POLITICS: High schools’ math con, the hypocritical Eurovision boycott and other commentary

Education beat: High Schools’ Math Con

A “shocking new report” shows “the number of freshmen entering the University of California San Diego whose math skills fall below a high-school level” jumped 30-fold in five years, winces Ben Sasse at The Wall Street Journal. To avoid admitting “tragically unprepared” kids, universities should acknowledge “test-optional admissions” has been a “failure.” But the news also suggests millions of high-school grads are unprepared. Students at UCSD got A’s in advanced math; that “was a fraud” — the result of grade inflation. Such a crisis “merits a full congressional investigation and bipartisan outrage.” “The Cold War’s Sputnik (1957) and ‘A Nation at Risk’ (1983) educational crisis moments were big alarm bells, but the UCSD canary in the coal mine might be bigger.”

Conservative: Eurovision Boycott’s Hypocrisy

Why were the nations now boycotting “Eurovision over Israel’s inclusion” so “content to take part” in May 2003 “two months after Britain invaded Iraq”? asks Spiked’s Brendan O’Neill. “Why does Israel’s pursuit of the army of anti-Semites that attacked it so barbarously on 7 October 2023 sicken you more than Britain’s destruction of a sovereign state”? The boycott reveals “the deep well of bigotry from which the poison of Israelophobia froths and flows,” as “the Jewish nation is judged by a different standard [than] every other nation on Earth.” “Past efforts to make Europe ‘Judenfrei’ have been replaced by a new crusade to make it ‘Israelfrei.’ “ The push “to drive Israel from Eurovision” is “the latest bigoted effort to cleanse our continent of the disease of the Jewish nation.”

Libertarian: Insane ‘Welfare for the Rich’ Pitch

Wall Street strategist Michael Green wants “handouts to objectively wealthy people based on their feelings of being poor,” snarks Reason’s Eric Boehm. Green’s viral essay argues “the federal poverty line should be raised to cover individuals earning as much as $140,000 annually” because “many middle-class families simply feel more economically stretched today than they did in the past,” thanks to the costs of mortgages and child care. But this “expansion of the federal safety net” would “make the problems” worse. “Further subsidizing the lifestyles of families earning six figures” would only “inflate prices, place a larger burden on taxpayers, and make it even more difficult for those actually experiencing poverty to reach the middle class and beyond.”

War front: Vlad Wants Blood

President Trump’s peace effort in Ukraine “won’t work,” explain Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill, because Vladimir Putin “is willing to trade as many Russian lives and limbs as it takes to achieve his imperial ambitions.” Indeed, Tuesday’s meeting between Putin and Trump’s special envoys “resulted in Moscow doubling down on its maximalist demands.” Ukraine is one front in Putin’s “increasingly kinetic ideological war against the West.” Russia already maintains “key logistical nodes” for operations in Africa and the Indian Ocean. A new naval base at Port Sudan will allow Putin “to create a potential chokehold on the Suez Canal,” “threaten US forces” in Djibouti and “disrupt vital shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and south Atlantic.” It’s “all part of a global war.” Trump special envoys “Witkoff and Kushner are the wrong men” to “end both of Putin’s wars.”

From the right: Mixed Feelings on US Economy

“Record spending over the Thanksgiving weekend” indicates “the doom and gloom” about the Trump economy may be “overblown,” argues USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques. Then again, a new poll found 49% of Americans think “Trump’s actions in his second term have raised prices instead of cutting them,” and 38% “blame Trump for inflation — more than blame former President Joe Biden (31%),” despite “the record levels of inflation under the Biden administration.” But while Trump “is right that some prices have come down in 2025 . . . many others have increased.” The prez “needs to follow through on his promises to improve the economy and lower prices,” and his “stubborn insistence that tariffs are the way to go is backfiring.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board