Rahm Emanuel took aim at his own party this week, warning Democrats that they’ve lost focus on education and must return to the fundamentals if they hope to regain parents’ trust.
"We’ve spent the past five years debating pronouns without noticing that too many students can’t tell you what a pronoun is," the former Chicago Democratic mayor and U.S. ambassador to Japan wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday.
"The U.S. has been more focused on whether a school is named for Abraham Lincoln than whether students can tell you why he is an American giant. We’ve become so obsessed with bathroom access that we’ve ignored classroom excellence.
"America has lost the plot. Democrats need to refocus on the fundamentals in the elementary years — when it comes to high school, we need to be pursuing fundamental reform."
Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago, speaks during the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington on Dec. 10, 2019. (REUTERS/Al Drago)
Emanuel’s comments followed the September release of the Nation’s Report Card, which showed further declines in reading and math scores.
At the same time, Emanuel noted Democrats’ refusal to reopen schools during the COVID-19 pandemic "deservedly" damaged their reputation, helping flip what was once a 14-point advantage on education into an edge for Republicans.
"That’s in part because we [Democrats] made the grave error of refusing to reopen schools during the pandemic, even when the evidence suggested it was safe. Washington may not be noticing what’s happening in our schools, but parents and educators are," he wrote.
RAHM EMANUEL ADMITS HIS PARTY IS 'LESS POPULAR THAN ELON MUSK' IN SCATHING CRITIQUE
Signs calling for schools to reopen are displayed during an "Open Schools Now" rally by the Students First Coalition of Los Angeles on Feb. 15, 2021. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
He added that prolonged school closures in blue states sent families a clear message about Democratic "leadership — or lack thereof."
On the flipside, Emanuel credited some southern states for bucking the trend of decline.
He pointed to Mississippi as a model. The state climbed from 49th in 2013 to ninth today by dropping "whole language" reading instruction — which teaches kids to recognize words by sight or context — and replacing it with more phonics-based "science of reading" methods.
AMERICANS NEED TO WORK TOGETHER TO FIX EDUCATION. WE’VE BOTH DONE IT BEFORE ON OPPOSITE SIDES
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel calls for a return to fundamentals after declining test scores. (Getty Images)
The state paired that shift with tutoring, summer literacy camps, and mandatory retention for third-graders still unable to read.
Emanuel also pointed to the example he set during his time as mayor of the Windy City, requiring every high school graduate to provide an acceptance letter from a four-year university, a community college, the military or a vocational program. His initiatives also enabled students to earn college credits while still in high school and allowed anyone with a B average to attend Chicago's community colleges for free.
"These reforms should be the meat and potatoes of Democrats’ education agenda. They’ll produce results, but they’ll also resonate with parents," he wrote.
"The kitchen-table issues that Democrats focus on involve more than paying bills. Families talk about what’s happening at their neighborhood school, what students are and aren’t learning, who their children consider friends, and what TikTok is doing to their kids’ minds."