Fox Valley Initiative (FVI) held its monthly public forum on August 4, 2025 at Freedom Project Academy in Appleton, hosting Dr. Duke Pesta, Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin- Oshkosh and Director of Freedom Project Academy.
Dr. Pesta explained that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a report card from the federal Department of Education, demonstrated a decline in reading abilities of 4th and 8th graders nationwide for the testing years 2019, 2022, and 2024. Fewer then 2/3 of 8th graders read at a “proficient” level according to the NAEP standards. Dr. Pesta shared anecdotes from a recent semester of his teaching, where only 3 of his 120 students had ever read a complete book. Similar declines are being documented in math scores and in ACT scores, the college application standard testing.
Public schools in Wisconsin and nationwide are regressing in the mission of producing children ready for career training. Legislative support for school choice, for private and charter schools, has been one response. But legislative responses have failed to address the need to also oversee and correct the deficiencies of the public schools.
An over-reliance on technology, specifically cell phones and artificial intelligence, is adding to the decline in testing scores of our children.
Fox Valley Initiative will continue its series of public forums on our education system on Monday, September 8, 2025, at Freedom Project Academy in Appleton, 6:30–8:00 PM.
Wisconsin Assembly Representative David Murphy, chair of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities, will give insight on questions including: Is there free speech on campus? How is the emphasis on DEI impacting higher education? Considering the debt load being incurred, are our children coming out of colleges/universities ready for the workforce? What oversight does the state legislature have on our higher education system?
Meetings of Fox Valley Initiative are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the group’s website at www.foxvalleyinitiative.com or its Facebook page.