We’ve all heard about the steep learning loss that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, and the devastating effects of keeping many American schools closed to in-person learning far longer than necessary.

But a troubling new study shows the decline started years earlier, across racial and demographic lines. School and political leaders around the country should treat that as a wake-up call.

It also underscores the importance of expanding school choice so families can improve their children’s education before it’s too late.

The Education Scorecard, a collaboration between Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research and Stanford University’s Education Opportunity Project, was released May 13. It shows states across the country struggling with declining test scores dating back more than a decade. It’s the fourth year of the scorecard.

The report traces the beginning of the “learning recession” to 2013, when progress in math and reading stalled before starting to decline. Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, called the trend “dramatic” and described it as the “central problem in American education.”

“The slowdown in........

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