Tipsheet

This Report From UC San Diego Should Be a Wake Up Call for America's Education System

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  November 13, 2025 11:00 AM

We have a very serious problem with America's education system, and the University of California - San Diego (UCSD) is sounding the alarm.

In a newly released report, UCSD is warning that there is a "steep decline in the academic preparedness" of its freshmen, including an exponential rise in students who require remedial math. At one time, the number of students requiring remedial math was just one percent; that number is 12.5 percent.

This means UCSD had to create a class to cover math skills from middle and elementary school as well as one to fill the gaps from high school mathematics.

Today's incoming college freshman would've been an incoming high school freshman during the COVID pandemic, something the report acknowledges.

That is not a coincidence, yet the need for remedial elementary math skills reveals that our public school system is failing students throughout their entire academic career.

Writing skills aren't much better, either.

That's 20 percent of students who cannot write at a basic college level.

Just 19 percent of students answered eighth-grade math questions correctly.

But pandemic learning loss isn't the only culprit here. A shift away from standardized testing and grade inflation also play a significant role.

One in four of the students tested at UCSD got this basic math question wrong.

The answer, of course, is three.

UCSD is warning that the decline in academic preparedness is straining its ability to do its mission.

"If we take seriously our mission as an engine of social mobility, we must be prepared to support students who have been underserved by their prior schooling," the university wrote. "But our capacity is not limitless. We can only help so many students, and only when the gaps they need to overcome are within reach."

"Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting them up for failure," the statement continued. "It also puts significant strain on faculty who work to maintain rigorous instructional standards."

This report comes as the Left continues to defend the Department of Education as essential to educating America's youth, while President Trump and his administration seek to shut it down and return education decisions to the states and local governments. It's more proof that the Department of Education has not only not improved America's educational standards, but presided over a catastrophic decline in the quality of American education.