(Just The News)—An annual federal report card shows California student performance for reading and math has declined in three of four measured metrics over the past two years despite significant increases in public school spending.
The state’s one bright spot was in fourth grade math, in which students had nearly recovered to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. While state reading scores for eighth grade reading had recovered to 2019 levels in 2022, they declined below 2019 levels in 2024, reflecting the state’s ongoing education challenges.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed $24,746 in spending per student includes growth in Proposition 98 school funding to $119 billion, a figure that his office says is “a nearly 51% increase since the Governor took office” in January 2019.
The national report card from the federal National Assessment of Education Progress provides state level data, and data from a limited number of school districts. The annual report includes four metrics: fourth and eighth grade math and reading.
The report separates academic achievement into below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced, with basic reflecting only partial competence in grade-level material that students should have mastery over to be considered proficient.
California lags the national average in all four categories, but variations in outcomes within California remain stark. At the California district level, NAEP 2024 data includes only Los Angeles and San Diego school districts, which are among the largest school districts in the nation.
San Diego Unified outperformed the national average in all four categories, while Los Angeles Unified performed worse than the national, state, and big city average in all four categories.
In 2024, 65% of California fourth grade students were below proficient in math, and 72% below proficient in reading. 73% of California eighth grade students were below proficient in math, and 72% were below proficient in reading.
In 2023-2024 school year internal state testing, 47% of students met or exceeded basic state reading standards, while 35.5% met or exceeded basic state math standards.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
