Useless U

Scores could be increased by sending 50% of the students back to the countries they came from.

Several years ago the subject of low reading levels came up in a conversation. The teacher in the group became indignant, stating that of course college freshmen could read. After all, they had received their high school diplomas! Just displayed the absolute bubble some people exist in. She wasn’t aware of these problems having been around for years. Probably still in that bubble all these years and reports later.

I get disgusted when I hear Texas denigrated for having poor schools with low student test scores. Half the students down here can't speak nor read English and thanks to DEI they think four is soelled foe. Dam ned Yankees have no idea how bad the problems they caused have become.

70% of college entrants below middle school math level. This is NOT going to get this country able to function in the 21st century. Our kids are so uneducated as to be useless in most high tech jobs.

In Louisiana, where I'm from, once civil rights kicked in, any parent with a child who really needed to repeat a grade - nope, can't do it. The law says All kids have to pass. I worked at LSU for a while and it was accepted that many students entering there needed a year or so of remedial reading and math. This was in the late '60's to early 70's. Probably still going on.

Math is racist, don't you know.

I would argue that the liberal universities, for quite a while, have been boosting grades while student capabilities have dwindled. This is also bled down into High school and lower grades. Kids have a sense of accomplishment and entitlement that they have not earned. In the business world, inability to deliver, to get the job done well, is a huge problem to business success. The "feelings" of the workers are not the focus; a complete shock to the people who have gone through the current "educational" system. Further, people that DO know what is required KNOW that such people cannot deliver. It becomes obvious in the interview process. So positions can remain unfilled and that limits corporate success. When the article says that 2.8% of bachelor's degree holders are unemployed, it is not hard to imagine that these are the people that the system has identified, because of failure, as being incompetent, despite their "credentials". They don't have a convincing record of success and have weak references. When we talk about the "expert class" being discredited, this is another reflection of inflated credentials being worthless. People are beginning to recognize that many experts simply don't know what they are talking about. Business response is to create training programs for people that show initiative and intelligence in their activities. These people are willing to work. The "smarts" they need can be taught. The right attitude is much harder to infuse into someone.

In the 60e my father, teaching New Testament Greek in a private university, lamented the fact he needed to teach his students basic English grammar before advancing to another language. Sadly things probably have not improved over the past half century in math or English.

Take a look at middle school math and grammar textbooks and you'll know why these problems exist.

Or son graduated from high school in 2000. He wasn't sure wanted really wanted to do so he decided to go to our very good junior college. We met with the giudance consular and he explained that or son would have to take a placement test. Seemed reasonable we assumed it was for the classes that would lead to is eventual degree. When we asked or son how he thought he did replied "Oh I aced it!...Mom, it was all baby stuff!" We were speechless. All of the feeder school's were top rated schools too. Thirty years later, with the all of the investment in fads "theories" and "necessary personal devices" has only gotten worse. Many teachers today can just pawn off actual teaching to the devices. Now, with Chat GPT, the kids homework will always be perfect. Give every teacher a blackboard and a piece of chalk...only. Let's see what happens.

If that's the case, the question is WHY were these so-called students accepted to college ? Of course, without students, there would be no colleges.

They can’t figure out the area of a rectangle but they can elaborate on gender theory for hours.

Yes, but do these incoming college students know their pronouns and the importance of Sojourner Truth in American history?

Of course they are poor at math, they were never taught to memorize addition, multiplication, or division--the very basics of math.

Democraps want students STUPID, that way it's easier to INDOCTRINATE THEM!

MATH? Who needs MATH? We don't need no stinking MATH in Gender Studies! "Do the MATH!" is our favorite put-down! I would be interested in reading the scores needed to get into the various different academic majors, and the unemployment rates of graduates from the different majors. For instance, what is the unemployment rate for, say, electrical or mechanical engineering graduates versus the rate for gender studies or film studies graduates. I have seen some articles recently about the 'Mississippi Miracle' where the test scores for reading and math have improved dramatically over the last few years, as the scores in other states have declined. The people in charge of education in Mississippi did their research and determined what methods worked, for instance teaching phonics to beginning readers, and directed that those methods be used. Apparently some places use some sort of 'whole language' program that tries to teach kids to read by rote memory of each word in the material that they teach. This doesn't work, and in those places with powerful teachers unions the politicians are scared to correct the failing system. The Leftist teachers unions and the Leftist politicians are working hand-in-glove to make our children dumber and dumber, so that they will believe the Leftist lies. It is the Leftist's path to political dominance. We see it every day in the big 'Rat-run cities.

I hear the California teacher’s unions are pushing for raises for teachers because of the wonderful work they have done.

A recent meme on Powerline's The Week in Pictures read as follows: "In 100 years, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college."