Amid the stupendous wealth of NYC, comes the following news as to just how far our society has sunk. From the NYTimes:
"About three-quarters of the 17,500 freshmen at [CUNY's] community colleges this year have needed remedial instruction in reading, writing or math, and nearly a quarter of the freshmen have required such instruction in all three subjects. In the past five years, a subset of students deemed 'triple low remedial' - with the most severe deficits in all three subjects - has doubled, to 1,000.
The reasons are familiar but were reinforced last month by startling new statistics from state education officials: fewer than half of all New York State students who graduated from high school in 2009 were prepared for college or careers, as measured by state Regents tests in English and math. In New York City, that number was 23 percent."
The real whopper comes later in the article in the form of a quote from Dr. Jerry G. Ianni, a faculty member at LaGuardia Community College. He observes:
"The [remedial math class] is really a refresher, but they aren’t ready for a refresher. They need to learn how to learn."
Also appearing in today's NYTimes is an explanation of why our educational systems have been designed to fail - stupid people make good marks.