Something has gone wrong in our classrooms, and the numbers make it impossible to ignore: our kids have stopped caring about school — and who can blame them?

Consider what students themselves are telling us:

In one of the largest studies ever conducted on the subject, researchers at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence surveyed nearly 22,000 high school students and found that 75% of the feelings they associated with school were negative. The three words they used most often to describe how school makes them feel were "tired," "stressed," and "bored."

Gallup's survey of more than 900,000 students found a "school engagement cliff": while 74% of fifth-graders are engaged in school, only about one-third of high school students still are. The longer our kids stay in the system, the less they care — the exact opposite of what education is supposed to do.

And they are voting with their feet. Chronic absenteeism has nearly doubled since before the pandemic — from 13.4% of students in 2017 to 23.5% in 2024 — meaning almost one in four students now misses so much school it threatens their success.

This is not because our children are lazy or our teachers don't care. It is because we are asking students to sit through thirteen years of a system that too often feels disconnected from their lives, their futures, and who they are. When school feels irrelevant, kids disengage. When it feels like it matters, they show up.

We can fix this — and we can make kids want to be there. Here is what we are calling for:

• Help students discover who they are. Give every child the chance to uncover their strengths, values, and purpose, and the freedom to explore what genuinely excites them. Kids light up when school helps them become themselves — not just fill in another worksheet. 
• Teach them how the real world works. Make financial literacy and practical life skills — money, credit, taxes, budgeting, contracts — a graduation requirement. Students engage when they can see how learning applies to the life they're about to live.
• Replace teaching-to-the-test with teaching them to think. Trade the endless cycle of high-stakes testing for real critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and hands-on projects that make learning come alive.
• Prepare them for the world they're actually entering. As artificial intelligence reshapes nearly every career, teach students to use modern tools with skill and judgment — and to build the human strengths technology can't replace.
• Bring parents back in and restore accountability. Give families a real voice, and measure our schools by one honest standard: are our kids inspired, prepared, and ready for life?

When we teach kids things that matter — things connected to their purpose, their future, and the real world — school stops being something they endure and becomes something they look forward to. An inspired student is an engaged student. And engaged students become the curious, capable, self-directed adults our country needs.

This is not a partisan issue. It is about whether the next generation walks into school excited to learn, or counts the days until they can leave.

We, the undersigned, call on our leaders to reform what and how we teach — and to give our kids a reason to love learning again.

Sign this petition, and share it with every parent, teacher, and citizen who believes our children deserve better.