California education candidate tells college professors to teach students basic math, rejects SAT requirement

California Superintendent Candidate Sparks Debate Over College Math Readiness

San Diego, California – In a Sunday interview with NBC Los Angeles, California state‑superintendent candidate Richard Barrera, president of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education and former senior policy advisor to former superintendent Tony Thurmond, told professors at the University of California (UC) that it is part of their job to help incoming students who lack basic math skills. He also declined to support a return of the SAT or ACT math requirements for UC admissions, sparking criticism from his opponent and education advocates.

Barrera’s comments came at a time when the UC system is reviewing its admission standards after more than 1,400 faculty members signed an open letter calling for standardized‑test math requirements for STEM applicants, a number that grew to over 3,000 by August. The debate centers on whether California’s K‑12 schools are adequately preparing students for college‑level work.

What Barrera Said

During the interview, Barrera was asked whether the SAT should be reinstated as a requirement for the UC system. He answered, “Absolutely not.” He added that professors at UCLA, Berkeley and other UC campuses are “part of your job that you get paid by the taxpayers to do is to teach our kids.” When pressed on concerns that students are entering college without mastering fractions, Barrera said that such worries are “completely overstated.” He described the situation as “students who take a placement test in the summer before they attend their freshman year at UC … who might miss questions on algebra, on trigonometry, maybe subjects that they haven’t had in a couple of years. That’s just about review and acceleration.”

Barrera further explained that he does not view the issue as students being “incapable of doing the work,” but rather that they need “some review and acceleration” and that it is the responsibility of the UC system to help them catch up. He defended his stance on the SAT by arguing that the exam has historically excluded students of color and first‑generation students, and that reinstating it would not improve college‑level math preparedness.

Critics Respond

Chino Valley Unified School District Board President Sonja Shaw, Barrera’s opponent in the November race, said Barrera’s remarks shifted responsibility away from California’s K‑12 education system. “Richard Barrera heard professors at Berkeley and UCLA sound the alarm that incoming students can’t do elementary‑school math and his immediate response was to blame the professors. Not the students. Not the system that passed them along. The professors,” Shaw told Fox News Digital. She accused Barrera of suggesting that “college faculty should teach remedial middle‑school math on the taxpayer dime,” calling the plan a “career politician scrambling to cover up a failure he helped create.”

Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said Barrera’s opposition to standardized testing protects California’s K‑12 system from accountability. “Richard Barrera’s answer tells you everything you need to know about who he works for. The California Teachers Association is bankrolling his campaign for state superintendent, and he is returning the favor by protecting the system from accountability,” DeAngelis said.

Tina Descovich, CEO and co‑founder of Moms for Liberty, argued that foundational skill gaps begin long before college. “A child who can’t do fractions at 18 was a child who couldn’t do fractions at ten, and the system knew it,” she said. “Richard Barrera’s solution is to make it a college professor’s problem and continue to cover up the failures of the status quo.”

Data on College Readiness

California’s 2024‑25 Smarter Balanced assessment results show that only 30.49% of 11th‑grade students met or exceeded the math standard, compared with 56.96% in English language arts. DeAngelis used these figures to argue that the issue is a systemic one, not simply a matter of students needing a little extra help at university. “About 30 percent of California 11th graders meet math standards,” he said. “That result is not a story about first‑generation students who just need a little catch‑up once they reach campus. That failure is a system that handed out diplomas without requiring mastery, then blamed the score for noticing.”

The Larger Debate

The UC Board of Regents currently prohibits SAT and ACT scores from being used in its comprehensive admissions review. However, the university system has formally reconsidered standardized testing after the outcry from faculty and student groups. Governor Gavin Newsom has avoided direct answers about reinstating the SAT, asking to “show me the data” instead.

Barrera’s comments also touch on the broader question of how to best prepare students for college. “We need to look at the best strategies to get students prepared for college‑level math,” he said. “Simply having a placement exam like the SAT, which is historically discriminatory towards students of color, towards first‑generation students — it's a tool that has historically excluded students.”

Shaw responded that the state should focus on ensuring students master core subjects before they reach college, emphasizing high standards in K‑12 that are consistently enforced and honestly measured. “Students are not helped by being lied to about their skills. They’re helped by actually learning to read, write, and do math before they get to college,” she said. “It does not mean turning UCLA and Berkeley into expensive elementary schools and then blaming the faculty for noticing the problem. Lowering the bar one more time will not fix a decade of failure. It will just hide it longer.”

Looking Ahead

The debate over standardized testing and college readiness is poised to continue as the November election approaches. Barrera’s campaign has received financial support from the California Teachers Association, and his position on testing aligns with many in the education establishment. Meanwhile, faculty and advocacy groups remain split between calls for reinstated math requirements and concerns about the potential for discriminatory impacts.

California voters will have to weigh whether to support a candidate who believes the responsibility for bridging college readiness gaps lies in universities—or in a stronger, more accountable K‑12 system. The outcome could shape the state’s approach to education policy for years to come.