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About 50 years ago when university math chairs were surveyed, only 10 percent thought a math course should be a college graduation requirement for all students. Today, virtually every undergraduate is required to take math in order to earn a degree. This dramatic change begs the question: Why do we consider it important for college students to learn math?

Controversies over proposals for high school math reform have centered on which courses students take in their junior and senior year, rather than whether they are taking any math at all. This oversight is consequential, because the state of California requires only two years of math for high school graduation, putting it at the bottom nationally. A majority of the state’s districts require an additional year

It’s no secret that we are in the midst of a student debt crisis. Seventy percent of students who receive a bachelor’s degree have education debt by the time they graduate. In 2017, 68 percent of bachelor’s degree holders of the class of 2016 owed $30,800 or more in federal student loan debt. Many approaches to solving this crisis rightly focus on the cost of education itself and addressing predatory private

Interdisciplinary innovation is redesigning college math courses, with modernized quantitative reasoning options, both for students pursuing non–math-intensive majors and for those seeking to earn degrees in STEM fields. California is no exception, at least for students who begin their degree at a four-year university. 

As I reflect on how I got here—a combination of hard work, privileges, luck, dedication, and public K–12 education—I’m grateful to have had the opportunities required to build the foundations of a career I'm passionate about and to prepare me to be a fully participating citizen. Unfortunately, I've learned along the way that there is not equal opportunity in our education system to get to this point.