The general consensus among conservatives on public education is that government schools are nothing more than indoctrination centers. Even beginning in kindergarten with children as young as five, public schools are not hiding the fact that they are teaching the left-wing agenda. But as students progress through the system and go on to higher education, college professors are learning that students are sorely lacking in areas that are actually necessary.
Wait getting rid of math tests led to students who can’t do math getting into college? No way. https://t.co/KnrPDYKpMq
— Chris Heatherly (@chrisheatherly) May 26, 2026
On Tuesday, hundreds of faculty members from the University of California (UC) system signed an open letter demanding that the university system return to standardized math testing during college admissions. The reason: students attempting to enter college cannot do basic math.
Over 550 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professors signed the letter, addressed to the university president, Board of Regents, and the academic Senate. They described failure of students in math subjects, and warned of “preparation gaps so severe that instructors must re-teach middle school mathematics.”
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Like a lot of other university systems around the nation, UC scrapped standardized testing admission requirements in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, admissions applications at UC are based on grade point average (GPA), "subject requirements," and a student essay.
The UC admissions website states that any math requirement coursework that goes as far back as the seventh or eighth grade and was completed would be acceptable. At present, the testing policy is optional, but faculty members call it a “permanent vulnerability” in today's academic environment of “severe grade inflation and AI-assisted application essays.”
The letter from the faculty members wants the “reinstatement of the SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for applicants to STEM majors beginning with the 2027 admissions cycle." The concern of UC faculty members over students' ability to do basic math is well-founded. A November 2025 UC-San Diego study showed that in just five years, the number of students whose math skills were below high school level rose “nearly thirtyfold.” Of those students, almost 70 percent had math skills below middle school level.
25% of college students can’t do grade-school math.
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) November 14, 2025
How do you get into college without the basics?
This is what decades of failing education looks like. pic.twitter.com/PMW4DZNzrD
It gets better and/or worse. UC Berkeley reported that in diagnostic testing from 2021 to 2023, nearly one-third of calculus students showed “severe preparation deficits." Faculty members there noticed that students took longer to complete coursework, and were not properly prepared for advanced courses. The National Education Association (NEA) attempted to defend the job their members are doing, and said of standardized testing that “Most of us know that standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and often ineffective at gauging what students actually know.”
However, the UC faculty members were having none of the "equity" argument and replied,
“SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather it is a prerequisite for it. Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome.”
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But in places like Chicago, where, as of October 2025, just one in four public school students were proficient in math, the teachers' union could take time out from indoctrinating budding young leftists by taking them to May Day celebrations and focus on their future and possibly getting into college.
Gee...who would have thought that just teaching socialism, transgenderism, and climate change would leave students woefully unprepared for higher learning?
— W S (@WildSentences) May 26, 2026
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.
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