Oct 9, 2026 · 57 min · 17 segments
The Dean’s List with Host Dean Bowen – Despite spending more money on education than ever before, U.S. reading scores hit their lowest level on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)…
Dean BowenHost
All right, so y- yesterday we, we detailed the letter from Linda McMahon imploring, begging public school teachers and administrators to please, please teach the truth.
They're barely even teaching the truth about reading, about math, about writing, about science, about any other form of history, and this is why, this is why our scores are, are plummeting.
Our scores are in the toilet, they're in the basement, and even while our scores are in the basement, scores are down, spending is through the roof.
This is, um, this is the international test, uh, brought to you by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the international organization that works with hundreds of countries, more than a hundred.
More than a hundred of those, of those countries work with this organization to shape public policy, and it's also the organization that administers the PISA.
And the, the, the most recent 2025 release of PISA scores was issued on September 8th.
D- despite, regardless of the spending increase, public school and public education in this country, um, you wouldn't know it based upon the scores.
Uh, we used to rank, um, in the top 10 across all three subjects, and now, [chuckles] uh, now we don't.
We are, we are lower than we've ever been since PISA, since PISA testing started, we've not been this low, and yet our spending has never been so high.
We're spending more money on technology, psychological approaches to education, yet these investments have not produced the academic results, and th- they're, they're not going to for the foreseeable future.
All right, so y- yesterday we, we detailed the letter from Linda McMahon imploring, begging public school teachers and administrators to please, please teach the truth.
They're barely even teaching the truth about reading, about math, about writing, about science, about any other form of history, and this is why, this is why our scores are, are plummeting.
Our scores are in the toilet, they're in the basement, and even while our scores are in the basement, scores are down, spending is through the roof.
This is, um, this is the international test, uh, brought to you by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the international organization that works with hundreds of countries, more than a hundred.
More than a hundred of those, of those countries work with this organization to shape public policy, and it's also the organization that administers the PISA.
And the, the, the most recent 2025 release of PISA scores was issued on September 8th.
D- despite, regardless of the spending increase, public school and public education in this country, um, you wouldn't know it based upon the scores.
Uh, we used to rank, um, in the top 10 across all three subjects, and now, [chuckles] uh, now we don't.
We are, we are lower than we've ever been since PISA, since PISA testing started, we've not been this low, and yet our spending has never been so high.
We're spending more money on technology, psychological approaches to education, yet these investments have not produced the academic results, and th- they're, they're not going to for the foreseeable future.
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