The Week

In case you worry about the state of American enterprise, cheer up: a new cleaner has been introduced named Absorba the Grease.

Make way, bong-bong, for the New Age. As we all know, it is perfectly possible to graduate from many New York City high schools without knowing how to read or write. But you graduate right into that old poverty trap. So, logically, the thing todoistogoonto college, because of course everybody who graduates from college can read and write and therefore isn’t poor. All that stands in the way are some fussy old requirements. Or stood, at the City University of New York, where the Third Worlders threw a great big riot two years ago and got what they wanted: Open Admission. Now anybody with a highschool diploma can enroll in one of CUNY’s branches. This year, the first year of Open Admission, CUNY has 35,000 freshmen (20,000 last year). The budget is strained to the breaking point. There aren’t enough teachers or enough classrooms. Worst of all, say columnists Evans and Novak, the academic level is starting to slide: Students simply can’t do the work (“Too many words are just too long,” said one); valuable time and money are spent on classes in remedial reading and arithmetic. And nobody flunks—not for 1 1/2 years, according to the present arrangement. Demands for guaranteed diplomas are just around the corner. On to graduate school!

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William F. Buckley Jr.

In case you worry about the state of American enterprise, cheer up: a new cleaner has been introduced named Absorba the Grease.

Make way, bong-bong, for the New Age. As we all know, it is perfectly possible to graduate from many New York City high schools without knowing how to read or write. But you graduate right into that old poverty trap. So, logically, the thing todoistogoonto college, because of course everybody who graduates from college can read and write and therefore isn’t poor. All that stands in the way are some fussy old requirements. Or stood, at the City University of New York, where the Third Worlders threw a great big riot two years ago and got what they wanted: Open Admission. Now anybody with a highschool diploma can enroll in one of CUNY’s branches. This year, the first year of Open Admission, CUNY has 35,000 freshmen (20,000 last year). The budget is strained to the breaking point. There aren’t enough teachers or enough classrooms. Worst of all, say columnists Evans and Novak, the academic level is starting to slide: Students simply can’t do the work (“Too many words are just too long,” said one); valuable time and money are spent on classes in remedial reading and arithmetic. And nobody flunks—not for 1 1/2 years, according to the present arrangement. Demands for guaranteed diplomas are just around the corner. On to graduate school!