'Math Problem' Is Fueling An Education Emergency

The Fox News Rundown

FOX News Podcasts

News, Daily News, Politics

3.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Studies show more students are arriving at college unable to do basic math, forcing even top universities to offer remedial classes. College admissions expert and author Jeff Selingo joins the Rundown to talk about why test scores are falling and what it means for higher education. He explains how pandemic learning loss and grading standards are reshaping who is truly ready for college. Plus, whether a traditional four-year college degree is still valuable, or if alternative paths like company-provided training programs are becoming more viable options. Netflix is set to purchase Warner Bros. for $72 billion after the company moves to separate its studios and HBO Max streaming division from its cable networks. In response, rival studio Paramount has launched a hostile takeover bid of its own. Wall Street Journal entertainment and media reporter Joe Flint joins the Rundown to discuss the differences between the Netflix and Paramount bids for WarnerMedia, the concerns and consequences of a potential streaming monopoly, and how the deal could affect jobs and the creative community in Hollywood. Plus, commentary from Jason Chaffetz, FOX News contributor and the host of the Jason In The House podcast on FOX News Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Shannon Bream. I'm Bill Hemmer. I'm Kennedy, and this is the Fox News Rundown.
0:07.8	Thursday, December 11th, 2025. I'm Jessica Rosenthal. Is America experiencing an education crisis?
0:15.5	As high-level universities find themselves needing to offer remedial math to a growing number of incoming students.
0:22.3	Many of these students who couldn't do middle school math, on average, we're getting an A-minus in high school math.
0:28.1	So clearly there is something happening in high schools.
0:32.6	I'm Chris Foster. Big business, entertainment, politics. The story of who wins the fight for Warner Brothers has it all.
0:38.8	Basically, it's sort of like, do you want to be stampeded or shocked? That's how the creative
0:43.2	community kind of views the choice between Netflix and Paramount. And I'm Jason Chaffetz. I've got the
0:49.1	final word on the Fox News Rundown.
1:00.2	American children are increasingly struggling with the basics, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
1:04.7	The trends in international mathematics and science study released last year found between 2019 and 2023 test scores for American fourth graders in math dropped by 18 points.
1:11.4	For eighth graders, scores dropped 27 points.
1:14.5	The nation's report card, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found last year
1:18.5	average scores for high school seniors hit a new low with 32% below basic reading,
1:24.2	45% below basic math skill.
1:27.1	Fox News correspondent Rich Edson notes this is now showing up at colleges, citing an op-ed
1:32.0	written by former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who went on to briefly serve as the president
1:36.8	of the University of Florida.
1:38.0	He took this example out of UC San Diego that it found that incoming freshmen whose math skills are below high school level has risen 30-fold over just the past five years.
1:54.4	And he says this is, you know, a crisis in education. The kids are not prepared to go to school.
2:01.5	Jeannie Allen at the Center for Education Reform reacted to the UC San Diego results last month on Fox News.
2:07.4	I mean, these freshmen, you have to understand in 2015 and 16, were in fourth grade.
	...

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