Letters to the Editor: College students are still learning high school competencies, and that’s a shame

To the editor: Guest contributor Aditi Hariharan writes that it’s the UC’s obligation to close the gap that exists in the preparedness of diverse student populations (“SAT scores are another way UC schools are closing their doors to diversity,” Aug. 12). While redressing that gap is certainly an important goal, universities are not capable of both remediating under-prepared students and fulfilling what I believe to be their true obligation: providing a quality education to those students prepared to receive it.

The best way to ensure that remediation does not lower the level and value of education at higher levels is to return to performance-based promotion. A student needs to be remediated for high school work before they attend high school and they need to be remediated for college work before they attend college.

In 2015, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stated that “a college degree is the new high school diploma.” That’s true, but not in quite the same way as Sanders intended it. It’s not so much that college is now a prerequisite for upward mobility as a high school diploma was for previous generations. It’s more that college students today are seeking to acquire competencies that used to be taught in high school. And that is a shame for all students.

Peter Marston, Glendale