Insight: Moral decay is at the heart of plummeting student test scores

Failure at school is a symptom of a failing America.

SAT scores are now the worst in 40 years.

That’s bad for high school seniors and bad for America.

It’s not about money.

 Education gets over twice the share of government money now compared to 60 years ago. Now it’s more than a fourth of all state and local government spending.

Is it poverty?

Only partially. The problems include poor parenting, absent fathers, divorce, failure to learn English, drug use, teen sex and pregnancy, trying to blame others, and so much public assistance that some students see little need to support themselves.

To sum it up: It’s moral decay. But political correctness tells us to shut up instead of speaking up.

Until everyday people and elected people talk about moral decay, test scores will keep going down. That means we’re letting down our students — and our country.