Democrats pretend to own the education issue because they shovel money into schools and the pockets of teachers unions. But the numbers show that Republican-led states are getting better results in education for less.

Mississippi’s embrace of phonics led to the state’s fourth graders performing the highest in reading scores when adjusted for race and inflation. It is the highest-ranked state for fourth-grade math and reading, and eighth-grade math, while sitting in the top five in eighth-grade reading. Mississippi also ranks third in teacher freedom. Florida is ahead of Mississippi in that category and ranks third in reading scores, while Louisiana ranks second.

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This is despite those three states spending relatively little on education per student. Mississippi spends the seventh-least per student, Florida the eighth-least, and Louisiana the 13th-least. Those three states are outperforming the top five spenders — New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts — which are all run by Democrats.

The contrast is more stark if you remove the demographic adjustments. Louisiana was ranked last in fourth-grade reading in 2019, but its raw scores now rank 16th overall, despite having one of the highest poverty rates in the country. Bring the demographics back in, and you can see that every narrative you hear from Democrats about “anti-racism” and “equity” in education is a sham. Nearly double the share of black students read at a basic level or higher in Mississippi (52%) than in race-obsessed California (28%).

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Blue states such as California are obsessed with education-related issues that have nothing to do with educating students. You may hear things about how California or other blue states have such strong teachers’ unions, or that they spend so much money on education, or that they have ensured their schools are “equitable” and “inclusive,” all things the Democratic leaders of those states like to brag about as accomplishments. None of those things has anything to do with actually helping students learn, though.

Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and other red states, particularly in the South, have reoriented their education system to focus on teaching students. They aren’t funneling money to teachers unions, imposing diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements on schools and classes, or throwing money at a problem and calling it a day. They are teaching students how to read and teaching teachers how to teach students how to read, and the results are speaking for themselves. The red state model on education is proving superior, and states like California would be better off running their schools like Mississippi does.