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America’s education system is failing at both ends of the spectrum, according to Solveig Gold of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and Joshua Katz of the American Enterprise Institute. Speaking on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft, the pair highlighted a troubling pattern: declining performance in K–12 schools and rampant grade inflation in elite universities.
Recent national test results paint a grim picture. Nearly half of 12th graders scored below basic in math, while more than a third of 8th graders were rated below basic in science. Reading scores have declined to their lowest levels in decades. At the same time, elite universities are handing out record numbers of A’s. Katz and Gold warned that without rigorous grading, students are losing both incentive and humility, entering professional life with credentials but without the skills or resilience once demanded of college graduates.
Both scholars drew on their personal experiences. As Princeton and Yale students, they recalled being humbled by low marks on early assignments that spurred them to rise to higher standards. Today, they argue, professors shy away from tough grading out of a desire to please “paying customers,” leaving students deprived of the push that could unlock their full potential. This, they say, has consequences far beyond academia, eroding civic culture and professional competence in fields as critical as medicine and law.
Gold and Katz also tied grade inflation to broader social consequences. With elite students leaving school untested but overconfident, expectations of success often clash with reality. As writer Rob Henderson recently noted, this can fuel resentment and downward mobility among the professional class. Employers, meanwhile, struggle to distinguish between candidates who have mastered their fields and those who have simply coasted.
While some institutions, including Harvard, have begun to acknowledge the problem, reform has been slow. Gold and Katz suggested real change may come either from competitive alternatives like the University of Austin or from mid-tier universities pushing to differentiate themselves through higher standards. Until then, they warn, both America’s schools and its universities risk shortchanging students and weakening the country’s future leaders.