A degree versus an education

Don't confuse receiving a high school degree/diploma with earning a meaningful high school education. When 47% of high school grades are A- or higher and standardized and global test scores in math and reading continue to decline, we have a serious educational problem and a seriously flawed cohort applying to and expecting to be admitted and to attend college, especially exceptional and/or expensive colleges that that have changed their mission to emphasize social engineering over actual engineering, academic equity over academic excellence, or popular programs over meaningful majors. Woke, progressive, liberals and educators seem unaware of this problem. Here is a letter to the editor from Eve Ahlers, published in the Friday, November 5, 2021 Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Abbot makes it appear as though improving K-12 education is a simple thing. This is obviously not true, nor is it clear that equity in K-12 education—the ideal solution—will be achieved in Mr. Abbot’s lifetime or mine. Problem solvers must therefore move on to other solutions rather than cling to the unattainable ideal or wait for its realization. One logical solution is to introduce a correcting bias at later stages, especially in college admissions or hiring, to attain the ultimate goal of fair selection processes.

Eve Ahlers

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And here is my response:

Per Ms Ahlers, "correcting bias at later stages, especially in college admissions or hiring, to attain the ultimate goal of fair selection processes," is the equity argument, placing the thumb on the scale in the selection process. Yet the solution is not at all what she claims. To admit an unprepared student to college is unfair to both the ill-prepared student and to the not accepted, prepared student denied admissions in this same process. The unprepared student is more likely to be laden with loans, to choose an unemployable major, and to drop out before degree completion, exacerbating the wealth gap between the two rather than reducing it. The solution is to improve preparation and not with expensive college remedial classes; instead the aspiring, unprepared student needs to consider community college, repeating high school courses, or pray that the high school sets some clear standards for graduation. A high school degree is often not a high school education.