BOSTON— Massachusetts students are crashing and burning on the state’s MCAS exams — and taxpayers are paying champagne prices for dirt-cheap results. The Bay State now spends over $21,000 per student, sixth-highest in the nation, but the return is plummeting scores and classrooms that look more like political boot camps than schools.

The numbers are shocking. Tenth-grade English scores plunged six points in a single year. Math dropped another three. Compared to 2019, teens today are a staggering 14 points behind in math and 10 points lower in English. For the first time, kids knew the test no longer counted for graduation — lawmakers scrapped it in the name of “equity.” The message was clear: the diploma is free, effort optional.

The younger kids didn’t save the day. Grades 3–8 inched up a pitiful three points in English but are still a full decade behind. Math? Flatlined. The so-called “recovery” has become a nosedive.

And while scores collapse, the spending spree never stops. DEI budgets are ballooning, consultants are cashing in, and administrators are creating entire bureaucracies dedicated to “equity” instead of education. Walk into some Massachusetts schools and you’ll find posters of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara slapped on bulletin boards under the banner of “heritage,” while teachers drill kids on pronouns and social justice slogans. Reading? Arithmetic? Forget it. The only thing climbing higher than the consultant invoices is the taxpayer bill.

The results are catastrophic. Only 13 districts in the entire state managed to claw back to pre-pandemic levels in both English and math. Everywhere else, kids are sinking fast. Barely 55 percent of schools hit accountability targets this year, down from 60 percent last year.

Massachusetts once bragged it had the best schools in America. Today it brags about “inclusive curriculum” while students can’t read or do basic math. Parents are furious, taxpayers are fleeced, and classrooms that were supposed to teach the ABCs are now glorifying political radicals.

The test scores don’t lie. The kids are falling. The schools are failing. And the state is wasting billions to make it worse.