California’s schools fail most kids year after year — the real definition of insanity

Read the original at New York Post ↗
Cite

CA Post Editorial Board. (2026, October 19). California’s schools fail most kids year after year — the real definition of insanity. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2026/10/18/opinion/californias-schools-fail-most-kids-year-after-year-the-real-definition-of-insanity/

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

New York Post · collected 2026-10-19 · by CA Post Editorial Board

Quick Summary

California's public school performance remains poor, with only 38.4% of students showing proficiency in math and 49.3% meeting standards in English. The article attributes this failure to prolonged pandemic lockdowns influenced by teachers' unions and the resulting learning gap. It highlights legislative moves like adopting phonics for reading but criticizes ongoing union dominance prioritizing teacher interests over student needs, leading to a persistent disparity between top-performing and struggling schools.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-19, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

California's public education system continues to underperform despite minimal improvements in test scores this year. According to recent data, only 38.4% of students showed proficiency in math and 49.3% met state standards in English on spring tests. While officials boast about a 1% increase in math scores and a 0.5% rise in English scores, these gains are minimal given the severe impact of pandemic lockdowns that stifled learning for over a year. Critics argue that union influence has hindered efforts to improve educational outcomes, leading to significant declines and an exodus of students from public schools to private or home-schooling options.

Written for “California School System Criticism” on 2026-10-19, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.65, but every quote it verified points right, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 89849: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-10-19

Story

📰 California School System Criticism
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 9% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
New York Post
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 36 📰 publisher trust 67
“While both articles discuss poor performance in California's education system, they refer to different reporting periods and do not describe a single incident or occurrence.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
9%
2 of 22 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
67/100
New York Post's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-19 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

New York Post · 11584 article(s) · 32 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 32 correction(s)

Who wrote this

CA Post Editorial Board
54 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 But the state allocated $368.7 million to developers to build dense, low-income housing projects, without any guarantee fire victims would benefit.
🔮 California education officials may pat themselves on the back for a 1% increase in math scores and a 0.5% increase in English scores.
🔮 Democrats knew that if he built that wall, he would be seen as a successful president — and not just as a fluke.
🔮 That’s a question voters will be asking after the city attorney’s latest bombshell report.
🔮 In January 2025, LA Mayor Karen Bass infamously left town for Ghana, despite dire fire warnings.
🔮 But no one will state the obvious, as long as both of them — the Republican who launched it, the Democrat who extended it — agree to keep pretending.
🔮 Now, the Justice Department has given the state and LA County an ultimatum: Review and quarantine ballots that might have been sent to noncitizen voters, or face emergency litigation.
🔮 The students who led a peaceful protest might be commended for their activism — but they are wrong.
🔮 As the California Post has reported, the mill, owned by the San Diego-based Pacific Steel Group, will be the first steel production facility in the state in more than half a century when it opens in 2027.
🔮 You’d think a utility facing that kind of scrutiny would clean up its act.
Wire or desk byline, not an individual reporter.
Also by CA Post Editorial Board
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 54 articles by CA Post Editorial Board →

Topics

California Mississippi The California Post App The California Teachers Association the California Post

Subjects

California GPE · 7× Mississippi GPE · 1× Sacramento GPE · 1× The California Post App ORG · 1× The California Teachers Association ORG · 1× Xavier Becerra PERSON · 1× the California Post ORG · 1×

Narrative

This year’s test results are a reminder that — as Xavier Becerra said in the gubernatorial debate — the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-19
🔮 California education officials may pat themselves on the back for a 1% increase in math scores and a 0.5% increase in English scores.

Claims (22 extracted, 2 hedged)

California’s school results continue to be a national disgrace. asserted
results → continue → ?
There is no reason for the wealthiest state in the country, and the center of the high-tech industry, to be among the country’s worst performers in education. asserted
state → be → education
California education officials may pat themselves on the back for a 1% increase in math scores and a 0.5% increase in English scores. uncertain
officials → pat → scores
Yet as the California Post reported, the fact remains that only 38.4% of students in California public schools showed math proficiency on tests this spring. asserted
% → report → tests
Only 49.3% met or exceeded state standards in English. asserted
% → meet → English
You don’t need to be a math genius to know that’s less than a majority, and well below a failing grade. asserted
that → need → grade
The state has yet to climb out of the hole caused by the lockdown policies of the pandemic. asserted
state → have → pandemic
California public schools — under the influence of the teachers’ unions — remained locked down for a year. asserted
schools → remain → year
That created a learning gap that has never been filled. asserted
that → create → gap
It also caused an exodus of students from the system. asserted
It → cause → system
Those parents who could afford private school, or who had the time to homeschool their kids, did so. uncertain
who → afford → kids
Some families simply moved out of state. asserted
families → move → state
And some children just stopped showing up. asserted
children → stop → ?
Last year, California’s legislature decided to follow Mississippi’s example and require old-fashioned phonics to be used in teaching children how to read. asserted
phonics → decide → children
One of them is the massive gap between the state’s best- and worst-performing schools. asserted
One → perform → schools
San Mateo Park Elementary, just a stone’s throw away from Silicon Valley, saw only 3.57% of its students meet the English standard. asserted
% → see → standard
Only 5.56% showed proficiency in math. asserted
% → show → math
While there are always individual factors in particular schools, the reason for general stagnation is no mystery. asserted
reason → be → stagnation
The California Teachers Association has a stranglehold on education policy in the state. asserted
Association → have → state
In addition, the union indulges all kinds of far-left extreme policies that have nothing to do with education, except perhaps to make it worse. asserted
it → indulge → education
Every four years, when choosing a state superintendent of schools, California voters send another union-backed candidate to Sacramento. asserted
voters → choose → Sacramento
This year’s test results are a reminder that — as Xavier Becerra said in the gubernatorial debate — the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. asserted
definition → say → result
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