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Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., avoided directly answering Wednesday whether he would support reinstating SAT/ACT requirements after open letters from more than 3,000 University of California (UC) faculty members.
During a press event to kick off the new school year, Newsom was asked about the open letter, released in May, which cited concerns about incoming students’ math preparedness. A UC San Diego report found roughly one in eight incoming students fell below high school math standards, while one in 12 fell below middle school standards. The finding came after the UC Board of Regents voted in 2020 to phase out the SAT and ACT from admissions consideration.
Newsom responded that “we all have our own perspective” on SAT requirements but said that he wanted to see more data on the subject before making a decision.
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The University of California voted in 2020 to phase out SAT and ACT requirements for incoming students. (Thomas A. Ferrara/Newsday RM via Getty Images)
“I think it’s an important discussion and debate. I’m open to argument, interested in evidence,” Newsom said. “Show me the data. I have feelings about this. There’s anecdotes about this. But I want to see the data. And I made that point at the regental level.”
Newsom added that he has spoken to the UC president, James B. Milliken, and board on the topic and will continue to wait for more information.
“The data needs to bear out the ultimate determination on this, but again, there’s some contra-data that’s coming out and suggesting different things,” Newsom said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the University of California for comment.
A spokesperson for Newsom referred Fox News Digital to the governor’s earlier comments.
The UC announced after the letter was published that it was launching a review of its standardized testing policy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks on August 19, 2026, during a press event. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Board of Regents and University leadership take very seriously the critical issue of college preparedness, and the UC Academic Senate has proposed a comprehensive, data-driven review to support its recommendations to strengthen student readiness and success at UC,” Milliken said at the time. “There are few things more important on our agenda.”
A Berkeley mathematics professor also sounded the alarm last week that many students are woefully unprepared when they arrive at college, blaming the “test-blind” policies.
“Three days a week, I stand in front of lecture halls with 500 to 1,400 students. By the second week of the semester, I already know who is in trouble,” professor Zvezdelina Stankova wrote in a San Francisco Standard op-ed published Saturday.
“Some students are five to eight years behind in mathematics. Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school,” she wrote.
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Karajean Hyde, co-director of the UC Irvine Math Project and a lecturer of education, previously told Fox News Digital that objective benchmarks are desperately needed to restore academic baselines.
Thousands of University of California professors have urged the state university system to bring back standardized testing, warning that the elimination of admissions tests has degraded academic readiness. (Getty Images)
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“I’d say we need some objective measures to go along with the whole picture,” Hyde said. “A student’s not just a single number or a single letter, but standardized testing can play an important role in ensuring one level of measuring where that bar is so that the bar doesn’t move.”
Fox News’ Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.
