Poll: In a dramatic shift, Americans no longer see four-year college degrees as worth the cost

[MichMan]

30. It doesn't help when the K-12 education is so lacking, that colleges have to offer remedial classes

People are taxed to provide a K-12 education, yet the educational system is such an abject failure, that many college students have to pay thousands of dollars to learn material that they already should know. In 2024, 25% of those Freshmen having to take remedial math college classes actually received a 4.0 in their High School math courses. Just what they hell were they being taught?

High GPAs And Test Optional Mask Poor Math Skills At College

UC San Diego’s own faculty report shows a thirtyfold jump since 2020 in freshmen arriving with math skills below the middle-school level, raising concerns about admissions practices and student readiness.

A new report from UC San Diego’s Academic Senate highlights something incredibly concerning about the state of higher education: the share of incoming freshmen who test below middle-school math standards has increased nearly thirtyfold in five years. The document (PDF File) describes an admissions system strained by policy shifts, pandemic education losses, grade inflation, and a widening gap between transcripts and actual skills. The findings are not coming from critics outside the institution. They are the university’s own.

And they point to a glaring problem at the heart of California’s public higher education system: more students are paying university-level tuition for instruction that veers closer to elementary school material. At the same time, academically stronger applicants (many of whom could have enrolled ready for college-level work) were likely turned away during a year of record demand.

Math 2, the university’s longstanding remedial course, was originally designed to address gaps from Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II - content California high schools must provide. But instructors during the 2023-24 academic year reported something new: many students could not perform skills typically taught in elementary and early middle school. In response, faculty redesigned Math 2 in 2024 to cover material aligned with grades 1 through 8 (yes, elementary and middle school level) and created an additional course, Math 3B, to catch-up missing high school topics.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/high-gpas-and-test-optional-mask-poor-math-skills-at-college/ar-AA1QoHtD?ocid=BingNewsVerp