Frozen in Failure: Anti-ICE Student Protesters Have Appallingly Low Math, Reading Proficiency

Student walkouts to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests of illegal alien criminals have become all the rage —and I do mean rage —across America, especially in large Democrat cities, but even in some normally red havens. Doubly unfortunate is the fact that many of the same students who air their self-righteousness on behalf of murderers and rapists are also functionally illiterate.

Importantly, 18 U.S. Code § 111 makes it a federal crime to interfere with or resist immigration officers in the execution of their duties, and 8 U.S. Code § 1324 criminalizes deliberately protecting or harboring illegal aliens. Therefore, any teachers or students who try to meddle with federal operations or even clash with federal law enforcement are actually committing crimes. And even those students who are not violent are protesting in favor of foreign killers, sexual predators, pedophiles, drug and human traffickers, and thieves. While that is not illegal in and of itself, it is concerning to note how many young Americans proudly and ignorantly defend dangerous crimes, especially given their abysmal scores on genuinely important school subjects.

Blue States Lead the Academic Decline—But Red States Also Look Bad

An obvious place to start in our assessment of woke schoolchildren is deep blue Chicago. Waukegan High School students in Chicago staged a walkout and protest against ICE which included a very large and disturbing depiction of President Donald Trump crucified. Threatening the president’s life is illegal, by the way (see 18 U.S. Code § 871). But Public School Review states that Waukegan High School is in the bottom 50% among schools in the state of Illinois, with a math proficiency of 5% and reading proficiency of 7%. Yes, you read that correctly —fewer than one in 10 of that high school’s students can read or do basic math. Talk about having the wrong educational priorities.

California’s Democrat leadership —and schools —are just as  opposed to law-and-order as in Illinois. Los Angeles often plays host to leftist domestic terrorism. After the United Teachers of Los Angeles union began dedicating public resources and school time to anti-ICE protest training and borderline or outright illegal interference, students held a huge walkout. The LA Police Department reported on X on Feb. 13 that rioters assaulted and injured a federal agent, and The Post Millennial’s Andy Ngo later shared video showing students were actively involved in the assault—a crime, of course. 

But more than half of LA students cannot even meet baseline proficiency in primary school subjects. EdSource states that the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) average for proficiency in math is about 36%, with 46% proficiency in English. Maybe if the teachers spent less time organizing riots and more time educating children, this problem wouldn’t be so awful.

Olathe Public School students in Kansas also grew violent, though in this case the anti-ICE students turned on their fellow classmates. A father accused school staff of watching without interference as the anti-ICE students assaulted two classmates peacefully holding Donald Trump flags (watch video here). The pro-Trump kids eventually had to run away after they struggled out of the attacking mob. Instead of learning to achieve academic goals from teachers and staff, the students get positive reinforcement in political violence. While OPS has higher scores than most Kansas schools, it still only boasts 43% of students proficient in math, 40% proficient in reading, and 37% proficient in science as of 2022-2023, per Public School Review. Hardly stellar. That means approximately six out of 10 OPS students are not even hitting basic proficiency standards.

In Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the anti-ICE students’ violence took the form of attacking cars and damaging property, leading to the arrests of at least five students. Last year, the news site Philly Burbs reported, “Quakertown Community School District's PSSA scores for both English and math have fallen further than any other Bucks County district over the past decade . . . . The Upper Bucks district once lauded for punching above its weight on the statewide exams has seen math scores drop almost 26 points from 2015–2025. The percentage of proficient and advanced English scores dropped 33 points in the same period.” Maybe  because teachers brainwash students instead of educating them? A little less activism and a little more math and reading, please.

As for New York City, now under the sway of commie Zohran Mamdani, multiple schools’ students planned anti-ICE walkouts in support of domestic terrorist Renee Good, killed while trying to run over a federal officer. In 2025, according to the New York Post, a staggering 40% of NYC grammar school students failed their standardized reading and math tests. 

Oh, to live in a Democrat paradise!

Minnesota has seen more than its share of violent protests against federal immigration officers. So many hundreds of students engaged in anti-ICE walkouts in the “Twin Cities” (Minneapolis and St. Paul) that as of mid-January, teachers reportedly already worried about the high absenteeism numbers. Meanwhile, as of 2025, per the Minnesota Department of Education, about 55% of Minnesota students did not meet grade level in math, while just over 50% were not at grade level for English. In Minneapolis specifically, the 2024 statistics looked even worse, with about 58% of students from second through eighth grade not proficient at grade level. That means more than half of those protesting students cannot even legitimately pass to the next grade.

In my home state of Arizona, where illegal alien invasions have driven up crime and housing prices, multiple Phoenix schools staged anti-ICE walkouts at the end of January, called “ICE Out of Everywhere.” Public School Review notes that Phoenix public schools have scores below the state average, as students there have an average math proficiency of 31% and reading at 36%. The district’s students are majority Hispanic, and it is certain that some of the students are illegal aliens, so it seems some teachers are more interested in retaining foreign students than in teaching American students well.

Schools That Emphasize Academics Get Results

Every once in a while, an educator has tried to put a stop to the student activism. The principal of Wilson High School in Pennsylvania ordered students to end their anti-ICE walkout and head back to class. As for Woodbridge High School in Virginia, it handed out three-day suspensions to over 300 students who engaged in an anti-ICE walkout last week. Notably, Wilson High School reportedly has 38% math proficiency (not so good) and 71% reading proficiency (much better), while Woodbridge High School has about 54% math proficiency and 92% reading proficiency (that’s considerably over the state average). Apparently there are actually some teachers and administrators capable of teaching children to read, and also of telling young people to stop making fools of themselves over propagandistic nonsense.

There truly is a correlation between anti-ICE (i.e., leftist) activism and functional illiteracy among U.S. public school students. The federal government should cut off money to any school districts with massive anti-ICE walkouts, and state governments need to investigate why so many students become raging Democrat rioters who cannot pass a test.

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