Reading scores have declined in 83% of America's school districts, an alarming study revealed. Drazen - stock.adobe.com

We’ve been having a debate about “book bans” in recent years, but given the steep decline in student literacy, the deeper question is how any child would even notice whether a book is available in a school library or not.

The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford recently published an eye-opening study documenting steep declines in student test scores , especially in reading.

Over the past 10 years, reading scores have declined in 83% of America’s school districts.

What looked like a COVID-driven catastrophe is, instead, part of a long-running trend.

Reading scores were falling at a similar clip prior to the pandemic, in 2017-2019, and continued to fall into 2024.

In a third of school districts, kids are reading a full grade level below where they were in 2015.

This follows what had been a steady increase in test scores from 1990 to the 2010s.

The ability to read is…