Lower-level math students at a major American public university were presented with this math problem on a test.

7 plus 2 equals x plus 6, and 25% of them could not answer the question.

These students weren't dropouts, they weren't unmotivated.

They were freshmen at the University of California, San Diego.

In November 2025, UC San Diego, one of the most respected public universities in the country

released a report that should have set off alarm bells nationwide.

Here's what they found. Students testing below high school math

levels increased 30-fold since 2020. Only 41% could correctly answer seventh-grade math questions,

and just 19% could answer eighth-grade level problems. Remedial math two enrollment exploded from 32 students in

fall 2020 to over 1,000 students in fall 2025. Let that sink in. A thousand college students at a

flagship public university were placed in math so basic that

a quarter of them could not balance a simple equation involving addition.

Admissions officers were baffled because on paper these students looked excellent.

Fully 42% of the students who couldn't solve this equation

had reported passing advanced math or calculus in high school.

I couldn't believe it myself until I started digging.

If you look with me below the surface, past the transcripts and the shocking

math scores, past the skyrocketing remedial math enrollment, you too will realize this isn't

just about math. It's about an entire system that stopped teaching children and then sent them to

college anyway. It's the same crisis

that has driven down literacy rates. It's the same crisis that has overseen the exodus of

thousands of teachers from their profession. It's the same crisis that explains why, as student

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