Since a peak in 2013, academic scores across the nation have been in steady decline. No outlier, over the previous decade Wisconsin students dropped the equivalent of almost an entire grade level on the reading portion of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), commonly called the “Nation’s Report Card.”

This is a disastrous trend. Schools train the next generation of skilled craftsmen, institutional and community leaders, entrepreneurs, doctors, and scientists on which our economy depends. They form the educated populace necessary for a thriving democracy. Each and every student requires basic academic skills to thrive into adulthood. To continue a downward trend is to fail our students and create a dimmer future for upcoming generations.

Too often, the proposals for reforming education involve just more of the same: more blank checks, more regulations, more days in school. This policy agenda attempts to improve upon and reform the system itself — to correct flawed incentives, add coherence to the system’s end goals, and raise academic expectations. We need to reform the system, not simply inject more money into that which doesn’t work.

Raise standards, not taxes