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In education, sometimes the most important things are the least glamorous. Student assessment and school accountability rarely make headlines the way new spending proposals or sweeping initiatives do. No fireworks. No standing ovations.  

However, if state leaders are serious about improving outcomes for students, they need to make sure their policy plates are filled with the right solutions. Accountability is the broccoli on that plate. It may not be the first thing you reach for. You might not want to go back for seconds. But despite what my dad used to say, you need to eat it. 

Accountability leads to positive student academic progress through consistent implementation. When I was governor of Florida, we worked to put in place a built on clear standards, annual assessments, school grading, real consequences for persistent failure and financial recognition for success.  

It wasn’t the most popular thing my administration did, but over time, the approach created a culture of transparency and responsibility. Florida parents understood how their child’s school was performing, educators had clearer expectations and policymakers had the data they needed to make informed decisions. 

Over the next two decades, Florida became one of the for student proficiency in math and reading according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This was particularly true for Florida’s low-income students. To be clear, those proficiency gains were not the result of a single program or short-term investment; it was part of a broader education policy agenda that included high-quality literacy instruction, access to more schools  for families through scholarship programs and letter grades for schools.  

, similar agendas have emerged in states like Mississippi and Louisiana. Their gains reinforce a simple but important point: When states stick with the fundamentals, students benefit.  

At the national level, the picture is far less encouraging. The show too many students are struggling, with declines and stagnation in both math and reading. Right now, students in fourth and eighth grade are performing on average at a their counterparts from a decade ago.     

Minnesota is a prime example of a state that rested on its laurels. In 2013, Minnesota was coming off more than a decade of consistently in nearly every education category. Since then, despite billions of additional dollars invested, Minnesota students are now performing on par with the national average in fourth grade reading and math. They are now performing more than an entire grade level behind their 2013 peers.

These scores aren’t just numbers; they reflect lost earning potential for students and a weaker workforce ahead. from Stanford University finds that restoring academic performance to 2013 levels would boost the average student’s lifetime earnings by about 8%. In total, the Stanford study estimates learning loss over the past decade has cost our country more than .  

The news is even more grim for disadvantaged children, who saw the performance gap between high- and low-performing students . Because these students have suffered larger learning losses, their average lifetime incomes are expected to be than those of similar young people a decade ago. 

State education leaders and lawmakers who commit to with a focus on academics are more likely to see their states stick to those changes and more likely to see future leaders and lawmakers continue to raise the bar, ensuring lasting improvement. That kind of consistency is not easy, but it is necessary. Plenty of people would like to eat nothing but pizza — comfort food solutions with no substance — but any doctor will tell you humans need more green stuff to see healthier outcomes. 

Unlike Minnesota, mounted a commitment to transparent, rigorous, accountability during the 2010s. Mississippi’s fourth grade students are of their 2013 peers in reading and math, outperforming Minnesota kids in reading by half a grade level — all while spending far less money. 

That means state leaders must stay the course, even when the results are not immediately flattering and there is pressure to retreat. Lawmakers must resist the temptation of the better-tasting, less wholesome items on their plate that are more likely to make eye-catching headlines but not have as much effect on student outcomes. For the sake of America’s children, more states need to embrace accountability and stick with a simple solution: Eat your broccoli.

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