States Built the Activist Classroom, and Forced the US into a Learning Recession

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States Built the Activist Classroom. They Can Also Dismantle It.
Lawmakers have embedded ideological “culturally responsive education” standards into teacher training and licensure rules.
by Dana Stangel-Plowe
June 23, 2026

The United States has entered a “learning recession,” according to a new Education Scorecard report. Nationally, eighth-grade reading scores now stand at their lowest point since 1990, and fourth-grade reading has fallen back to pre-2003 levels. Only 31 percent of American fourth-grade students are proficient.

California’s results were similarly dismal. Yet this news doesn’t seem to be ringing any alarm bells in Sacramento. As the school year wrapped up, the state’s Department of Education was busy sponsoring a training for K–12 teachers that encouraged them to “take action” to transform schools into “liberatory systems.”

Such trainings are no aberration. Activism and ideology, not student performance, are priorities not just in California but also in many other states.
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With CRE built into the regulatory code and standards that set the rules for teaching, the entire teacher pipeline—from teachers’ colleges to licensure to ongoing professional development—is structured to help teachers push activist education into classrooms.

State lawmakers built this system. They should dismantle it. The first step: examine licensure requirements, teacher-preparation standards, professional-development mandates, teaching standards, and agency guidance. These are the channels through which ideological requirements entered the profession.

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