Where is the assumption that the new admission requirements are leading to students who are less smart?
I inferred it from the high rate of remediation.
Relatively low intelligence is an elephant in the room in US education. No one wants to admit that some students aren't very smart, so we find other ways to explain differences in ability. It's the teaching methods or bad schools or socioeconomic status or whatever. We'll do almost anything to avoid saying that some students just aren't smart enough to take a rigorous physics course or go to a traditional college (and that there are lots of other ways to be a productive person). Just last night at DS's 8th grade promotion ceremony, a speaker announced cheerfully that every student is capable of doing anything s/he wants, whether it's being famous or being a scientist, or whatever. Everyone!
This is not true.
(As for the unions, I'm not trying to blame unions for everything. No way. And VA teacher unions may not have the same type of bargaining clout that other states do, but this doesn't change the fact that teacher's unions in this country do a lot of harm by retaining mediocre and poor teachers).
