The Tragedy Of Our Non-Educated Public School Students

A few days ago, Mark brought my attention to a survey he had discovered, which charted out the tremendous educational deficits that freshman college students are now showing up with during their first months on college and university campuses.

The report from the University of California, San Diego

“A disturbing new report from UC San Diego is finding that more than 1 in 10 freshmen can’t do basic math and need remedial classes just to catch up,” Fox TV show host Sandra Smith revealed. “I was shocked to see they expected 1% of the incoming class to need remedial math. They wound up having to put 8.5% of incoming students into remedial math, and that includes elementary and middle school math subjects. They are in college. What is happening that the system is failing them to the point that they don’t know remedial math, and they are now in college? “It should be shocking to most of us, but sadly, it feels like Groundhog Day again. These freshmen, you have to understand, were in fourth grade in 2015 and 16, and in California, where most of these students are coming from to the UCSD campus, they were at less than 30% proficient in math and reading on average. And for minority kids with whom they serve a lot, it was less than 20%. So, where have we been? Why are we continuing to accredit these schools, allow them to get private and public money, and yet they’re like ‘Oops! These incoming freshmen may need remedial education.’ It’s more like 30% to 40% on average, college freshmen need remedial education across the board.”

My comment: For several years, circa 2009-2010, I volunteered to help parents by tutoring pre-teens in 7th and 8th grade through sophomore year. They felt quite uncomfortable about doing math. None of these kids happened to be in a newly arrived immigrant family. None were DEI candidates. These students were white, middle-class, and in one case, the family was very well-to-do.

Among the things they did not know based on sample questions I asked of them: How much is a half dollar worth? If you were asked to cut a pie into quarter sections, could you show me how the cut-up pie would look by sketching it for me?

I found their lack of knowledge very upsetting.

Apparently experienced teachers are upset along the same lines that I am. The following is from a friend's X feed:

Wendy @teachthemx3 I had a new student in my Algebra II class. She was homeschooled previously. This was her first experience in public school. Two days in, she’s already un-enrolling. I’m not surprised, given our last conversation. Her words when I asked her what she thought: “I wanted to see what all the hype was and maybe go to prom, but this isn’t for me. Most of class time is spent waiting for everyone to open their Chromebooks or figuring out what to do after the teacher has literally said it 5 times. And, I can’t use the bathrooms because of all the vaping.” I knew it wasn’t going to work for her when she brought back an entire unit packet (meant to be completed over 2 weeks) the next day. And no, she didn’t use AI. I asked her a few questions and she could explain the most difficult concepts verbally. She even offered her advice on how the sequencing of the packet could be improved. 11:36 AM · Nov 10, 2025 6.8M Views

My comment again: The only encouraging thing I have noticed about things changing for the better is that homeschooled students are no longer ignored by college and university admissions personnel. The parents who did homeschooling back in the nineties and the aughts paved the way for those who prize early education and success, rightly understood. They and their children have helped bring about this change in attitude.

These are the young people who were reading Robert Louis Stevenson, Dickens, and Louisa May Alcott in 3rd and 4th grade. They were studying pre-algebra in 6th grade. By grade 9, they were going off to the local community college two afternoons a week for a pre-calculus class because their homeschooling parent didn't have a clue about pre-calculus.

They didn't lack social skills. They took martial arts, or ballet, or went the soccer, softball, basketball route with local teams with kids their age. Some were drawn to art, music, or drama programs that were available to them on weekends.

If these parents could shape the educational agenda for their children, even while trimming the household budget due to no longer having two full-time paychecks available, perhaps they should be hired on as consultants for local school districts. As far as I'm concerned, the funding for such consulting fees could be brought about by forbidding executive-level public school officials, including principals, from attending conferences in cities hundreds of miles from their school district and on the taxpayers' dime.

When we Baby Boomers were students, our principals rarely attended conferences more than 15 miles from the school at which they worked. How things have changed. Yet all the monies for subsequent top-level school personnel to travel hither and yon certainly hasn't resulted in their students learning and understanding basic reading, writing, and 'rithmetic.

Our school systems have to do better.