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The progressive education machine is collapsing. We should let it fall
By Kent Ingle
Published July 17, 2026
The American education establishment is currently having a collective meltdown. If you watch the headlines closely, you can see the panic setting in across the country.
This is the unmistakable sound of a broken progressive machine collapsing under the weight of its own arrogance. The radical left has engineered our educational system to prioritize ideological compliance over human formation. Reality is finally catching up with them, and the collapse is starting where the crusade began. The war on merit.
A few years ago, the "prestigious" University of California system proudly eliminated standardized testing. They sacrificed the SAT and ACT on the altar of "equity," claiming that objective academic standards were inherently discriminatory. The administrators confidently claimed that removing the tests would level the playing field. They promised it would open the doors of elite academia to students with fewer resources, reshaping the demographic makeup of the incoming students.
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This decision turned out to be a complete disaster.
The results are in and the failure is so undeniable that even the New York Times admitted that dropping test requirements was a terrible mistake. These universities are discovering the hard way that when you declare war on merit, you reward mediocrity. You rob intelligent, hard-working students of the ability to prove their worth, all to satisfy a progressive political checklist.
Standardized tests stood for generations as an equalizer. They were a reliable tool for intelligent hard-working students from a failing public school could use to prove they were just as capable as a wealthy student from a private prep school. A high SAT score cut through the noise of privilege. By eliminating that objective metric, the University of California did not fix inequality. They worsened the issue. Admissions offices were forced to rely on highly subjective metrics like inflated GPAs, heavily coached essays, and expensive extracurricular activities, things that favor the wealthy.
Without a standardized test to anchor the admissions process, they tried to engineer a utopian admissions process and ended up robbing working-class students of the ability to prove they are just as capable as those with limitless money and private tutors. The war on merit has led to the destruction of the higher education standard. Now, replacing it is a subjective system where ideological compliance and family wealth rule the day.
This spectacular failure in California should cause grave concern and serve as a warning for other higher education institutions in the country. We cannot build a prosperous, resilient nation by hiding from the truth or lowering the bar. If we want to truly help the next generation, we must stop lying to them about what it takes to succeed.
Real life does not operate on a test blind curve. In fact, we are already seeing elite institutions like MIT, Dartmouth, and Yale reinstating their test requirements because they realized the "equity" argument was entirely backward.
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As a university president, I, for one, will not stand by and watch higher education lose its merit. We must restore objectivity to the application process, and demand genuine intellectual effort over artificial, progressive shortcuts.
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But this fight is about much more than admission to college. This is about the survival of America. The defining promise of this country has always been that it does not matter where you come from, how much money your parents make, or your last name. If you work hard and achieve excellence, there is a place for you. When education abandons merit, they destroy that promise.
The war on standards has failed. It is time to reject the equity hustle and restore excellence.
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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/progressive-education-machine-collapsing-let-it-fall