12.26.2005 | 31 percent are proficient

Proficient in reading and understanding the written word. Not literary or higher criticism; rather, basic understanding. A recent survey (how else?) has shown a been a marked decline in basic literacy -- among college graduates. Ouch. The sad story is here, and from it, the basics:

The test measures how well adults comprehend basic instructions and tasks through reading -- such as computing costs per ounce of food items, comparing viewpoints on two editorials and reading prescription labels. Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992.

College graduates. This is scary, and yet obvious. What has happened is not that people are getting dumber, but that college is being dumbed down. And why is this? Well, do you suppose it might have something to do with the silly notion that everyone should go to college?

This is, more or less, what has happened over the past 30 or so years. In the name of "equality", many, many mediocre and below students are primed to expect a college education. And, worse, they actually go on to college.

That many arrive at the college doors unable to read and write is besides the point in the new universe of equal outcomes: All must go to college, even if it is to study Basket Weaving 101. There are several causes for this. Among them liberal guilt, and the pernicious notion that one's worth in society is determined by how many years of school they've had.

As a result, the "market" of college educations has adjusted accordingly. Many land-grant and other state schools have let in anyone with a pulse, and dumbed down their requirements. Many of those admitted never should have been. Of those, quite a few hang on to get their diploma in Basket Weaving. And can neither read, nor write.

There still remain the top tier of universities, who admit many who can't hack it, but mostly those who can. The net effect is to cheapen a degree from many a formerly proud state school, and to loose upon the economy a host of unprepared yet credentialed college "graduates."