The City University community college system released a shocking statistic last week that roughly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates fall below proficient levels of reading, writing, and math and must take remedial courses before starting any classes.

It is the latest disclosure of our school system that shows how we are creating a lost generation of kids in a sub-standard educational system. It is a disgrace that the vast majority of kids going into the community college system would not have the most basic skills required of graduates. It shows how our schools are often churning out students and “making the numbers” — and failing our students.

Nearly 11,000 kids who came from city high schools needed remedial courses to re-learn the basics.

This should be seen as a far greater threat to our national security than terrorism or economic pressures. We are educating a population that simply cannot compete on a large scale with other nations that put greater effort and support behind education. Worse yet, we are widening the gulf between classes in our society of those people who are highly educated and affluent and those who are left with a remedial level of education. The failure in our school system has now shifted basic learning to the college level. Notably, many kids never go to college, so they are left without even remedial education.

We remain a country that maintains the highest level of war-making capabilities while disregarding the low performance levels of our schools. It is a trend that can only lead to problems in the future. We will become the world’s soldiers while other nations take the lead in science and the economy. This is not to say that we do not have a highly educated elite. However, we have a large unskilled and barely educated population going into a world that demands greater and greater sophistication in the workforce.

Source: CBS