A December 3rd article in the Wall Street Journal exposed the crisis in our educational system. Specifically, the number of freshmen entering the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has fallen below a high-school level.
One in 12 of their entering freshmen have math skills below middle-school levels. This means that college students might struggle with questions such as 7+6+2. Another example, “Sara had nine pennies and nine dimes, how many coins did she have in all?”
The above statistic represents an increase of nearly 30-fold over the past five years, according to a shocking new report from the university’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions.
As stated in the article, we need to praise the UCSD working group, made up of faculty members and administrations, for telling the truth. We need to ask how many other universities have lacked the courage to “tell the truth?”
Another concerning statistic in the article. “Second, for already-admitted students, further assessment should be required to ensure that those who need remedial courses (which shouldn’t involve college credit) receive them. It’s critical that UCSD—long considered a “public Ivy”— restore its brand credibility with parents, policymakers, employers and future applicants. The college must ensure that a degree in 2026, 2027 and 2028 pledges that graduates carrying UCSD parchment completed a college education. That likely will require a math exit exam. Such institutional wide assessment and response will also demand fundamental curricular reform, guided by sober-minded leaders moving at speeds unknown among academic-bureaucratic committees.”
It is even worse. The students admitted to UCSD were on average receiving “A” grades in high school classes that supposedly taught multiple years beyond algebraic and arithmetic foundations. This was fraud. High Schools have been clearly inflating grades beyond what students earned or deserved.
Ancient Israel made a prophet out of Nathan for speaking the truth. David had the husband killed with whom David enjoyed an adulterous affair with his wife. For David’s crime, he was not allowed to build a temple in Jerusalem.
I recently read where 60% of grades given at Harvard are now A’s. This fulfills a saying I learned as a teen-age student—You can always tell a Harvard Man. You cannot tell him much.”
Another factor contributing to these extremely concerning results were that the San Francisco United School District has been intentionally teaching less rigorous math since 2014 on the ridiculous claim that math is racist.
A fundamental question is – How have federal dollars continued to pour into a system that is fundamentally corrupt?
The Cold War’s Sputnik (1957) and “A Nation at Risk” (1983) educational crisis moments were big alarm bells for our U.S. education system, but the UCSD canary in the coal mine might be bigger. It isn’t enough to be enraged about this national abdication; we need to build a plan to fix it. This starts with an honest examination of how low our starting point is.
My hypothesis is that the failure in math is replicated in English, Science, History, and other subjects.
Today, the United States is struggling to compete with China. If history is any guide, our uneducated populace will fail to meet the challenges we face today and into the future.
For years, people have asked how America emerged as the number one global power. While admittedly, we possess a large territory filled with an abundance of minerals. This is not enough. Russia– a huge gas station– has those same resources. I believe a large part of our success has been a historic focus on educating our public. Our workers were equipped to meet the ongoing challenges of our country. Over the past 40 years, America’s educational ranking internationally has fallen from first to somewhere in the 30’s.
In conclusion, sadly, I am pessimistic about our future. Everyday we read about the dysfunction in our government. Our poorly educated public does not know the difference between demagogue solutions and healthy, realistic policy prescriptions.
