Years ago, I wrote a column denouncing the decision of the University of California system to drop standardized testing in the cause of greater racial diversity. Now, hundreds of UC mathematics faculty have called for a return to such testing after reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level.
As written earlier, the University of California system was an early supporter of this disastrous move. It was heralded as a way to preserve diversity after voters in California repeatedly rejected race-based admissions and the Supreme Court appeared ready to bar such practices (commonly proven with reference to standardized test differentials among applicants).
Now, many professors in the California system have come to the same conclusion as some of us who denounced the move years ago. They have witnessed the drop in academic skills and abilities among incoming students.
These tests not only have the most significant predictive value for performance but also play an important role in the advancement of minority students. Former University of California President Janet Napolitano, however, overrode those conclusions.
Napolitano responded to such criticism with a Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing. The task force did find that 59 percent of high school graduates were Latino, African-American or Native American but only 37 percent were admitted as UC freshman students. The Task Force did not find standardized testing to be unreliable or call for its abandonment, however.
Instead, its final report concluded that “At UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.”
Not only that, it found: “Further, the amount of variance in student outcomes explained by test scores has increased since 2007 … Test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.” In other words, test scores remain the best indicator for continued performance in college.
That clearly was not the result Napolitano or some others wanted. So, she simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions. The system would go to a “test-blind” system until it developed its own test.
Ending standardized testing had an obvious secondary purpose: to frustrate new legal challenges to the use of race in college admissions. Last November, Californians rejected a resolution to restore affirmative action in college admissions.
We have also seen the dismal decline in standards at elite universities like Harvard, where faculty have been compelled to teach high school-level math classes to students.
Various schools have now reversed this ridiculous move pushed by faculty and administrators in the cause of racial diversity. The proponents of the change, such as Napolitano, have said little after they decimated the academic integrity and standing of their schools.
The UC faculty cited the UC San Diego Senate–Administration Workgroup on Admissions report, which found that 70 percent of these students are performing below a middle-school level.
Like Harvard, faculty are now teaching high-school-level math.
The declining performance reflects the failure of our public schools, which have also lowered graduation standards. The top-spending public school districts are also some of the worst-performing districts.
Is there a link to a specific source that “hundreds of UC mathematics faculty have called for a return to such testing after reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level.”?
This is a serious question.
DOJ Going After E. Jean Carroll
The Justice Department has opened an criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the 82-year-old former magazine writer who accused Donald J. Trump of sexual assault, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.
The investigation is believed to center on whether Ms. Carroll committed perjury in civil lawsuits against Mr. Trump, according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Andrew S. Boutros, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, opened the inquiry, according to the person with knowledge of the situation.
Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general — who has approved a growing number of inquiries into the president’s enemies — is said to have recused himself from the probe because of his representation of Mr. Trump in the Carroll case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/us/politics/criminal-inquiry-e-jean-carroll-trump-accusations.html?
………………………………….
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has recused himself from ‘this’ investigation only because he represented Trump during Carroll’s civil case. But instead the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois leads the investigation..??
The alleged rape in question occurred in New York City. Why would the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois have anything to do with this? It’s absurd!
Is there no end to Trump’s retribution campaign? This idea that Federal Attorneys and Federal resources should be used to harass anyone who’s ever gotten in Trump’s way is a total abuse of power!
If Carroll did not commit perjury she has nothing to worry about.
Nothing to worry about but the incredibly high cost of defending against a false accusation by the Federal government.
The Carroll suit and the verdict were absurd.
Trump is not going after people who “got in his way” – people do that all the time with no consequence beyond harsh words
The people who are being prosecuted are those who illegally abused power or violated the law.
The rule of law requires prosecuting them.
I have no idea what the basis of the case against Carroll is – but most peole do not beleive her – or really any of the nonsense that those of you on the left spray.
That is why Trump was re-elected. You do not seem to grasp that.
The majority of the country – often super majorities REJECTS your nonsense
Whatever most people feel about policies – though usually supermajorities support Trump’s agenda,
We do NOT support lies, fraud, censorship, abuse of power and violence as the means of countering policies that you do not like.
Not believing her is a choice, one which allows the remaining hundreds of accusations of sexual assault against Trump to also be dismissed in order to “own the libs.” As long as Trump hurts people John Say doesn’t like, then everything that Trump does is acceptable and therefore any accusation must clearly be false.
“Why would the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois have anything to do with this? It’s absurd!”
What’s absurd is your ignorance.
Her original case was tried in a *federal* court.
A caution about “standardized testing”. These tests were developed before the age of computing. A good score on the SAT Math represents someone well prepared to work at a high-level job in the 1960s economy.
Standardized Math tests have NOT evolved at pace with knowledge creation the past 60 years. They dangerously calcify expectations of what is worth knowing. A stunning example from Applied Mathematics was showcased in the movie “Hidden Figures”. John Glenn’s multi-orbital mission (1962) could NOT be modeled confidently using traditional paper and pencil analysis (geometry, algebra, trig) with mechanical calculators. A group of uber smart black women led by Dorothy Vaughn at NASA Hampton VA learned Fortran Programming, and revolutionized applied math problem-solving by implementing 3D vector-based physics on the IBM 7090. By the mid-1990s, industry had fully-adopted this new problem-solving paradigm — when personal computers and software could be put in any employee’s hands who knew how to use it.
Do you see any Computation-age Applied Vector Math tested for on the SAT Math? No. The College Board, ETS, and the Education PhDs who oversee the SAT & GRE Math tests remain ignorant of how math problem-solving has been revolutionized over the past 60-years. They’re falling still further behind as AI machine learning sweeps through 2020s industry.
Yes, we need good tests to measure what people know. That’s essential. But, these must be kept up-to-date in a rapid-pace knowledge economy. Otherwise, we’ll just keep preparing students for yesteryear. Other nations not making this institutionalized blunder will easily surpass us.
You have to understand vector mathematics, a totally noncomputer subject, in order to implement effective software. Been there, done that. Theory comes before application.
pbinca
There has been no consequential change in fundimental mathematics in a very very long time.
The examples you cite are NOT challenges to fundimental mathematics. They are just examples of creative problems solving.
Nor is the use of computers relevant – computers are a tool. You can not make effective use of them unless you already have the understanding of fundamental mathematics
Computers change the way many problems are solved – by allowing some mathematical processes to be performed dramatically FASTER thn humans are able.
Even AI is NOT a new mathematics – it is the use of the same mathematics we have had since newton in ways that were not possible because humans are not fast enough. AI will have possibly a larger impact than the industrial revolution, or the information revolution.
But it has NO impact on mathematics, or science themselves. It is not “new math”, it is just the same old ordinary use of mathematics to solve problems.
Think of AI as the difference between 20 men with shovels digging Trench and doing so with giant backhoe.
What has changed is the amount of horsepower that can be applied to breaking up the earth.
Further most standardized tests, are mostly NOT tests of “learning” – they are really tests of intelligence. You can go out on the web and determine what your IQ is from the results of your SAT’s or other standardized tests – which is why most SAT prep courses can only boots your results a small amount.
This documentary, from 4 years ago, is about my hometown Baltimore’s schools,”Failure Factory.” Reject using “this OR that,” “This NOT that” dynamics. Answers and solutions are usually found in this AND that AND that AND that answers – more so when the topic is education. https://youtu.be/pMQK1oKDvso?si=bRlMkUhsDGNR34a7
What this country needs is more Social Workers and Political Science Majors…!
More lawyers to sue insurance companies to make sure everyone’s premiums are as high as possible!
For the People!
We need more ethnic study majors. They make such good baristas!
Social Workers counsel veterans, people with disabilities, hospital patients, people in need of psychiatric care, battered wives, abused children, pregnant teenagers, mothers in poverty and people with drug and alcohol issues.
Therefore, to dismiss social work as a frivolous occupation is aggressively ignorant. But we’d expect nothing more from mean and stupid MAGA types.
My parents told me when I was young, that you would be judged by others by the way you treat them with words and actions.
This is an edit to my above comment.
Ano @6:38pm was on point until his second sentence. Then my comment applies.
Your parents were wrong. You will be judge by the amount of money you accumulate it the shortest amount of time.
These services will always be needed, but we’ve seen the numbers needing counseling steadily increase as a result of poor policies and misplaced ideals. If we can get back to sound policies and social architecture which expects and supports a self-sufficient family producing well-adjusted offspring, we can PREVENT failure, rather than trying to bandage it. That’s always the better option.
ATS – the gist of the complaints above are that the world worked perfectly fine before social workers existed, or ethnic studies was a thing.
These “professions” are luxuries – not necessities – they MIGHT improve the quality of our lives – though even that is far from certainty
But they are not necescities, and quite often they not only produce little of actual value that improves the human condition, but they consume resources that would be put to better use, and they often reduce our ability to improve our standard of living.
We have had veterans, people with disabilities, hospital patients, battered wives, abused children, pregnant teenagers, mothers in poverty, drug and alcohol problems, and psychiatric issues since the begining of humanity.
In SOME of those areas at significant cost we have made SMALL gains. In many of those – we have accomplished nothing.
Please tell me exactly how we are doing better in the area of mental health than in the past ?
A century ago we put people with mental health problems in Asylums – these were thought to be the humane treatment of their era.
Today we send them to prison.
We have as much if not more drug and alcohol problems today as ever before – probably because our mental health is likely WORSE not better.
Over the past 200 years medical care has doubled life expectancy through 3 things – antiseptics, antibiotics and IV fluids.
These are very basic and can be easily implimented in even the poorest countries in the world which is why the difference in life expectancy in the afluent west is only slightly greater than the poor countries of the world. 99% of modern medicine has no significant measurable impact on life expectance. That does not make it worthess. It makes it a LUXURY not a necessity. US healthcare is rediculously expensive – because it is an incredible luxury. You can get very nearly the same outcomes in mass open wards in India.
If anything wars are LESS frequent than ever before – fewer people – both veterans and civilians are traumatized by war.
While improvements in medical care in the first 15 minutes have resulted in massive increases in survival from injuries that were fatal for most of human existance – other than that we are not consequentially better at caring for the trauma caused by war and violence.
Unintended pregnancy has been an issue for all of human existance. There is no evidence that has changed significantly.
I do not want to trash everything about social work or any of the other professions you are pushing – but these are LUXURIES,
In most instances the real benefits for individuals or mankind from them are small and the cost high – that is the nature of ALL luxuries.
The actual improvements to the human condition are the consequence of being able to produce more of what humans want at lower human cost. That is NOT social work, or political science – though it actually is Barista’s.
Social work is not frivolous – but a Barista contributes more to improving humanity.
How can you tell ? Individuals on their own voluntarily pay exhorbitant amounts for luxurious coffee today.
Individuals and businesses hire almost no social workers. Why ? because as in everything outside of govenrment individuals make a cost value judgement and have determined that the value of social work is less than its cost.
We rarely make those judgements consciously. But we make them all the time. That is literally the engine of the world.
Free markets deliver to people what THEY have determined that they want – what THEY have decided is worthwhile.
Markets do so first as expensive luxuries to the rich but ultimately at low cost to all including the poor.
As a result the poor throughout the world have as perceived necescities what are actually luxuries that even the uber rich did not have a few generations ago.
If you want to determine the actual value of social work – disconnect it completely from government and see whether people continue to pay for it.
“A century ago we put people with mental health problems in Asylums – these were thought to be the humane treatment of their era.”
These were not thought to be humane. They were places they would not be seen or heard and the treatment was known to be cruel, but out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes it was people who merely disagreed with someone of sufficient power or authority to make sure they would not be heard in public again.
This country can’t tax for them—Article 1, Section 8. They are the communist states that do this. Any good attorney can demonstrate that the constitutional rights of related individuals have been denied, causing the activities of these useless entities to be unconstitutional acts.
Institutional interests for virtually all institutions: keep money coming in, enhance prestige, lower amount of work necessary to accomplish mission. All three are affected by accurately predicting the success of applicants, as they are more likely to stay in college and keep paying tuition, the work involved in teaching remedial math is lowered, and prestige is enhanced of a university’s students are better educated than middle-school students.
Other institutional interest for some institutions: adhere blindly to woke ideology.
The peak ascendence of woke ideology over practical interests may have passed. The peak occurs at different times, and for different durations, depending on geogrphical location and duration of the ascendancy. But this is a hopeful sign we are now on the post-peak downslope.
“… Now, hundreds of UC mathematics faculty have called for a return to such testing after reports showing a thirtyfold increase in students with math skills below high school level. …”
CONCLUSION: Smart Phones have derailed the academic basics of K-12 Education, though distracting Apps and Social Environmental erosion (Empty Walled Gardens).
Facebook has replaced the Math book, Reading & Writing comprehension has been limited to 256 Characters and a swamp of acronyms. Geography, who need geography when you have a GPS in your hand. Science has been replaced with Google-It. Physical-Ed has been reduced to Finger Dexterity for Texting.
A group of highly overpaid UC mathematics faculty can not solve this systemic problem. IF you don’t believe me, ask Google AI for the answers. lol
Private employers used to provide great educational opportunities in Apprenticeship and Journeyman programs. Maybe more employers need to consider it.
An entry level employee could substantially increase their income in a very short term, by passing both book and hands-on tests.
Instead of a 1% – 3% raise every year, in these programs an employee could almost double their income simply by passing proficiency tests.
It provided a financial incentive to learn the skills needed for a particular job. Much better than a college education.
What is the “statute of limitations” on the tortious interference and destructive bias of irrefutably unconstitutional affirmative action programs that willfully and maliciously victimize particular white students as demonstrated by the “Mismatch Theory” et al.?
You didn’t mention Asian-American students. They’ve being discriminated against worse than white students.
Point taken.
Yes, Asian-American students will only attain 96-97% of what they would have otherwise while the students who are helped will do 1000-5000% better than they would have otherwise.
It’s a worthwhile trade.
Standardized testing is important but here in central Texas and I suspect many other locales, it is openly admitted that “teaching to the test” seems to consume most of the classroom time. The result is that the best teachers for many students who are motivated to learn- are youtube and TikTok. From those sources, one of my grandsons taught himself to play guitar and another, at the age of 11, was able to intelligently discuss binary solar systems with the lecturer at a well-known planetarium. Of course reliance on youtube and tiktok brings with it a host of its own problems.
Just end public education and be done with it.
Politicians are NEVER going to run schools well.
OK, but privatization would have carry forth law mandating every child be given the opportunity and external motivation to learn. You wouldn’t want selfish, self-absorbed parents to rob their offspring of resources set aside for their education?….or would you? In a pure libertarian society, there would naturally form a lower caste of neglected, undeveloped children growing up into uneducated adults, who would be put to work as slaves by the upper castes. The wretched life of the slave, and guilt-ridden psyche of the master are to be avoided at all costs.
That excess of adult freedom goes against Republican ideals of equal opportunity to develop for children.
Isn’t development of every child one of the reasons why we have public schools and universities?
I could see a hybrid system based on a publicly funded voucher to each child only spendable on private education. This would importantly introduce market competition where it is currently lacking — while preventing selfish, desperate, or dysfunctional parents from commandeering resources the child deserves and needs to grow to thrive as an independent actor in a capitalist economy.
Our current school campuses could be managed to host competing courseware products and teachers. You have to take away the monopoly over curricula, and allow competing educational providers. A public entity could still flexibly manage allocation of classroom assets.
Marbury v Madison and Roe v Wade taught America that Congress and laws are frequently unconstitutional. What law takes the control, supervision, and guidance of children away from parents? How many incorrigible children attend school daily? How many “graduates” are nonfunctional? Cite the Constitution for child confiscation, please. All I see in that document is freedom with infinitesimal government.
“it is openly admitted that “teaching to the test” seems to consume most of the classroom time.”
Sounds fine to me.
The Core problem with “teaching to the test” is that this often results in diminished resources for art, music, shop, ….
I am OK with that in a school that can not manage to get students proficient in the 3Rs
The other problem is that Colleges is NOT the right place for everyone.
Though I think everyone should know that the Colonists did not fight the french in 1776,
that the US did not bomb pearl harbor, and that Russia did not win the cold war.
If you are headed to college – you had better read and write well and be competent in math.
But we have myriads of jobs with high 5 figures – even 6 figures that do not require college – though you still need to read and be competent in math.
as to “teaching to the test” what does that mean ?
“Stand and Deliver” is a real world story about “teaching to the test”.
It is also about transitioning to adulthood.
“teaching to the test” is a purportedly derogatory term.
But the reality is you can not “teach” someone to overperform on the SATs – atleast not by much. You can not teach someone the answer to question 31.
You can teach them how to calculate area, or to do calculus.
There are better and worse ways to teach the 3Rs – the better ways will prepare students for “the test”.
If “teaching to the test” is teacher code for – cramping my style – that is nonsense.
I do not care if you teach calculus standing on your head – if your students really learn calculus.
In South Korea teachers are paid based on the performance of their students.
There are very wealthy teachers as a result and huge competition for the best.
Further the best teachers look for new ways to effectively teach large numbers of students – because more students performing exceptionally means more pay.
That sounds good to me.
My daughter had 4 years of excellent public school teachers – and she needed them.
She was adopted from China and has serious learning disabilities. BUT She is also very smart. When teachers gave her what she needed – she performed at the top of her class.
When they did not – she was at the bottom. But in 4th grade she got “the team of teachers from h311” – she was really unhappy, started hating school which she had loved before. We had to do something. We tried Cyber Chartering. At worst she would lose a year – that would still be better than her growing hatred of school and learning.
The cyber charter we chose had a program where students proceeded at their own pace in all subjects. It was “Teaching to the test” before that name existed. When she completed a unit she tested, if she passed she moved on. If not she did more work on that unit. This worked incredibly well for her. Unfortunately overtime the state “regulated ” cyber charters more, and taking daily attendance became more important than learning and they had to slowly drop all the best parts of their program.
Every student does not have the same needs.
“Teaching to the test” – SHOULD mean figuring out whatever it takes for each different student to learn. Teachers should be free to pursue whatever methods produce the best results – and “the test” is how we measure results.
“Teaching to the test” means training a person to parrot back only what is on the test without any additional education. It may decrease the amount of time spent on that one subject because it is so focused.
What you described is the teaching method developed by Salman Khan. He noted that a math education is the development of small skills that form a critical structure for the learning of higher skills.
Rather than “Teaching to the test” it was recognition that learning small math skills is like learning to ride a bike – whatever the initial trouble in understanding the underlying math concept, the execution with that understanding in solving math problems will be 100% and won’t be easily forgotten.
The converse is that a student that isn’t getting all the answers on fundamental math skills testing 100% correct has likely got a gap in their understanding of math; that a person either understands addition, for example, or does not and that one cannot understand addition only 60%.
The concept that there are different ways to learn has largely been debunked. There are different approaches that students may like, but learning of a skill requires having a basis understanding upon which to build.
Read “The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined” for how it worked to turn a class of math failures, students who had given up on learning math, with parents and teachers had seen them as hopeless in the subject, and go in a few months from years below grade level to on par with the top students.
I have zero problems with internet as a learning resource. I have no doubt that motivated kids can learn that way.
I have a very good education in math, science and logic. But I did not really understand fourier transforms until Youtube. There are myriads of other subjects often thought of as highly difficult that someone on the internet has figured out how to make easily understandable.
It’s encouraging to see UC wanting to go back to framing the house by tape measure and not by thumb.
White (i.e. American) students should pursue a massive class-action suit against “Big Education” for deliberately oppressive bias and racial discrimination over the past half century.
Communist dictatorship, redistribution, and social engineering deny particular individuals and groups their constitutional rights.
Asian-American students won their successful lawsuit. It applies to everyone. You’d only sue to benefit white students?
Point taken.
These are achievement tests? Criterion referenced tests is what will be administered? Hopefully test developers are qualified to construct such, a valid tool?
Tests administered to all students in public and private education might yield data regarding regions and socioeconomic data for analysis.
Public education suffered the ills of equal opportunity lawsuits.
^^^ There’s money in failure.
What will and is happening is talent is being imported from India. They’re classified as Asian.
Carpe Diem
My son started college as a Physics major but switched to Geology and got a PhD from USC and is a Geology professor. Many years later he wanted to get an Astronomy degree but realized he’d have to refresh his math skills before starting his Astro program. He got a calculus textbook and did all the practice problems and then got his Astro degree. Now he teaches both Geology and Astronomy. Hard work pays off.
Obummer’s college level common core math: 1+1 = racism.
The start of total ignorance.
Africa’s great. Africans are great. WTF are Obongo et al. doing here?
Good for the math profs for finally figuring out what virtually everyone has always known. The only quibble I have with PT’s column is that I’d be less critical of high schools for failing to properly educate their charges in math. The schools are limited by the raw material they have to work with, kids who come from homes that don’t value education and don’t produce kids that can be taught,
Mississippi has proven you have to start young and hold young ones back if they don’t acquire the needed skills. They have started to reduce the gap between groups of people.
Mississippi has accomplished more with far less money than snobby New England public schools.
Besides holding students back when they don’t meet basic standards for their grade level, I believe they have also undertaken evaluation and, if needed, more instruction for teachers.
I have only scanned their programs so I don’t know much more than that on standardized tests students are doing better, including minority students.
Basically they seem to have shifted in favor of acquiring actual knowledge and skills rather than promoting and coddling an unmerited ‘self esteem’ that would prepare them for failure.
While Mississippi made gains in the lower grades, those gains aren’t seen in middle and high school.
““We have figured out how to do K-to-3 well. We have to think about how to sustain those gains in grades 4-to-8”
https://www.k12dive.com/news/dont-call-it-a-miracle-mississippi-academic-gains-were-fueled-by-decade/821216/
Published May 27, 2026
Thank you for that information.
“Mississippi also has seen “huge gains” in math scores on NAEP that’s continued into the middle grades, despite only adopting a similarly comprehensive policy in math this year, by leaning into standards, assessment and accountability, Canter said. The expectations for developing math skills have risen greatly in the past 20 years, she said. “it’s a radical difference,” she said. “We expect kids to know more math and at earlier grade levels and at a deeper level.”
Overall, Canter believes state and district educators have raised their expectations and attained a greater sense of efficacy than they had previously.”
You realize it take a decade for those improvements to start showing in the higher grades, right?
The effort in Mississippi started 20 years ago. The children it started with are likely married and having children.
Absolutely spot on.. Otherwise the job of the HS teacher becomes the labors of Hrecules. Been there done that.
Yes but the teachers union hates that, they want uneducated, ignorant, brain dead children to be communists.If you teach them something useful they will reject communism.
By the time kids get to HS many are 2’4 grade levels behind. An issue as large and as important as math skills is reading comprehension and analysis…
Students can be ” caught up ” in HS , but it requires great creativity and insight on the part of teachers. It also requires a willingness to admit the kids are WAAAY behind and actually TEACH them the skills they need.
The real issue is that students shouldn’t get to high school being 2-4 grade levels behind. Social promotion doesn’t work–never has and never will. Unfortunately for the student, in more than 95% of the cases, failure to meet the standards for a grade level in almost any area snowballs as the student is socially promoted. Too many parents and educators (more administrators than classroom personnel) know because they have seen–students aren’t so dumb that they don’t realize that social promotion merely gets them into the dumb track. One look at a class of students tells them within seconds that they are being “dumbed down” for promotion purposes only or they have zero chance at passing. Many are lazy and those kids, via proper motivation, can catch up if they are willing to put in the work and have teachers willing to put in the extra time and effort.
Sadly, most public school systems pay teachers for seniority not teaching abilitiy. A lot of good teachers burn out because they are given 30-35 students who are below grade level and are unmotivated. These students need the smallest classes not the largest. Public schools also try to “save” every student, often via social promotion. Being in a school for 12 years is no indicator of a good education. High schools are full of students who cannot read beyond a second or third grade level and/or can only do minimal arithmetic. The vast majority of high school teachers were NEVER trained to teach basic reading and math skills, nor should they be expected to teach those at this level. It is time that Big Education realizes that the vast majority of educational failures are self-inflicted. We have teacher unions that systemically protect the worst “teachers’. If we are going to have unions in education, they should be FOR THE STUDENTS. Current unions are anything but FOR THE STUDENTS.
It isn’t only math.
Reading, composition, and comprehension of basic argument are also failing.
Even baseline knowledge is often lacking.
I have personally met two high school sophomores and two high school graduates who didn’t know what Washington, DC is. One of them vaguely recognized the name but thought it was somewhere in California, whatever it was.
None of these four was stupid. I can’t say the same for the quality of public schools.
In some ways public schools resemble Somali day care rackets or California bullet trains, a means to harvest money without actually doing anything for it.
Here is an example of the points I made:
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/2059443217334948080
It is likely that these people are not as thoroughly stupid as they sound, but they have learned next to nothing in school.
Worse, they seem to have had the natural curiosity about the world that they were born with crushed and wiped clean.
With voters like these, no wonder we are electing so many idiots.
Young,
That was painful to watch. No /sarc implied.
Upstate-
I agree. It was painful for me to watch as well. I suppose it is also meant to be funny but I was too disgusted to laugh and too worried about our country. What happened to the love of learning?
Honestlawyermostly makes good points above about the role of the internet. I played a music video with my grandson [thankfully out of school now] that played against a background from the movie Kingdom of Heaven. At one point the Christian army was being led by a man wearing a metal mask. My grandson said, “That must be King Baldwin, tough guy though he had some skin disease.”
How did he learn that!? He certainly didn’t learn it in high school. I asked and he said You Tube. And he was right. It was Baldwin, King of Jerusalem, who did have leprosy and was truly a tough guy.
When my grandson was young he liked hearing about The Battle of Zama in 202 BC when Scipio defeated Hannibal. And I liked telling it.
Some of the young, like honestlawyer’s, enjoy learning but too often public schools seem to destroy that appetite.
Young,
Thank you for reminding me YouTube can be used for learning and not just cat videos.
I tend to gravitate towards books for self-teaching. I will make a point of using those tools in the future.
Upstate, there are some extraordinary sources on the net from the think tanks and elsewhere. Examples: Uncommon Knowledge and some other videos from Hoover, the Hudson Foundation, Hillsdale College, and its videos, Dennis Prager, etc. Each place focuses on different areas.
I don’t get a newspaper and don’t watch TV much. Aside from being boring, TV news isn’t great, though Fox is much better than the rest, especially the interviews. For day-to-day news, I rely on consolidators.
SM – myriads of even popular sources on the web are excellent sources for non-controversial subjects.
Weed whacker wont start – there are thousands of videos on youtube.
Want to put in a shower ?
Even Wikipedia is an excellent source – if the subject does not have some political controversy.
I read Encyclopedias as a child. There are very very very few people on this site that have read more of the “classics” – from Homer, through Adam Smith. I have a personal library as large as most schools.
But I do not read much anymore – except for pleasure.
But I continue to learn as much as ever before.
There are just many many many more ways to learn today.
Upstate,
There is a superb YouTube series on Fall of Civilizations. I have linked below to the episode on the Sumerians which is so good I have watched it several times. Others are very good as well.
Sumer is where the first civilization, Uruk, began and where writing was invented.
Göbekli Tepe was the first Harvard and is the place where the “teachers” taught the people of this planet.
It is not that they have learned nothing – there are many many subjects they know a great deal about – just not ones that actually matter.
“Public schools [constitute] a means to harvest money without actually doing anything for it.”
– Young
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“Money harvester” with minimal and dubious education mission accomplishment is the very definition of public school teachers unions.
They are actually criminal organizations that commit breach of contract, criminal trespass, disturbance of the peace, threats, intimidation, vandalism, property damage, tire slashing, vehicle windshield smashing, etc.
Unions enjoy no power to usurp and exercise the power of public schools.
Strikes must be terminal events for faculty and employees and unions must be illegal.
Faculty and employees must be hired directly and individually by public schools, that is their charge and mission.
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AI Overview
As President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Randi Weingarten earns a gross annual salary of roughly $469,000, with her total annual compensation approaching $515,000 when allowances and benefits are factored in.
I don’t care what the subject is, the comments are the only thing worth reading… an it don’t cost nuthin!
Perhaps it’s due to the age of technology. Remember slide rules and actually learning math, physics and chemistry? You didn’t have a pocket computer to use, Una Bomber was 100% correct, crazy as hell but correct.
EightBall,
The Free Press ran an article about how students were using AI to do their papers. (dont forget this guy, UCLA grad brazenly shows off ChatGPT that did his assignments for him — and critics aren’t happy: ‘We’re so cooked’ https://nypost.com/2025/06/26/tech/ucla-grad-brazenly-shows-off-chatgpt-that-did-his-assignments-for-him-and-critics-arent-happy-were-so-cooked/)
The Free Press also talked to professors. The professor’s used software to identify plagiarism but the software could not identify AI written content.
AI use also impacts critical thinking.
“A 2025 analysis of how AI tools affect cognitive offloading showed a “significant negative correlation” between frequent use of AI tools and the ability to think critically in people across age groups and educational backgrounds. The researchers at the SBS Swiss Business School found that younger age groups exhibited a higher amount of dependence on AI models and lower critical thinking scores.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/ai-content-is-swamping-the-internet-how-it-impacts-critical-thinking-6026954
USF
In today’s world a cell phone or a playstation is the baby sitter. I have seen people hand their 4 snd 5 yearolds their cellphone with some game down loaded app on it to occupy the kids. Watched them sit there staring away till the battery dies. I am sure it messes them up in a multitude of ways.
I just heard an ad from the ambulance chasers for a class action going after these gaming and social media platforms that target kids that have become addicted to them, much like us on this blog only worse….excluding Anonoweird of course, 100% certifiable.
Jeremy spoke in class today…
There’s some evidence that computers change brain development? The child is interacting with a nonliving pseudo thought processor. Interacting with people produces a different development. I’d guess X here is a computer developed person or perhaps AI?
Only if AI means Applied Ignorance. 🙂
Gary, you broke the code!
Recognition of merit is the chief integrity of modern society. That is, society is composed of institutions which are dedicated to achievement of an end, e.g., medicine, law, schools. They select and train people to help them reach that end. If they stop selecting for merit, they are corrupt, and the country declines.