We’ve all seen the cliché of politicians kissing babies to look like nice guys. So it’s adding insult to injury that too many of our elected leaders across the country aren’t looking out for our kids.

“They” say “if it looks too good to be true, then it is.” That’s the conventional wisdom Mississippi is defying with its massive educational turnaround. 

Dropping your kid off at college is one of a parent’s proudest moments. You’ve guided them through the elementary school play, middle school dances, and the (eventual) thrill of college acceptance. Now they have their NJ high school diploma guaranteeing they are “prepared…for success in postsecondary degree programs, careers, and civic life.” 

Fish oil, nuts, antioxidants - one food fad after another claims to be good for your brain. But in computer-centric classrooms, students don’t have much use for that organ. That’s the sad reality presented in a new book excerpt from Jared Cooney Horvath about classroom technology eroding kids’ cognitive abilities. 

Welcome to 2026. We all know the sort of promises we make at the start of the year. Not only are we going to run a marathon, we’ll eat five green vegetables during the course, and swear only once per mile over those 3 4 5 hours. 

The holiday season is officially upon us. Twinkling lights, polar bears in soda commercials, the same four songs over and over - and of course the long overdue New Jersey statewide test results.

Yes, nothing quite says “New Year” like the scores from a test taken in May. But what’s seven months to a 4th grader?

A shocking release from the University of California San Diego shows that many freshman students need remedial math courses on concepts they should’ve mastered around the time they learned to tie their shoes.

That these students boast impressive high-school GPAs only points to the pervasive dishonesty in our K-12 system. Today we’re reprinting this provocative editorial from the San Diego Union-Tribune in full.

With Election Day behind us, we now know Mikie Sherrill is our next governor - and as part of managing our boisterous state, she inherits our schools and the many challenges facing them. The biggest point is that 54% of our kids are not on grade level in math, which is urgent to fix because math is cumulative. We need change, and while change requires effort and political will, it’s totally doable.

Our guest contributor today, Chad Aldeman, shares critical information and his own perspective as a parent on the delay in 2025 state test reporting. Can you guess which state is among the 16 that hadn’t released state data by mid-October? Hint: it’s home to countless diners, the winless Jets, and taylor ham pork rolls.

Any parent who’s ever tried to get their kid to a scheduled event on time, in unstained clothes, and free of meltdowns knows that a plan is just that: a plan. Results may vary. But without a plan there won’t be any results at all.

So given students’ alarming decline in math and reading scores, each of New Jersey’s school districts surely has a plan for improving academic achievement.   

As if!!

In a recent national Gallup poll, 74% of parents gave their own kid’s education a thumbs up. But of those people, two-thirds said the U.S. education system overall is broken.

So...we’ve all happened to pick a great school for our kids, but somehow everyone else's school is a problem?

Let’s zoom in on a couple districts alleged to be New Jersey’s best. That same disconnect is occurring in places we like to brag about. Montclair. West Windsor-Plainsboro. Some of the most sought-after, best-resourced, and highest-property-taxed districts in the state. So what are the math scores like in these top-flight communities?

Spoiler alert: not top-flight.

NJ parents might not know if their 6th grader is actually performing at grade level on math (only 36% are!) - but their future college professors sure will. Today, we pass the pen to guest newsblaster Alex Kontorovich, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at Rutgers University. Professor Kontorovich reached out to Wake Up Call NJ to express similar frustrations about NJ students’ math abilities, having witnessed the growing need for remedial and co-requisite classes in NJ colleges - a nice way of saying your kid never really learned high-school level material. And you now get to pay for extra college classes that earn zero credits towards their degree. Seems grade inflation does have consequences!