Welcome to college. Can’t even do middle school math? No problem . . . sign up here for your $100,000 student loan to take remedial courses.

Photo above - no, this is NOT a parking garage for Cybertrucks. It's the library at the University of California, San Diego. But there's not much room for books, is there?

The original article titled “The College Students Who Can’t do Elementary Math” is still behind the Wall Street Journal's paywall. Hence, the link to Fox News (below). 10% of entering freshmen at the University of California can’t do basic math. They were admitted anyway and are now taking - and paying tuition for - remedial math. (What change should you give back from $20 for something that costs $18.99?)

There are a lot of different directions we can go with this. Are 10% of the nation’s $2 trillion in student loans because public schools are incompetent, and lie about their high school diplomas? That SAT college admission scores are also worthless? That a college diploma itself is becoming pointless in the job marketplace? That we won’t need math anyway, because of spreadsheets? And we won’t need to write anything, because of ChatGPT? Maybe this death spiral is nothing to worry about.

California has one the worst public school systems in the nation. Ranked 40th. (see link below). Despite spending $18,000 a year per public school student. That’s actually MORE than the $15,000 annual tuition at UC San Diego, where so many freshmen can’t add or subtract. Of course, your tuition is “free” if you get a scholarship or meet some sort of hardship/historically disadvantaged test.

Please do not snark that this is a problem of California’s own making. The same thing is certainly happening in NYC, Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Baltimore, and Biloxi Mississippi.

There aren’t enough jobs being created in America for people who lack basic math and language skills. Starbucks barristas, McDonalds french fry cooks, and Amazon pickers are all endangered species.

If we refuse to fix our public-school crisis, then we should prepare for a lifetime of UBI for kids who play videogames and smoke pot all day. Those are possibly our only choices.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


UC San Diego finds remedial math needs up 30-fold since 2020 | Fox News

States Ranked by Education - 2023 Rankings | Scholaroo