Harvard Students Can’t Do Math

I grew up in a small town in South Dakota. I suppose our per-student school budget, in constant dollars, was maybe 10% of what contemporary suburban schools spend. But our teachers were smart, and the quality was high. I took algebra in 8th grade, as I recall, and several more advanced math courses after that. Although math wasn’t really my deal, I took calculus in college.

Fast forward to 2025. Harvard, which gets its pick of pretty much any high school seniors it wants, is offering remedial classes in algebra, for the first time ever:

“Rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students.” What an indictment of our K-12 education system, both public and private! Sure, each Harvard class no doubt includes a few math geniuses–Asians, mostly. But the general run of bright high school students are not being educated up to a minimally acceptable level.

And it isn’t just math. How many incoming Harvard freshmen can diagram a sentence, know anything about history–slavery in America excluded, of course–or have even a nodding acquaintance with the world’s great literature? Very few.

This all results from the dumbing down of education that we have seen in recent decades. Teachers, generally unionized graduates of teacher training programs with no real academic expertise, are, with many noble exceptions, not what they used to be. And for the most part, the schools focus on socialization, inculcating liberal dogmas, DEI, and encouraging activism rather than actual knowledge and skills.

And now we have gotten to the point where Harvard has to offer remedial math classes.