At the sixth-ranked American public university, UC San Diego, a quarter of students taking a remedial math course placement exam couldn’t solve for x in this equation: 7 + 2 = x + 6. A third couldn’t subtract 1/3 from 3/4, and fewer than half could round a six-digit number to the nearest hundred, according to the school’s recent viral report .

The remedial course — Math 2 — was designed for less than 1% of freshmen. Five years ago, enrollment stood at 32. By 2025, that number had reached almost a thousand. The number of first-year students at UCSD performing below the middle school math level increased thirtyfold in that period, to 1 in 8 freshmen. Every UC campus is seeing the same trend, if not always at this scale.

Over the last few weeks, outlets far and wide agreed t

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