As people newly look up from their lives to wonder about the craziness with which we’re surrounded — from collegiate support for Hamas to economic ignorance to scientific illiteracy to an inability to grapple with logic — they should turn their gaze toward our schools. Consider this recent Boston Globe column from Dan McGowan:

The state’s most recent report card shows that 81 percent of students [at Providence’s Mount Pleasant High School] were chronically absent during the 2021-2022 school year, zero percent of students were considered proficient in math, and the four-year graduation rate was 67 percent.

But here’s the worst part: McGowan puts those numbers forward to support one side over the other in a dispute over school building construction.  In other words, the discussion is miles and miles away from where it ought to be, which is the use of our education to provide a jobs program for labor unions and indoctrinate into progressive causes.

The building won’t matter until that’s fixed, and it’s not even a topic of conversation.