EDITORIAL: Can Democrats escape the wilderness on education?

Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor, has taken on the Herculean task of trying to push the Democratic Party back toward the center. He has even floated the idea of a 2028 presidential run.

On Thursday, he wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal in which he urged Democrats to re-examine their approach to public education as test scores sink nationally. His words should be required reading for Nevada’s legislative Democrats, who are wedded to the stagnant education establishment dominated by teachers unions.

Mr. Emanuel chides his party for the disastrous step of demanding schools remain closed during the pandemic and points out that the dismal results from the Nation’s Report Card highlight the need for innovative reform. He dismisses Democrats who insist that to pour more money into the system is the only way to improve results.

“Democrats must realize that if money alone could solve the problem, every American student would be a National Merit Scholar,” Mr. Emanuel wrote. “We’ve written too many blank checks — particularly following COVID — without ensuring results or accountability for the investment.”

Later, he attacks efforts to implement woke curricula when students struggle with routine skills. “We’ve spent the past five years debating pronouns without noticing that too many students can’t tell you what a pronoun is,” he noted, adding, “We’ve become so obsessed with bathroom access that we’ve ignored classroom excellence.”

Mr. Emanuel is a fan of Read by 3, the requirement that children who are not reading at grade level by the end of third grade be held back. He embraces a “return to the basics” for K-8 education and “top-to-bottom reform” in high schools so teenagers are held to high expectations rather than just handed diplomas for breathing.

His suggestions will no doubt be dismissed by majority Democrats in Carson City, who for decades have insisted that reaching ever deeper into the pockets of Nevada taxpayers is the sole way to address the state’s public education dysfunction. Never mind that two recent tax hikes — the largest in state history — have failed to improve student achievement, Democrats and the teachers unions are already clanking their tin cups for more.

In addition, legislative Democrats have torpedoed reforms intended to impose accountability and improve results, including Read by 3 and a more demanding teacher evaluation process. They have eliminated high school exit exams and embraced dumbed-down grading standards. They even fought to limit new charter schools while battling every effort to give parents more educational choices for their children.

Mr. Emanuel makes eminent sense. Nevada voters should hold Nevada’s Democratic lawmakers responsible if they fail to listen.