When will America put out the three-alarm fire in its public schools?

The latest round of test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — “the nation’s report card” — shows achievement in reading and math among 13-year-olds tested last year has fallen off a cliff.

The math scores were the worst in more than 30 years; in reading, more than a half-century.

And poor and minority kids are suffering the most.

This is a three-alarm fire.

When will America rush to the scene?

After all, the alarm was ringing in September 2022 when the NAEP put out similar dismal results for 9-year-olds.

And in October 2022, when scores triggered worries about math and reading for grades 4 and 8.

And in May 2023, when they ID’d a 5-point drop in history scores.

And on and on.

Ignore the alarm long enough, and the house burns down.

These reports come out, and everyone is shocked, shocked.

We discuss it for a few days, then move on.

Meanwhile, our kids continue to live with the repercussions of absolutely atrocious pandemic-era policies that targeted them unnecessarily.

A generation of children will have fewer opportunities because of this drop in learning.

And yet not a single person has been fired for keeping kids out of schools across the country for so long for no reason.

The biggest villain for children of the pandemic, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, continues to fail upward.

She’s still holding the gasoline and lighter at the scene of the fire, yet Team Biden and the media treat her like a firefighter instead of an arsonist.

Schools under her control stayed closed the longest.

She pushed to keep schools shut for the entire 2020-21 year, well after everyone knew they weren’t COVID spreaders.

Lately, she’s attempted to rewrite her role during that time, and the media has tried to help her.  

But everyone knows the Biden administration gave her undue power over health-care policy, and she used it to block the schoolhouse door.

Despite all this, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just appointed Weingarten to the Homeland Security Academic Partnership Council.

Kids be damned; there are political allies to reward!

With no possibility of Democrats holding their union allies accountable or making the kinds of changes in schools that will lead to actual results, and with the continued slide of academic performance, parents are left with few options.

That’s why school choice needs to be at the forefront of any debate about our schools.

Parents need to be able to opt out of schools that are dead ends for kids because they’re under the thumb of Weingarten & Co.

During the pandemic, wealthy parents sent their kids to private schools or got them pods, private tutors and more.

It’s not right that a decent education needs to be limited to just those who can afford to get their kids away from Randi.

School choice helps even the playing field for the poor and minority families.

But choice is not enough; most Americans send their kids to their local public school and will keep doing so.

We’ll also need to change the culture in these schools dramatically, and quickly.

Parents need to step up and get involved in their kids’ education, even at the risk of Team Biden targeting them as domestic terrorists.

A lot of parents had their eyes opened in the last three years, but more need to enter the fray.

I talk to parents all the time who simply hope for the best from their local school.

We can’t do that anymore. The results speak for themselves.

We need a culture of transparency so parents can see what their kids are really learning.

They need to push for higher standards and expectations.

Put kids first, not the adults.

Ask teachers for a syllabus of what will be taught to your children, which books will be used and what the plan is to catch up those who’ve fallen behind.

Teachers are not the enemy, and we shouldn’t let their unions pit us against them.

Education was always a partnership between parents and teachers.

Most teachers still want that.

But parents need to get out the metaphorical firehose to use against anyone standing between their child and their education.

And they need to do it now.

Karol Markowicz is co-author of the new book “Stolen Youth.”