On Thursday November 6th, the University of California, San Diego released a report that is undoubtedly worthy of the attention of any fair minded news organization. The problem is of course, we don't have many who would fall under that category. The report shows that from 2020, the start of the pandemic, to this current year, the percentage of incoming freshmen at the University whose math skills are below middle school level, has increased to over 12%, up from less than 1 percent in 2020. Unfortunately, only one network bothered to include this news in its' prime time nightly newscast.
CBS, NBC, and ABC were all AWOL on their respective nighty newscasts, and did not mention this story from the day it was released, through and including Thursday of this week. Fox News's Special Report with Bret Baier did cover it, this Thursday, complete with a package from Chief Correspondent Jonathan Hunt, as part of their continuing series on "Failing Our Children", a perfect fit.
The package was introduced by John Roberts, who was filling in for Baier. "Tonight in a series about failing our children, we look at a disturbing report about student achievement or the lack thereof. The numbers say more than one out of every 10 incoming college freshman need remedial math class. In many cases those students can't even do elementary schoolwork."
Hunt led it off with a short clip of Steve McGuire of The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, who summed it up perfectly, "There's such an astonishing record of dysfunction in this report that it's kind of mind-blowing." Hunt then took over and stressed that this is not something that is brand new, but rather has been developing over the last 5 years and for various reasons. "Alarm bells have been ringing for some time over falling standards among new college students, and now UC San Diego has published a study that lays out the troubling trend in detail. One in 8 or 12 and a half percent of incoming students at UC San Diego this year were below middle school level in math. Compare that to less than 1% of students who fail to meet the same benchmark in 2020. Also in 2020, a grand total of just 32 students needed remedial math courses. In 2025, that number surged to more than 900."
Hunt then laid out the issues that are most likely responsible for these numbers, and if you listen closely, you'll notice that they all come from the left. "The report notes that 2020 was the year that Covid-19 hit and changed education for so many students. But the authors and some education watchdog groups including the nonprofit American Council of Trustees and Alumni, also blame the UC decision to drop the SAT and ACT exams as part of the admissions process and the UC push for diversity and equity with its focus on recruitment from economically disadvantaged areas." McGuire then added, "It's the students coming out of those high schools that are particularly in need of remedial courses in math...Too often, the response is to lower standards when faced with these problems when with what we really need to be doing is raising standards."
Hunt then concluded, "Other colleges, including George Mason and Temple have reported similar concerns about standards, this is clearly a national issue and one that raises huge questions, not just about college admissions but also about standards in high schools across the country." Then Roberts, who had earlier called the report "disturbing", added, "Well that just couldn't be any more troubling than it is..."
Roberts is correct, these numbers, are disturbing and troubling, at the very least. And so are the policies that have apparently led to the situation we are in as a nation when it comes to education, and not just secondary education. Left-wing COVID policies, DEI, elimination of standardized tests, lowering standards overall. So is it any wonder that the mainstream left wing nightly news shows have run from this story? After all, if they can't blame it on Trump, why bother?
