The state of New York has decided to permanently lower both its schools' math and reading proficiency standards — due to a dramatic fall in test scores since the COVID lockdowns played havoc with children's educations.

A scoring committee that reports to the Board of Regents recently decided that such action must be taken in light of last year's abysmal test results for students in grades three through eight.  For example, in Schenectady, not a single eighth-grader who took the math test scored as proficient.  And the cumulative scores for the third- through eighth-grade tests throughout the state were much lower in 2022 than in 2019, a result attributed to the absence of in-person learning during the year and a half or so following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic...and the preposterously damaging reactions to it from those in power.

The committee further reported that it believes that student performance has been permanently damaged, and that lower competence has become "the new normal."  Ergo, the Empire State will make it easier for students to reach "proficiency" on state math and English language arts tests by dumbing down the tests.  (And, by extension, the students.)

In related news, the New York Police City Department has — again — lowered its requirements for police recruits, this time scrapping a 1.5-mile timed run in the Police Academy, or so the department's head of training told The New York Post.

Training chief Juanita Holmes said the move will help more female applicants make the cut.  (However, it was controversial — and sparked an internal debate within the NYPD itself.)

The NYPD had already dramatically relaxed overall police fitness test requirements less than a year ago amid a record wave of retirements — and a dearth of new recruits — brought on by various anti-cop "progressive" attitudes and policies.

So lowering standards and requirements is the "new normal."  Whether for policemen, firemen, soldiers, teachers, lawyers, nurses, doctors, auto mechanics, air traffic controllers, transportation secretaries, "experts," or government officials.  Moreover, many colleges are dispensing with SAT requirements, and countless schools are doing away with traditional grading systems altogether, opting instead for much less stringent ones such as "pass-fail" or "self-assessment."

What could possibly go wrong?

I mean other than trains derailing, planes crashing, our military unable to effectively defend the nation...and things like that.

Diversity over merit!  Yay!  Bummer if in the future a doctor inadvertently removes your liver rather than a sliver, but, hey, the doctor was an agnostic member of the BIPOC LGBTQIIA Community who was born on a Thursday during a full moon!  Yay!

Graphic credit: Nick Youngson, CC BY-SA 3.0, Alpha Stock Images.