The Public Education System Is Not Working — And We Need to Stop Pretending It Is

After three years working in the public education system, I have come to a difficult but honest conclusion: this system, as it currently exists, is not working. Not for teachers. Not for students. And certainly not for society as a whole. Public education is overcrowded in every sense of the word. There are too many students, too many competing initiatives, too many policies, too many procedures—and not nearly enough trained professionals to execute any of it effectively. When systems become this overfilled, they stop functioning with intention. Instead of educating, we manage chaos.

What makes this even more disheartening is that we are constantly told we are “doing the work.” We roll out new models, new frameworks, new acronyms, and new interventions year after year, all in the name of student success. MTSS. PBIS. Data-driven instruction. Science of Reading. The list goes on. Yet despite all of this, the outcomes remain largely the same. Students are still behind. Teachers are still overwhelmed. And leadership continues to act surprised.

After three years in public schools, it has become clear to me that no one truly means business. There is no real urgency. No accountability that actually leads to change. No concern for outcomes in the way that other industries would demand. In any other system, persistent failure would force a reckoning. In education, it is simply absorbed and normalized. This lack of seriousness is detrimental not just to students, but to society. We are sending students into the world who cannot read proficiently, cannot write coherently, and cannot think critically. Working in a middle school has shown me firsthand that many students are not reading at grade level—if they are reading at all. Writing stamina is low. Vocabulary is limited. Comprehension is weak. These are not small gaps; they are foundational cracks.

Then we turn around and ask why violence is rising. Why communities are struggling. Why civic engagement is low. Why people feel disconnected, angry, or hopeless. Education does not exist in a vacuum. When we fail to educate, we fail society.

And while teacher shortages and lack of training are real issues, they are not the entire problem. People can learn a job. What cannot be fixed so easily is a system that does not value results. A system where there is no “profit” in the sense of measurable growth, long-term outcomes, or societal return on investment. Public education claims to prioritize students, yet repeatedly ignores the long-term consequences of its failures. Take the so-called “Science of Reading” movement. States rushed to mandate it, passing laws and requiring trainings for all educators. And while phonics-based instruction is absolutely essential, the rollout has been rushed, performative, and poorly supported. Phonics is not complicated. It should not be treated as a trend or a political talking point. Phonics instruction should be continuous—taught intentionally from kindergarten through third grade and reinforced throughout the entirety of elementary school. It is not something you introduce, check off, and move on from. Yet instead of allowing time for proper implementation and mastery, we rush to the next initiative when immediate results are not visible.

Public education does not allow things to work. There is no patience for fidelity, no space for refinement, and no long-term vision. Everything is reactive. Everything is rushed. Everything is surface-level. Until we are willing to confront the reality that the system itself is broken—not just underfunded, not just understaffed, but structurally flawed—we will continue to fail the very people we claim to serve. And the cost of that failure will not just be seen in test scores, but in the future of our communities and our society.

Public education needs more than reform. It needs accountability, clarity of purpose, and the courage to admit that what we are doing right now is simply not enough.