Where do parents go to demand their money back?

Reuters:

Nearly half of Florida high school students failed the reading portion of the state's new toughened standardized test, education officials said on Friday.

Results this year from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test showed 52 percent of freshman students and 50 percent of sophomores scored at their grade levels.

Students in the 10th grade must pass the exam in order to eventually graduate but can retake it if they fail.

The results came days after the Florida State Board of Education voted to lower the standards needed to pass the writing part of the test, known as FCAT. The test is administered in public elementary, middle and high schools.

The board took the action in an emergency meeting when preliminary results indicated only about one-third of Florida students would have passed this year.

Note that they lowered the standard and nearly 50% still failed the test. Unreal.

Only a literate society is a free society. If citizens can't read well enough to know when someone is trying to take their liberty, they will be unable to fight for it.

Florida may or may not reflect a broader crisis in high school reading scores. But it's a dead certainty that things aren't much better anywhere else. For things to get better, a sea change must take place in the attitude of all - students. teachers, parents, and school boards. The bottom line is that this is unacceptable and needs to be fixed.