as requiring "theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge," plus higher education requirements. 

US 'REPORT CARD' SHOWS STUDENTS HAVE FALLEN BEHIND IN READING, BARELY BUDGED IN MATH: ‘THE NEWS IS NOT GOOD’

The program is annually capped at 65,000 regular H-1B visas, with another 20,000 for those foreigners who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities. 

Given Musk’s vehement support of the program, it is no surprise that a federal report states that in 2023, "computer-related occupations were the largest major occupational area, accounting for 65% of all beneficiaries [of the program]." In comparison, less than 1% of H-1B visas were given to foreigners in the social sciences. 

While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving. 

In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables. 

Michael Malione, a professional math tutor in California, said that his students were instructed by their public schools to draw and shade different areas of rectangles when multiplying fractions, rather than simply multiplying the numerators and multiplying the denominators to get the correct answer. Requiring students to learn math this way is both inefficient and ineffective. 

"We’re going to draw a picture every time we’re given 10 problems with fractional multiplication, when you could do them in your head?" Malione asks. "That’s insane." 

Malione sees students "who are completely lost and they’re not getting the step-by-step guidance early on." 

Given Malione’s experience, it is unsurprising that a federally funded study found that Common Core had significant negative effects on the math achievement of eighth graders. 

College math professors are shocked at students’ poor math skills. 

One college math instructor in the Silicon Valley lamented that the lack of algebra knowledge is "the number one deficiency and its chronic." He said, "we’re not producing the kinds of students and graduates that Silicon Valley needs."

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION 

Sugi Sorensen, a top engineer at famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also tutors students in math, urged a return to proven traditional math practices, which includes mastering the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through "the memorization of math facts and procedures" so that students "can perform computations quickly, accurately, and effortlessly." 

Further, math topics should be sequential, "where new concepts are built upon previously learned ones in a structured, hierarchical manner," Sorensen said. 

Finally, Sorensen recommends that math operations such as long division "should be explicitly taught and practiced until mastery," with an emphasis on accuracy. 

America has nearly 50 million K-12 students. If schools use proven math instructional methods instead of failed progressive techniques, there would be less need for H-1B visas because there would be more than enough young Americans with the skills companies need. The tech titans at Trump's inauguration should lean on schools to do just that. It is time to make math great again. 

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the PRI book The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LANCE IZUMI

The Supreme Court will weigh an effort to establish the nation's first religious charter school with implications for school choice and religious practices. 

The court agreed Friday to hear two cases on the matter, which will be argued together — Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond. 

In 2023, the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa for a K-12 online school, the St. Isidore of Seville Virtual Charter School.

SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE IF FAMILIES CAN OPT OUT OF READING LGBTQ BOOKS IN THE CLASSROOM

Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and an education group sought to block the school after the approval. 

In a 7-1 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found a taxpayer-funded religious charter school would violate the First Amendment's provision on "establishment of religion" and the state constitution.

"Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school," Justice James Winchester wrote in the court’s majority opinion. "As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.

"However, St. Isidore will evangelize the Catholic school curriculum while sponsored by the state."

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Counsel Jim Campbell told Fox News Digital the case "is fundamentally about religious discrimination and school choice."

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS LOOMING TIKTOK BAN

"The Supreme Court has been clear in three cases over the last eight years that you can't create a public program like that and then exclude religious organizations," Campbell said. "So, we're going to be arguing before the court that the state of Oklahoma should be allowed to open up the program to religious organizations."

Campbell says the decision would give parents, families and the state "more educational options." 

Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who originally challenged the school's approval, has previously said the school's establishment is unconstitutional. His spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement the attorney general "looks forward to presenting our arguments before the high court."

"I will continue to vigorously defend the religious liberty of all 4 million Oklahomans," Drummond said in a statement released in October. "This unconstitutional scheme to create the nation’s first state-sponsored religious charter school will open the floodgates and force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination, including radical Islam or even the Church of Satan. My fellow Oklahomans can rest assured that I will always fight to protect their God-given rights and uphold the law."

TENNESSEE AG OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SCOTUS CASE AFTER 'RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY' REVERSAL IN LOWER COURT

The Oklahoma case is one of several religious institution cases that have been filed in the Supreme Court. 

In 2017, the high court ruled in favor of a Missouri church that sued the state after being denied taxpayer funds for a playground project as a result of a provision that prohibits state funding for religious entities. 

Likewise, in 2020, the Supreme Court struck down a ban on taxpayer funding for religious schools in a 5-4 decision that backed a Montana tax-credit scholarship program. Most recently, in 2022, the Supreme Court ruled that a Maine tuition assistance program violated the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause for excluding religious schools from eligibility.

Campbell said given the court's previous considerations of cases involving religious educational institutions, he is "hopeful that the Supreme Court will recognize that the same principle applies here."

"You can't create a charter school program that allows private organizations to participate but tell the religious groups that they can't be included," Campbell said. "So, we're hopeful that the Supreme Court will make it clear that people of faith deserve to be a part of the charter school program as well."

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case, although an explanation was not given. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in April. 

School choice has become a hot-button issue, particularly after the 2024 election cycle. President Donald Trump recently signed two executive orders on education, one to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory and another to support school choice. 

Fox News Digital's Ronn Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced Tuesday a plan to offer free tuition for certain degree programs at state and city colleges.

The governor announced the education proposal during her state of the state address, in which she also vowed to give students free meals at schools, make it more difficult for hedge funds to buy homes, cut taxes for middle-class earners and expand the child tax credit.

Under the free tuition plan, New York residents between the ages of 25 and 55 who enroll in associate degree programs in nursing, teaching, technology, engineering and other fields at colleges operated by the State University of New York and the City University of New York would have their tuition covered.

NEW YORK GOV. KATHY HOCHUL SEEKS EXPANDED INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT LAWS OVER VIOLENT CRIMES ON SUBWAY

The state would also cover the cost of books and other college fees.

"When my dad got a college education, our whole family got a shot at a better life — and I want every New Yorker to have that opportunity," Hochul said in a statement. "Under my plan, every New Yorker will have the opportunity to pursue a free degree at SUNY and CUNY community colleges to help fill the in-demand jobs of tomorrow."

Other states have similar tuition programs, and several others offer various discounted tuitions for state colleges.

New York residents already receive discounted tuition at the vast network of state and city colleges, which consists of nearly 90 schools, and a program that already provides free tuition at the institutions for residents who make less than $125,000 a year.

Hochul also said she wants to address the problem of smartphones in K-12 schools by creating a statewide standard for distraction-free learning in the state.

Additionally, Hochul said she will work to address crime, expand mental health treatment services and to strengthen security in the New York City subway system after a surge in violent crimes on the subway. This would include plans to add police patrols on overnight trains and install barriers and better lighting on platforms.

NY LAWMAKERS DEMAND SUBWAY CHIEF'S OUSTER AFTER COMMENT DISMISSIVE OF CRIME ISSUE: 'IN PEOPLE'S HEADS'

The governor's proposals will be debated in the Democrat-controlled state legislature.

She is expected to face a contested Democratic primary election next year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Department of Education was established more than 40 years ago in an effort to refine the U.S. school system. But as incoming political leaders, including President-elect Trump, consider dismantling the agency, a Fox News Digital review examines the trends in test scores, graduation rates and federal funding since its inception. What follows is the results of those findings. 

When former President Jimmy Carter was in office, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act in October 1979, which officially established the agency in 1980. 

The department was created to determine policy for, administer and coordinate federal assistance to educational institutions around the country, but has seen opposition since its founding – commonly from Republican lawmakers.

Trump said he is going to dissolve the agency when he assumes office, asking whether the department is crucial in the development of education or if schools would benefit from a more localized education system. 

The modern-day educational system appears vastly different to that of the agency's founding. And a decades-long debate on whether individual states should have more control over local school systems, rather than the federal government, has been reignited as Trump prepares to take office.

BIDEN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SPENT OVER $1 BILLION ON DEI GRANTS: REPORT

"Federal government efforts to improve education have been dismal," Lindsey Burke, director of the right-leaning think tank the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy, wrote of the current education system amid years of low test scores. "Even if there were a constitutional basis for its involvement – which there isn’t – the federal government is simply ill-positioned to determine what education policies will best serve the diverse local communities across our vast nation."

It has been argued that having such a department allows people with the right expertise to make decisions as it relates to funding.

Clare McCann, the managing director of policy and operations at the Postsecondary Equity & Economics Research (PEER) Center, told ABC News in November: "There's a reason the Department of Education was created, and it was to have this kind of in-house expertise and policy background on these [education] issues. 

"The civil servants who work at the Department of Education are true experts in the field."

Average test scores among students have fallen significantly since the Department of Education was created more than 40 years ago. 

Both math and reading scores among 13-year-old students are at their lowest levels in decades, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 2022–2023 school year.

While the Department of Education doesn't control how students perform on tests, it is responsible for issuing the requirement for schools to conduct standardized testing in schools – which have reached their lowest scores in decades in 2024, according to NAEP.

The average U.S. ACT composite score in the 1990s was about 20.8, data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows. But, since then, standardized test scores have dropped. 

According to 2024 ACT data, Nevada has the lowest test scores in the country, with an average score of 17.2, while Oklahoma follows with the second-lowest average score of 17.6.

"The results are sobering," National Center for Educational Statistics Commissioner Peggy G. Carr told ABC News of today's test scores. 

Most schools reopened after shifting to an all-online learning environment during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, but Carr said that "this decline that we're seeing was there in 2015, so all of this cannot be blamed on COVID."

Average test scores in the U.S. are commonly based off the standardized testing average. Europe and East Asian countries, which don't use ACT or SAT testing as required by the U.S., usually rank as having higher test scores, comparably.

Proponents of a dedicated education agency say federal involvement aids the system, while many critics say it is a waste of taxpayer dollars. 

In its early years, the department made specific requirements when allocating funding to schools, such as requiring higher education institutions to offer a campus drug and alcohol abuse prevention program under the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, passed in 1989. 

However, under President Biden, the Department of Education has seen funds spent on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in K-12 schools across the country – an initiative critics say diverts funding away from core educational objectives.

TRUMP WOULD NEED CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL TO DISSOLVE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, EXPERTS SAY

A recent study found that Biden's Department of Education spent $1 billion on grants advancing DEI in hiring, Fox News Digital reported. 

Since 2021, the Biden administration spent $489,883,797 on grants for race-based hiring; $343,337,286 on general DEI programming; and $169,301,221 on DEI-based mental health training and programming, totaling $1,002,522,304.81, according to Parents Defending Education, a right-leaning nonprofit. 

Rethinking the department could be as simple as giving states the funding and then allowing its leaders to decide how it is dished out, Neal McCluskey, an education analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute public policy think tank, told ABC News in November.

In the 1970-1971 school year, high school graduation rates were at 78%. 

But those rates fell, dropping to a 72.9% average graduation rate in 1982, shortly after the Department of Education was established. 

Rates remained in the low 70th percentiles until the early 2000s, data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows. 

However, data from the 2021–2022 school year shows that the average graduation rate for public high school students was 87% – an increase of seven percentage points higher than a decade earlier.

Technological advances have transformed the educational environment for students, with typing often taking the place of lessons on cursive writing, digital tools enhancing math instruction, and GPS technology reducing the reliance on traditional map reading skills. 

Today's technology-driven workforce has also reshaped the school system, as computer and artifical intelligence classes take precedence over home economics, such as sewing or baking. 

The Department of Education does not establish curriculum requirements for schools, but rather it is left to the state and local school boards to decide. 

However, curriculum changes have still been at the forefront of recent political conversations, specifically as it relates to parents seeking more involvement in their child's classroom. Parents from all around the country have spoken out against certain topics being included in their child's curriculum, usually related to gender and sex, and reportedly not being informed about the content before it was shared in class.

Fox News Digital recently reported on an elementary school in the New York City suburbs that was teaching a "gender curriculum" to elementary-level children in an effort to promote "inclusion" in school. 

Meanwhile, in 2016, the Washington Office (OSPI) set health education standards for all public schools, requiring children in kindergarten and first grade to learn that "there are many ways to express gender."

In Oregon, the state board of education adopted health education standards, also in 2016, requiring kindergartners and first-graders to "recognize that there are many ways to express gender," while third-graders in the state have been expected to be able to "define sexual orientation," Fox reported in 2022.

Opponents of the Department of Education, such as Trump, have used such examples of controversial curriculum to argue that parents should be granted more power in their child's learning.

The incoming Republican president, however, was not the first to propose the idea. Former President Ronald Reagan called for the department to be abolished to "ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children."

"There's only one way to shrink the size and cost of big government, and that is by eliminating agencies that are not needed and are getting in the way of a solution," Reagan said in 1981. 

David Kanani, president of Los Angeles ORT College, a Jewish education nonprofit, suggested the department be cleaned up rather than completely eradicated. 

"The Department of Education ensures consistency and quality across schools, particularly in STEM education, which is critical for national security and global competitiveness," Kanani told Fox News Digital in January. "Instead of elimination, we should clean up and reform the department to collaborate more effectively with state and local systems, prioritizing STEM as a national imperative."

Andrew Clark, president of advocacy group yes. every kid., recently said Trump should establish pathways to redesign the education system rather than bulldozing the entire department.

"To make real change, you have to do it in ways that benefit people's lives, and so if you just drop the hammer overnight you are going to cause pain for people [who] are dependent. So you're going to have to come up with pathways to make changes," Clark told Ravi Gupta, a former Obama staffer turned school principal and host of the "Lost Debate" podcast.

Trump would need congressional approval in order to make any changes to the Education Department. 

Republicans currently have the majority in both the House and the Senate, meaning lawmakers could pass new legislation addressing the laws establishing and sanctioning the department.

Fox News' Kristine Parks and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

Cybercriminals spare no industry, targeting sectors like health care, insurance, automotive and education. Health care has been a frequent target, with attacks like the Ascension breach last year and the CVR incident in late 2024. 

Now, education technology giant PowerSchool has become the latest target, with records of millions of students and teachers stolen.

While the exact number of affected individuals remains unknown, the scale of the breach is alarming.

PowerSchool serves 18,000 customers worldwide, including schools in the U.S. and Canada, managing grading, attendance and personal information for over 60 million K-12 students and teachers.

I’M GIVING AWAY THE LATEST & GREATEST AIRPODS PRO 2

PowerSchool revealed a cybersecurity breach to its customers Jan. 7, as reported by BleepingComputer. The company said it discovered the breach Dec. 28, after customer data from its PowerSchool SIS platform was stolen through the PowerSource support portal.

PowerSchool SIS is a student information system used for managing grades, attendance, enrollment and other student records. Hackers accessed the PowerSource portal using stolen credentials and used an "export data manager" tool to steal information.

The company said this wasn’t a ransomware attack or a result of software flaws, but rather a straightforward network break-in. The company has hired a third-party cybersecurity firm to investigate the breach, figure out what happened and determine who was affected.

UNDERSTANDING BRUSHING SCAMS AND HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

The PowerSource portal includes a feature that allows PowerSchool engineers to access customer systems for support and troubleshooting. The attacker exploited this feature to export the PowerSchool SIS "students" and "teachers" database tables to a CSV file, which was then stolen.

PowerSchool confirmed the stolen data primarily includes contact details like names and addresses. However, for some districts, the data may also include sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, personally identifiable information, medical records and grades.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

The company said customer support tickets, credentials and forum data were not accessed or stolen during the breach. PowerSchool also emphasized that not all SIS customers were affected and expects only a subset of customers will need to notify those affected.

"We do not anticipate the data being shared or made public, and we believe it has been deleted without any further replication or dissemination," the developer told customers in a notice.

"We have also deactivated the compromised credential and restricted all access to the affected portal. Lastly, we have conducted a full password reset and further tightened password and access control for all PowerSource customer support portal accounts."

PowerSchool said affected adults will be offered free credit monitoring, while minors will receive subscriptions to an unspecified identity protection service.

MASSIVE DATA BREACH EXPOSES 3 MILLION AMERICANS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION TO CYBERCRIMINALS

The PowerSchool data breach has highlighted the importance of staying vigilant about your personal information. Here are five steps you can take to protect yourself:

1. Monitor your accounts regularly: Keep a close eye on your bank accounts, credit cards and any online services linked to your personal information. Watch for unauthorized transactions or changes to your accounts that could signal misuse of your data.

2. Freeze your credit: If your Social Security number or other sensitive details were compromised, consider placing a credit freeze with major credit bureaus like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. This prevents potential identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name.

3. Use identity theft protection services: Take advantage of any identity protection services offered by PowerSchool as part of its breach response. These services can alert you to suspicious activity and provide support if your identity is stolen.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

One of the best parts of some identity protection services is that they have identity theft insurance of up to $1 million to cover losses and legal fees and a white glove fraud resolution team where a U.S.-based case manager helps you recover any losses. See my tips and best picks on how to protect yourself from identity theft.

4. Enable two-factor authentication (2FA): Wherever possible, enable 2FA for your online accounts. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification, such as a text code or app-generated token, to access your accounts.

5. Be aware of phishing links and use strong antivirus software: Cybercriminals often use phishing scams to exploit data breaches. Avoid clicking on suspicious links in emails or text messages, especially those claiming to be from PowerSchool or your school district.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.

WINDOWS FLAW LETS HACKERS SNEAK INTO YOUR PC OVER WI-FI

You can blame hackers for this breach, but PowerSchool shares the responsibility for failing to adequately protect sensitive data. The company may also be in violation of data privacy agreements it signed with school districts, as well as federal and state laws designed to safeguard student privacy. What’s more concerning is that PowerSchool took nearly two weeks to notify its customers about the breach. Schools are now left scrambling to assess the full extent of the intrusion. This delay is not just irresponsible; it puts students, parents and teachers at heightened risk of cyberattacks and identity theft.

Do you think companies like PowerSchool should face stricter regulations for handling sensitive data? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact

For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter

Ask Kurt a question or let us know what stories you'd like us to cover

Follow Kurt on his social channels

Answers to the most asked CyberGuy questions:

New from Kurt:

Copyright 2025 CyberGuy.com.  All rights reserved.

Twitter/X CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy sparked a debate in December when they advocated allowing more legal immigration for high-skilled workers – for example, through H-1B visas – to make America more competitive. President-elect Donald J. Trump endorsed the policy in a statement to the New York Post shortly after the dispute broke out. 

Conservatives on both sides of this discussion should be able to agree on one thing: we would not need to import as much talent if we had a more effective education system. 

The latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the "nation’s report card," shows that fewer than one-in-four eighth grade students are proficient in math and less than a third of them are proficient in reading. The latest international assessment shows that we’re ranked 24th in math – in the middle of the pack – despite spending nearly $20,000 per public school student each year, more than just about any other country in the world.  

NEW JERSEY ENDS BASIC READING AND WRITING SKILLS TEST REQUIREMENT FOR TEACHERS

U.S. 4th grade math scores have fallen 18 points since 2019 – a decline larger than all but three countries: Azerbaijan, Iran, and Kazakhstan. 

We can start fixing the education crisis by improving the efficiency of educational resource allocation. Mountains of empirical evidence in economics research indicate that misallocation is one of the greatest impediments to economic growth for a nation, as well as the educational services sub-sector. To that end, improving the efficiency of public education can go a long way in producing multiplier effects for a nation as a whole. 

Trump appointed both Musk and Ramaswamy to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in November. In his statement announcing DOGE’s new leaders, Trump said his administration will "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." 

It’s no secret waste runs rampant through our public school system. The U.S. spends over $900 billion per year on education for lackluster results. The current system is not serving the students, and makes teachers’ lives more difficult, so now is the time to start thinking about how to get bigger bang for our buck in the Department of Education. We need to inventory where current resources are going, and what outcomes they’re driving – plain and simple. 

But tackling this apparent low-hanging fruit can only do so much to cut waste. After all, about 90% of all public-school funding comes from state and local sources, not the federal government.  

That’s why we have to understand the root cause behind the deteriorating student outcomes. A major potential factor is administrative bloat in American education. The latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that student enrollment has only increased by about 5% since 2000, but the number of teachers employed by the system has grown twice as fast as students, by about 10%, over the same period. School district administrative staff has increased by about 95%, or 19 times the rate of student enrollment growth. 

We’ve increased inflation-adjusted spending per student by more than 160% since 1970 and the teachers aren’t seeing the money. Teacher salaries have only increased by 3% in real terms over the same period. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION

The problem is that the public school system operates as a monopoly with weaker incentives to spend money wisely. But public-school unions do have a strong incentive to advocate for hiring more people, particularly in states that do not have right-to-work laws. Additional staffing means more dues-paying members and a larger voting bloc. 

Our just-released study provides the first evidence that unions are driving administrative bloat in education. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the American Community Survey between 2006 and 2024, we find a robust positive relationship between union density and staff-to-student ratios, and negative effects of right-to-work laws (RTW) on these ratios. These effects are largely driven by the expansion of administrative and support roles rather than teachers. Furthermore, these effects are concentrated in non-RTW states. 

Specifically, we find that a 10-point increase in teachers union density is associated with a one-point increase in year-to-year staffing growth. 

In Chicago, a union stronghold, staffing has increased by a whopping 20% since 2019 even though student enrollment has plunged 10%. In Texas, one of six states that outlaws collective bargaining for public employees, staffing has increased by 8% – much closer to their 2% growth in student enrollment – over the same period. Our results in the study show that these examples are not anecdotal – it’s been happening at scale. 

Injecting competition into the K-12 education system would put pressure on school districts to redirect otherwise wasteful spending into the classroom. Trump can help make this happen by getting congressional Republicans in-line to pass school choice. The Educational Choice for Children Act already passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee last September and President-elect Trump said he would sign it.  

Improving the efficiency of government should be a non-partisan issue, especially in a sector that hits so close to home for every American – education. It’s now up to Congress to deliver for the parents who put them in office. Allowing parents to direct the upbringing of their children is the right thing to do, but it will also make America more competitive and make education great again. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY CHRISTOS MAKRIDIS

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY COREY DEANGELIS