The David Frum Show Bring Back High-Stakes School Testing
15 snips
Oct 8, 2025 
Margaret Spellings, former U.S. Secretary of Education and current president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, dives into the struggles facing American education. She discusses how test score stagnation predates COVID-19 and exacerbated accountability issues. Spellings highlights successful reforms in Mississippi, the resistance from educators against testing, and the critical role of maintaining high standards. She reflects on the need for civic engagement in addressing educational shortcomings and why we shouldn't lower expectations for any child.
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Coin Image As Symptom Of Cringing Loyalty
- David Frum opens with the viral Trump coin image and interprets it as a symptom of sycophantic MAGA loyalty.
- He argues such flattery tests group loyalty and signals abject deference rather than civic independence.
Stagnation Began Before COVID
- U.S. student achievement rose in the early 2000s then flattened and declined after about 2012–14.
- Margaret Spellings ties the decline to weakened accountability rather than only to COVID.
2015 Law Weakened Accountability
- The 2015 federal rewrite loosened accountability details and enabled states to lower standards and manipulate metrics.
- Spellings argues those implementation choices reduced the 'muscle' of assessment and transparency, harming results.
