Illiterate, with a Shiny Diploma to Prove it! By Chris Knight (Florida)

The article from LibertySentinel.org, dated prior to March 6, 2025,

https://libertysentinel.org/honors-student-sues-after-graduating-without-being-able-to-read/

chronicles the jaw-dropping saga of Aleysha Ortiz, a 19-year-old "honours" graduate from Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut who can't read or write a lick—yet somehow snagged a scholarship to the University of Connecticut. She's now suing the city and school board for negligence and emotional distress, alleging a 12-year gauntlet of educational malpractice and bullying that left her illiterate despite a shiny diploma. It's not just her story, though—another lawsuit in Tennessee echoes the same absurdity, where a kid with a 3.4 GPA couldn't read his own name, and a federal court agreed the system failed him. The piece paints a grim picture: hundreds of U.S. schools have zero students proficient in reading per the National Assessment of Educational Progress, with less than a third of students nationwide hitting the mark in reading or maths. Ortiz's case, spotlighted by everyone from CNN to Newsweek, exposes a festering mess—schools passing kids along, ignoring pleas for help, and doling out "honors" like participation trophies, all while taxpayers foot the bill for this circus of incompetence.

Picture this: a gleaming utopia of Western education, where the hallowed halls of learning stretch from the star-spangled plains of America to the sun-scorched outback of Australia, united in a grand mission to produce the brightest minds of tomorrow. Except—oops!—someone forgot to teach the kids how to read, write, or think, and instead handed them gold stars for showing up and not drooling too much on the desk. Enter Aleysha Ortiz, our plucky heroine, a modern-day scholar who conquered Hartford Public Schools with the ferocity of a kangaroo on a trampoline, leaping over every educational hurdle without ever cracking a book—because, bless her heart, she couldn't read one if it bit her. Twelve years, hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, and a parade of "educators" later, she's an "honours" graduate, ready to grace the University of Connecticut with her presence, armed with a scholarship and a speech-to-text app that's basically her academic Excalibur. And why not? In this brave new world, literacy's just a pesky relic—like cursive or knowing what a slide rule is.

Across the Pacific, Australia's not about to be outdone in this race to the intellectual bottom. Forget mastering the Queen's English—mates in Sydney and Melbourne are too busy perfecting their TikTok dances to bother with pesky things like spelling "koala" or figuring out if Captain Cook was a pirate or a pastry chef. The Aussie curriculum's gone full bushranger: phonics are out, replaced by "vibes-based learning," where kids stare at a didgeridoo and guess what sound it makes—extra points if they hum along. Proficiency? Nah, that's for nerds. Here Down Under, they've got schools where the only thing students ace is "Advanced Vegemite Application," and the national literacy stats are so dire they're scribbled in crayon—because half the adults can't wield a pen either. It's a beaut of a system, fair dinkum, where graduating with honours means you've successfully avoided setting the classroom on fire, and that's gold enough for a uni scholarship.

Back in the States, Ortiz's tale is the crown jewel of a system so gloriously inept it's practically performance art. Imagine the scene: little Aleysha, six years old, waltzing into first grade, piping up with, "Oi, teach, I can't read or write, go easy on me!"—and the response? A pat on the head and a shove into the corner to doodle daisies while the "special education case manager" screeches like a banshee, "You're fine, kid, just vibe it out!" Fast forward to sixth grade—her reading level's stuck below "See Spot Run," but no worries, the school's too busy perfecting its DEI interpretive dance to notice. By senior year, they slap an "honours" sticker on her forehead, toss her a diploma she can't decipher, and wave her off to college with a "Good luck, champ!"—because in America, effort's optional but optics are king. Newsweek's wringing its hands about "systemic failures" and "learning disabilities," but let's call it what it is: a trillion-dollar clown show where the ringmaster's too busy counting tax bucks to teach the monkeys a trick.

And the courts? Oh, they're in on the gag. Tennessee's got its own illiterate valedictorian, a 3.4 GPA whiz who couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted him the "c"—but hallelujah, the feds ruled he could learn to read with "proper instruction," a revelation so groundbreaking it only took 12 years and a lawsuit to figure out. Meanwhile, Ortiz's legal crusade's got lawmakers clutching pearls—"How'd this happen on our watch?"—as if the gazillions poured into this edu-sinkhole weren't funding cushy admin gigs and glitter for the "Everyone's a Winner" parade. The solution? More money, obviously! Because nothing screams "fix the problem" like doubling down on the dumpster fire that got us here.

This isn't just a U.S.-Aussie joint venture in brain-drain—it's a Western masterpiece of self-inflicted stupidity. Forget the Enlightenment; we're in the Endarkenment, where phonics is witchcraft, literacy's a hate crime, and the only skill kids need is swiping right on their iPads. Teachers? They're not educators—they're vibe curators, trauma counsellors, and gender whisperers, too swamped to teach "a-b-c" but aces at spotting microaggressions in a colouring book. Parents? Half of 'em can't read the lawsuit either, so they shrug and ship the kids back to the gulag, praying they'll at least learn to TikTok their way to a job at Maccas or McDonald's. And the kids? They're graduating with honours, dreams, and a blank slate where their brains should be—perfect fodder for a world that doesn't need thinkers, just button-pushers.

So here's to Aleysha Ortiz, poster child of this glorious dumbocalypse, suing her way to justice while the system that failed her scrambles for a plea deal. She's not alone—millions of Western grads are out there, diplomas in hand, staring at "Exit" signs they can't decode, all while the edu-crats toast their "success" with taxpayer-funded champagne. America and Australia, united in idiocy, proving that when it comes to education, the only thing we're proficient at is pretending everything's ace. Strap in, folks—this train's off the rails, and the conductor's too illiterate to read the map!