(The Lion) — Federal lawmakers are grappling with how to address a crisis in K-12 education, following the release of test scores that revealed alarming numbers of graduating students unable to read and unprepared to find a job.

A congressional hearing Thursday aimed to address the “troubling state of K-12 education.” Citing the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress scores – known as the Nation’s Report Card – the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee noted that American high school seniors are “leaving high school with the lowest levels of math and reading scores ever recorded.”

“Through education, a child can achieve the American dream. Without access to quality education, that dream is dead,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, said in his opening remarks, noting that children who can’t read well are more likely to commit crimes, less likely to graduate high school, and are less likely to join the workforce. “If we want the United States to succeed, we need children to succeed. And for children to succeed, they need to know how to read.”

Cassidy said he is concerned that children’s reading, math and science scores haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The most recent NAEP scores, released last week, “were the lowest in 30 years,” he said, with only one-third of high school students at proficient reading levels. “Nearly 60% of employers say high school graduates are not job-ready,” he said. “We need to act for their sake, and we need to act for our country’s sake.”

At the hearing, lawmakers and a panel of experts discussed a range of topics, including artificial intelligence, cellphones in schools and teacher shortages affecting education across the country.

“There should be enormous concern about how our kids are failing educationally and how we are falling behind many, many other countries around the world,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, said, noting that the conversation should be broadened to include childhood poverty and other issues facing American families.

Hoover Institution senior fellow Eric Hanushek, an expert witness, expanded on the lawmakers’ concerns about America’s declining educational standing, warning that the problems run much deeper than pandemic-related disruptions.

“During the pandemic, we all knew that the closures had a dramatic influence on the learning of kids in school,” he said, but “achievement had been declining for 10 years before the pandemic.” If the goal is to return to March 2020 levels, “We are not going to be very happy with it,” he added.

Although national achievement fell “significantly across every grade and subject” over the course of the pandemic, another expert similarly warned that looking only at the pandemic scores doesn’t tell the full story.

“Achievement was already falling before 2019 across all subjects NAEP assesses,” Vice Chair of the National Assessment Governing Board Martin West said.  “In math, pandemic-era disruptions accelerated this downward trend. But the story for reading and U.S. history is one of steady deterioration since the early 2010s. There’s no reason to expect that a return to pre-pandemic learning conditions will stop or reverse the declines.”

If the pandemic “accelerated declines but did not start them,” policy makers should seek to discover the root of the issue, West added, suggesting researchers should examine the rise of social media and smartphones and how it could be affecting student learning.

“We lack direct evidence of a causal link between smartphones and learning, but I’m convinced that this technology is a key driver of youth mental health challenges, a distraction from learning, both inside and outside of schools, and a deterrent to reading,” he said, as far fewer students read for fun than previously.

Chronic absenteeism, changes in grading policies that make it harder for parents to track their child’s performance, and ensuring courses are well-rounded in science, civics, and history are also important to address, West also said.

Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner also testified at the hearing, highlighting the importance of addressing education issues at a local level – by involving educators, parents, families, businesses and community leaders.

“The most important work happening in Indiana is at the community level, and part of my job is to get barriers and bureaucracy out of the way as quickly as possible so they can lead,” she said.

Her remarks echoed those of Cassidy, who also highlighted the importance of removing red tape from education. Cassidy credited President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon for working to reform the failing education system.

“They understand the simple truth that parents, not Washington bureaucrats, know their child best, so it should be parents making a decision regarding their child’s education,” Cassidy said. “I favor school choice because that empowers a parent to free a child from a failing school and to allow that child to go to the best school that’s available.”