The public has not paid enough attention to the recent report by the state Department of Education revealing that about one-third of high school graduates require remedial course work in math or English as freshmen at state community colleges or state-affiliated universities.

An article in today's Butler Eagle lookes at the impact at Butler County Community College and Slippery Rock University.

The first interpretation of the report suggests that high schools across the state are failing to do their job of educating students. The report also strengthens the argument that some sort of competency exam should be mandated for all graduating seniors to ensure that they possess the basic skills that a high school diploma implies.

Granted, public schools have many serious challenges and not all students are destined for college. But the vast majority of students graduating from high school, including those headed to trade schools or finishing their formal education, should meet basic standards.

Parents and taxpayers should be concerned about the state Education Department report.

Parents expect the public schools to educate their children, but this report suggests that that is not happening as broadly or thoroughly as it should. And taxpayers, meanwhile, should expect better results from their property tax dollars used to fund schools. Tax dollars are wasted when 30 percent of students who graduate from public high schools have to take remedial courses to be ready for college work. These students have been subsidized by tax dollars twice — once, while in high school and again at a college, at least partly funded with tax dollars.

Remedial courses to help students adjust to college-level material are necessary and appropriate at some level and for some students. But public high schools across Pennsylvania should be expected to reduce the percentage of their graduates requiring remedial work.

The state study revealed a range of students requiring the extra help when entering college. Even some of the high schools considered top-quality had students taking remedial courses to start college. Some urban high schools saw more than half of their graduates needing extra help at community colleges and state-affiliated universities.

Taking the state report a step further, it would be useful for annual reports to be released by community colleges and others listing, by high school, the number of students needing the catch-up course work. With such a report, the public could track which high schools are doing a better — or worse — job of educating their students and preparing them for college or the working world.

And it is not only colleges forced to provide the remedial work that are feeling the consequences of high schools graduating students without adequate skills. Employers often complain that they, too, have to provide additional training in English or math to some of the high school graduates they hire.

High schools in Pennsylvania can't realistically be expected to have no graduates requiring extra help when they enter college. But it would be reasonable to work toward cutting that figure by half or more, so that eventually maybe just 10 percent of high school graduates in this state had to take a remedial course when entering college.

This study should not be dismissed, nor should it be used to blast high schools. It should be used as a signal that high schools have to do more, either on their own or under pressure of state directives, to see that a higher percentage of their graduates know the basics of English and math — and are well prepared for college or the workforce.