NYT op-ed’s wildly woke argument against SATs includes shocking admission

dumbing it down

NYT op-ed’s wildly woke argument against SATs includes shocking admission that students struggle with ‘basic math’


A New York Times writer came out swinging against the push to bring back admissions tests at the University of California — even as she admitted that students are struggling with “basic math.”

But all of that is worth it, Miriam Pawal argued, because the university is now more inclusive.

“Students on University of California campuses may struggle with basic math, but they are graduating at record rates,” she wrote, hailing the “exceptional” university system for its “commitment to increase access without sacrificing excellence.”


More students are graduating from the University of California than ever before, but many of them can’t do basic math — which an NYT op-ed published Wednesday argues is an acceptable trade-off.

She buttressed her point with statistics about how around 40% of its students are the first in their families to attend college. “More than half qualify for free tuition,” she gushed.


“When the University of California eliminated the SAT requirement for admission in 2021, UCLA saw a significant jump in applications from high-achieving black and Latino students, for whom the standardized tests had been a barrier,” she said.



“The percentages of underrepresented students have crept up, through a variety of initiatives. The California Dream Act gave undocumented students access to financial aid, as well as in-state tuition.”

Pawal has been doing the rounds promoting her new book, “California Dream: The Making and Remaking of the University of California” — which cases the nation’s largest and most prestigious public university system as first and foremost “an engine of upward mobility.”

Even readers of the lefty New York Times were skeptical of her take.

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