Gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has harsh criticisms,

Steve Hilton is saying what Sacramento doesn’t want to hear: California’s third graders can’t read or do math at grade level, and that’s not a funding problem or a testing quirk. It’s a collapse. He called it a crisis, and the word fits.

Third grade is where children stop learning to read and start reading to learn. Kids who miss that door rarely get back through it. California’s own data shows most third graders are below proficiency, which means a whole generation gets locked out of algebra, trades, college, and basic civic life. Not because they’re not smart, but because adults spent the last decade arguing about adult concerns while the basics went up in flames.

Hilton has been harsh about the state’s leadership, and that harshness is earned. The education establishment has spent decades and billions to produce worse results. They have a million excuses, but the numbers have been bad so long that the excuse aisle is empty. This is exactly the kind of fight California needs: whether schools exist for children or for the adults employed by them.

The usual response will be to attack the messenger and bury the test scores in footnotes. But parents in LA, Fresno, and every little inland town can read a report card. They already know what Hilton is telling them. That’s why this lands, and why it won’t blow over.