Kicking remediation out of universities

In the book Why School it asks the question if we should eliminate remediation out of universities. It is the argument of some that high school should have you prepared for college.  While ultimately that would be the ideal situation in a perfect world, we do not live in a perfect world. I feel remediation is essential for a large segment of the students attending universities. College is an extension of high school, it is just a place of higher learning. In order to get to that place you need to have a solid foundation. That is where remediation comes in. It's purpose is to refresh and lay the basic groundwork so that you can proceed forward. If there was no remediation in college I truly believe the graduation rates while dismal now would be astronomically low if remediation was not offered in universities. If there was no remediation immigrants and older people trying to go to school would be at a huge disadvantage. I know for me it is essential as I had been out of school for twenty years. That is a long time to be away from school. There is a lot of things you forget over the years. Things you do not use in everyday life. Harvard's faculty "lamented the spending of much time, energy and money" teaching students "what they ought to have learnt already." If that was the opinion of the educational system we would be in a far worse predicament than we are now. Schools are essential for getting people ready to enter the workplace. It is where you learn how to become a responsible individual and become a successful contributor to society. It is how we become successful and competitive with the rest of the world. Already we are falling behind other countries in education. We can not afford to fall any further behind. "It is a terrible thing that so many students, especially those from poorer backgrounds come to college unprepared." Remediation is essential for these types of students to succeed. If there were no remedial courses offered I believe the amount of people attending schools would drop exponentially and the crime rate and poverty levels would rise dramatically.