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It's so bad that professors say students can't even do basic math.
The profs are begging for a return to standardized testing, saying they have to re-educate new students entering public universities.
In fact, hundreds of University of California (UC) faculty members signed an open letter on Tuesday demanding a return to mandatory standardized math testing in college admissions.
Be informed, not misled.
The letter, now signed by over 550 STEM professors from various UC campuses, alerted the university president, the Board of Regents, and the Academic Senate to students’ failing performance in mathematical subjects, warning of “preparation gaps so severe that instructors must re-teach middle school mathematics.”
UC removed its mandatory standardized-testing admissions requirements in 2020, joining over 1,000 other universities that implemented similar policies in the wake of COVID-19 school disruptions. UC currently evaluates student applications based on GPA and “subject” requirements, as well as a student essay.
The UC admissions website notes that math requirements may be completed by coursework from “7th and/or 8th grade.”
The faculty called the test-optional policy a “permanent vulnerability” in a world of “severe grade inflation and AI-assisted application essays.”
The faculty letter demanded the “reinstatement of the SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for applicants to STEM majors beginning with the 2027 admissions cycle,” warning that UC’s mission as an “engine of social mobility” is “at risk.”
The letter noted a rapid decline in student preparation for college math coursework, citing a UC-San Diego study from November 2025. In 5 years, the number of students with math skills below a high school level increased “nearly thirtyfold.” Nearly 70 percent of those students had math skills below a middle school level.
70%.
The executive summary of the 55-page study said this:
( Indent down to and including "Admitting large numbers...)
Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students -- particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills.
Between 2020 and 2025, the number of students whose math skills fall below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold; moreover, 70% of those students fall below
middle school levels, reaching roughly one in twelve members of the entering cohort.
This deterioration coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on education, the elimination of standardized testing, grade inflation, and the expansion of admissions from underresourced high schools.
The combination of these factors has produced an incoming class increasingly unprepared for the quantitative and analytical rigor expected at UC San Diego.
The Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions (SAWG) concludes that this trend poses serious challenges both to student success and to the university’s instructional mission.
Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources. The report offers a series of recommendations to improve the alignment between admissions practices, student readiness, and available support systems.
UC Berkeley found that nearly one-third of first-semester calculus students showed “severe preparation deficits” in diagnostic testing from 2021 to 2023.
Additionally, university faculty complained about the strain on their classes caused by students’ diminishing capabilities. The letter noted that students take longer to complete required coursework and are less prepared for advanced classes. Moreover, professors face mounting pressure to reduce academic rigor.
I repeat: "Moreover, professors face mounting pressure to reduce the level of academic rigor."
Of the top 46 universities, excluding the UC colleges, the signatories noted that over one-third required standardized testing, including “all other leading STEM universities, including UC’s primary peers.”
The resistance.
You, as I, are probably asking yourself why steps are not being taken to address this issue.
A 2026 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings placed UC Berkeley and UCLA as the top 2 public universities in the nation. All 9 undergraduate UC campuses ranked in the top 45 universities. The same ranking placed UC Berkeley as the fourth-best computer science school.
The letter also took a hit at the common equity complaint used against standardized testing, as a 2023 article by the National Education Association asserts: “Most of us know that standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and often ineffective at gauging what students actually know.
The consequences
The Washington Policy Center published this a couple of years ago:
Teachers and parents are abuzz about a decision by Northshore School District officials to cancel learning assessments and automatically pass every student, regardless of the level of learning students have actually received. The lowest grade a teacher is allowed to give is a “D,” a passing grade, even for students who have not completed the level of study needed to pass.
It’s likely the same “everyone passes” policy is being adopted by school administrators in districts across the state.
Don’t be surprised when school officials are soon boasting about their high graduation rates. The real losers of course, are taxpayers, parents and children, as students are denied the community-building, life-enhancing public education they were promised.
This weakening academic trend has been under way for a while. Last spring 82.5 percent of Washington’s students graduated from high school, according to state data. At the same time, state scores show 70 percent of Washington’s students failed to receive adequate math instruction, and 52 percent were denied an adequate education in English.
The watered-down grading denies students access to the bright future they were promised. Official data finds 53 percent Washington students fail to earn a bachelor’s or associate degree within eight years of graduating from a public high school.
The low “everyone passes” policy at Northshore helps explain why so many families have left the public system. State numbers show 41,000 students have left, probably never to return. While still paying property taxes for schools, these families have decided it is better for their children to move to private, full-time online or homeschooling.
Takeaway
Last week, Seattle's Fox 13 reported, "Bothell High School students walked out of the classroom on Monday to protest the Northshore School District's decision to eliminate the campus School Resource Officer program."
It isn't just Washington State and California.
Portland's Willamette Week says, "There's a simple reason why Oregon kids don't know how to read. No one is checking how they're taught.
Another major flaw in public education is the attention and time teachers and their schools spend prepping kids to demonstrate against "Trump," for sure, and on other social issues that the teachers' unions are committed to. If that time and energy could be directed toward educating, it would eliminate some of the reasons public schools are so miserably failing.
In a recent article, Fox News said, "Schools that let students leave class to protest ICE have failing academic records."
I personally believe our public schools will not recover from their academic free fall. It's time to retake control of your child's education.
Consider this:
Noah Webster, the Father of what we know as "public education," said:
"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind that that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
He also said:
- "God's Word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct."
- "Education is useless without the Bible."
In our lifetime, public education has stripped God and prayer from the public classroom.
We are now reaping the consequences.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.
